A Bit Over The Top.

 After mooring up, lunch and having a word with the voluntary tunnel keepers we went for a walk. The idea was to take the boat horse route over the top but we were advised against it as there is a travelling community site astride the route and with all the digs etc it can be quite intimidating. We chose another more scenic route.

Alongside the current Telford Tunnel is the original Brindley Tunnel, with the tunnel keepers white house over looking the present cut. We had been warned to watch out for a stray pig, but we only saw where it had obviously been rootling about. It had escaped from a nearby field apparently. This tunnel took nearly 11 years to build with several killed in its completion it opened in 1777 and was built with no tow path and had to be legged through.

There was a railway tunnel at one time and right next to the canal was this area. It was actually Chatterley Station and the footbridge was to access all platforms. The tunnel is behind me but with out walking up a private drive I couldn't see the portal.

Just round the corner was the JCB World Logistics hub. This is where all the components for JCB made elsewhere come to. They consolidated seven warehouses into this one saving 20% transport costs. They took over this former Blue Planet warehouse in 2013 and now employ about 300 people. It is run by DHL for them. The building harvests all the rain water from the roof. There are so many windows and light that they do not need lights on during the day. It is so well insulated that the biomass boiler is seldom called in to action, even at the height of winter. I bet those new massive warehouses down the valley in stoke don't do that!

Just by the JCB place there is a massive amount of earth moving going on. This is the Chatterley Valley development that has just got underway after the Stoke and Kidsgrove Councils have contributed £3.5 million each to pay for the ground preparation. The land was full of old coal mines and pits so was expensive to sort out. They hope to get a return of £2 million each year in rates when it is all completed. The 107 acres is going to house 1.2 milling sq. ft of industrial and logistic floor space, with provision for one as big as 650,000 sq. ft! It is next to the A500, M6 and the West Coast Main Line so has good transport links they aim to create over 1,800 jobs.

We headed up Harecastle Hill that was littered with old pits coal pits that also found ironstone. There were marl pits and brick and tile works too. Nothing like the rural experience of today. These beasts were being assailed by the smell of a rendering plant at a wholesale meat company at Ravenscliffe. A bit like arriving at Auschwitz for them!

Mow (to rhyme with cow) Cop in the distance atop the hill, and in the field is one of the ventilation shafts to the canal below.

The village of Goldenhill looking quite golden with the grass today, but apparently the name was given due to buttercups being in perfusion. Cola was apparently found in the area when James Brindley was digging the canal. It seems he took advantage and set up a mining company near Goldenhill. On the right is St. Joseph's Catholic church with the copper top and on the left is the Anglican St. Johns.

The cow conveniently posed for me to give scale to the air shaft, the only one we got anywhere near to.

Just up the road in a hamlet called Woodstock was a brick chimney that is a rare survivour as it was from a coal pit that was redundant back in 1875 and it is still standing.

In the little hamlet of Acres Nook was the Rifleman Inn, unfortunately closed, but when I checked up the earliest reference I could find was back in 1879 when it was the Rifleman's Arms. The most interesting thing I found about Acres Nook was that they were adverts for miners for a small pit in 1986. Apparently there was a drift mine set up here in 1985. In 1987 they wanted to double production to 500 tonnes a day taking the coal away in 10 lorries.Needless to say there were many objections. In 1989 there were three addits and they employed 27 men on a double shift. As far as I can see it closed in 1991.

Once we came down the hill we dropped down to Bath Pool a lake that was man made as it is formed by an earth dam. I can't find why or when it was formed but it was certainly there in 1875. It is perhaps most famous as the place where the body of Lesley Whittle was found down a shaft, a victim of the Black Panther, Donald Neilson. He died in jail in 2011. I'm glad I didn't known that when we were walking round! Mind you it is a lovely place for a walk now and there were joggers, mum's with their kids on scooters and bikes as the paths are like roads.

We sat at the other end of the lake to the dam and had a drink and a bit of chocolate. The water lillies willlook great in a week or two. The island ahead is perfectly round but the trees have grown up now.

We were soon back at the south end of the tunnel and as were were eating an ice cream boats started to turn up for the following days morning transit. It seems that they take eight maximum in one go so we thought we had better get over to the waiting bays, and it was on the sunny side for the solar panels. The boats were messing about a bit so we went to top up with water and miraculously they had left a hole just our size as No.2 in the queue.

I then got the sand paper and paint out and sorted out the damaged paint on the port side to dry over night so that If I got a chance I could wash it down.