Showers, Shelter and New Bits of Stone.

 It was grill night at the Saracen's Head in Weston and we had booked fro 18:30. We thought that we would have to walk from our mooring via the very muddy towpath, in parts, but we bypassed this by taking the road over the bridge and came out opposite the pub.

When we first visited this pub it was a poorly decorated bog standard boozer with no real ale etc. Now it is very busy and many tables were full at this early hour. It is owned by the same folk who own the Weston Hall Hotel just up the road. The steak was very nice indeed and at a very reasonable price too.

It rained overnight but was dry when we set off and even seemed to be trying hard to let the sunshine on us too. The out of character bridge at Salt was to placate the local landowners when the canal was pushed through their land.

I am not sure what the buildings at Sandon Lock are? There were some lime kilns here, they were behind the tall trees on the extreme right of the photo. They were derelict by the 1870's but there was a smithy butted up to the old kilns in 1879 until just before the 1920's. I'm not sure whether the smaller cottages were built for the lime kilns. The larger dwelling looks like it was an estate home, but the lock is a pleasant spot. 

The open fields on the north side of the canal appeared to be home for many Canada geese, many with their goslings with them. They seem to look after their young in creches at times. The adults find a mate for life when two or three years old. They take their young down to water within 24 hours of birth and can dive to 10 mts almost straight away, though not in the canal! The bird was introduced from North America in the 17 century to St. Jame's Park in London. It wasn't until after WWII that they started expanding their range greatly. Since the early 1980's they have more than doubled in number with an estimated 62,000 pairs now. Our Canada geese do not migrate anywhere for the winter, but some do shift places within the UK for their molt. I also saw a couple of lapwings.

There were fields of buttercups too, to help brighten up a dull day.

The buttercups only worked for so long as very soon it was chucking it down. Even the sheep were seeking shelter.

This gang of mums and calves were doing their best, and to be honest were probably dried]r than me at this stage!

The rain had reduced to a drizzle with intermittent heavier bouts by the time we got to Aston Lock and then up the Stone Locks. This is yard lock and on the right can be just seen the statue of Cristina Collins who I mentioned as being murdered between here and Rugeley in 1839 when a passenger on a fly boat. She told the lock keeper here that she was worried by the crew as they were drinking and she was scared. Despite it being late at night she spent the passage through the locks outside so there were other people about.

The old workhouse, now council offices I think. The first poor house on this site opened in 1793 for 60 people who were engaged making blankets, mops and linen. In 1839 it was extended by adding an new entrance block and infirmary and extending some of the wings to accommodate 300 souls. It was extened again in 1879 and 1901. With the coming of the NHS after WWII it became Trent Hospital and a nurses home was added. It closed as a hospital in the 1990's. There are many articles regarding suicides and deaths in the papers. One tells the story of a middle aged lady throwing her self out of the highest window and dying in the yard. She had given two people the slip and had take most of her clothing off to be able to squeeze through the bars to take her plunge. The papers made much of this as the 'wardens' were surprised she could fit through the 8.5" gap as she was a well made woman! There was the story of two elderly in mates that were married at the church. It was felt to be quite amusing in 1897 as the service took a while as one of them was deaf and the other with speech difficulties! You couldn't report thinks like that today.

Once the rain stopped we headed into town for a tour of the charity shops and to drop in for a pint on the way back. After a pint at the Royal Standard we walked back via the station. I had never seen this building that was called the Kitchener Institute, and as it was dated before the outbreak of WWI I was intrigued. It seems that the Staffordshire education committee agreed to building it in 1910 and it was opened in September 1911. However at that time it was called the Stone Special Subjects Centre. Its purpose was to provide facilities for learning cooking, laundry and handicraft to the pupils at local elementary schools. In the evening it would be open for adult education evening classes. It apparently changed its name in 1916, however this had nothing to do with Lord Kitchener of WWI poster fame, but the chairman of the Staffordshire County Education Committee who, along with his wife were largely responsible for the funding and erection of the building, and used as a way to mark his death.

The moorings below Star Lock were just about full, and they are pretty busy up here too, but they are much nicer with more sun. How nice to have bluebells alongside the boat. It had started softly raining again whilst we were shopping but stopped again when we got back to the boat and settled in for the night.