A better day than expected.

The forecast suggested that today would be a bit grim, wet and cold. But it was actually much better than that. It started cold after a chilly night, but slowly warmed up. It didn’t get to be warm, but at least it was comfortable. The rain didn’t arrive until we’d tied up in Trentham, and didn’t last long.
We were off handily this morning. There were a lot of boats in town yesterday, and we didn’t want to get stuck in a queue at the bottom of Meaford Locks.

Heading out of Stone.


A small cruiser had passed us about a half-hour before we set of, and he was the only other boat in the four-lock flight, and well ahead.

Mags waiting below Meaford top lock

By the time we’d go to the top there were a couple more boats heading up and more waiting to come down.


Above the locks the derelict land to the left was the site of Meaford Power Station. Opened in 1948 and extended in 1957, this coal-fired facility was the furthest upstream on the River Trent. Built after the “canal age” it was supplied with fuel by a rail spur off the Great Western Railway that crossed the canal.

It ceased generation in 1990 and only a year later the 5 cooling towers were demolished. The final chimney didn’t come down until 1996.

We’d made really good time, and the weather was still agreeable so we decided to press on up to Trentham rather than stop near Barlaston.

The Plume of Feathers, Barlaston

Trentham Lock


It started to rain after we cleared the lock, but we only had another 10 minutes or so before mooring near Bridge 106. By mid-afternoon the sky had cleared and the sun came out. I think we’ve had it better here than most places.

Over the last couple of days I’ve been working on another little project. When I swapped the bed around a few years ago I removed a radiator from the bedroom, and Mags has often complained that it’s a little cool in there. I also wanted to make sure that the Webasto water heater was working hard through the hour that it runs first thing, as it’s when these heaters go into tick-over with the water hot that they tend to coke up. I looked into a 200mm high radiator, but it would stick out to far. A finrad would have done the job, but would have involved a lot of messing about with the pipework. So I decided to make my own sort-of radiator. Ten foot of 15mm copper tube and a few fittings and we’ve a compact mini-radiator which should do.

I just need to clad it with vented panels to finish it off.

Up to Stoke tomorrow.

Locks 5, miles 4½