Running Through Rugeley.

We woke to a heavy frost on the ground but it seems it wasn't that cold over night. There was more cloud than the last few days. When the sun came up it had some real warmth in it, and the wind, such as it was, has swung round to the south.

It was a nice mooring just round the bend from the Trent aqueduct, not directly overlooked and quite quiet. The willows looked nice in the sun as we left.

Helen loves looking at folks gardens and down here, as many other places, there are numerous lock down projects of sheds/cabins/bars etc and much landscaping etc. The main thing in this garden however was this lovely magnolia.

At Naomi's Landing there was this very relaxed lady taking the sun. I had expected to see maybe something pertaining to Ukraine or other hot subjects at the moment.

We stopped once more at the Rugeley moorings for Tesco to get milk and a paper etc. It is still quiet but there were two boats moored now. I really hope that one day this old warehouse will be properly and tastefully renovated. It is the Trent and Mersey Mill on the old OS Map.

After the town you come to the two railway viaducts. The bend from Rugeley direction can be interesting if you meet another boat. The old viaduct in the distance was constructed by the Cannock Mineral Railway. This company built the section from Cannock to Rugeley Trent Valley line. The South Staffs Railway built the line from Walsall to Cannock. The line opened in 1859 and was designed to open up the  Cannock Chase Coalfields. The viaduct was the hardest bit of the construction. The Mineral railway was taken over by the LNWR in 1869. The viaduct in the foreground was built to give access to the new Lea Hall Colliery that was the first to wholey opened under the auspices of the British Coal Board. It started to be dug in 1954 and the first coal produced in 1963. So the bridge would have been built in the mid 1950's. As the colliery was closed and the power station it provided for have all gone now. I'm not sure what will happen to the bridge!

It actually looks like you could buy it from the Government if you had a mind! However looking at the columns it may not take too much demolition as they are all cracking!!

Mossley Wharf has been colonised by a swan, but in its day it was a very busy point for loading coal brought by horse and cart from the local mines. There are cottages and an old pub too. This would have been in the 1820's when a horse drawn tramway brought the coal from Brereton Colliery. Later a little further along the canal a basin at the foot of an inclined plain from the colliery was dug. It was called the Talbot Basin, after the Earls Talbot who owned the mines.

After passing the sh Tree Boat Club and under the sharp bend under the bridge we stopped at the water point. We must be the only boat that still has an old fashioned hose. We have had the same hose since we bought the boat. It in fact just a normal garden hose, and not food quality. Most seem to have now a hose on a reel, and the fashion for the wrinkly hoses seems to have passed now. I find that if you coil the hose up the same each time it is dead easy to do, and you can drain it every time.

We were lucky once again not to meet anybody on the way through Armitage 'Tunnel', which looked quite nce in the sun.

Another sign of spring is the loud noise the rooks and crows are making as they rebuild their nest at the top of the tress.

Where ever there are moorings there are piles of ashes, especially at this time of year. I just don't understand why people do this. We have to remove the ashes from the fire and dispose of them, but if you just dump them in a big pile they just stay there for ages and kill everything beneath them. If the ashes are disposed of hot they can retain their heat for a very long time, and even cause fires in the hedges. It is best if you can clear your ashes and put them into a galvanised bucket to cool down. Once cold it would be much better if they could be sprinkled in a long line (take account of which way the wind is blowing) and scatter them over a distance. This way they soon settle into the vegetation and are not visible and do not kill everything below them.

We pottered on slowly and popped into our mooring at the marina in time for lunch. We are off back home for the day on Sunday, but will be back later in the evening and then we will be off again on Monday. You had better buy the Sunday paper as this blog will bot be there for you tomorrow.

 

More to see on the way back.

 No.1 daughter called on her way to work so we were alittle delayed getting underway this morning, but only by 15 minutes. The sun was out, and last night it had gone down to a balmy -0.1deg. Only one boat had gone past too.

By the moorings is this derelict building in the grounds of the sports centre. It reminds me of a station but was in actual fact a sewage farm!

For those of you who read yesterday's blog I can confirm that the mum swan is now on the four laid eggs. Lets hope that they didn't get too cool whilst she was off feeding.

After passing down Aston Lock, where a single handed was heading down, with the help of Helen, and after the marina was a field with several pairs of lapwings or peewits. Not the best photo, but It is on th red conversation list but when out and about on the canals we seems to see it quite often. Maybe it is as canals go through their best habitat.

By Bridge 86 is Burston Villa and the old corn Mill.

At the next bridge is Burston Hall, a listed building.

As we approached Sandon I spotted something I had never seen before. On the way up I had seen the Trentham Tower and now I was seeing the Sandon Hall itself. I had thought it down in a dip so wouldn't be visible. Nathaniel Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby took Sandon as his seat by 1780. However the house burned down in 1848. It was rebuilt by 1852 by the 2nd Earl and the family still liv e there. It is now earning its keep as a wedding venue etc.

As you approach Salt on the west side of the canal you draw close to the valley side of the Trent and can clearly see the various levels of the river as it subsided following the ice age melt. The river terraces correspond to various stages of the river as the run of lessened towards what we have today.

I was a little worried when the single hander ahead of us again at Sandon Lock offered to show Helen his puppy! I was releived when a little white 10 week old pup was revealed. The lock bridge is always quite  photogenic with little tunnels, cobbles and steps. It is good that the rope rubbing bands are still in palce too.However when the lock is full it is leaking out on to the approach footway under the bridge and will have to be remedied at some stage

As promised yesterday I had another look at the track side sign that I had seen yesterday. It is on the left above and is not a curve indicator but is a mile post. It seems that they are need so as to be able to report incidents, such as using bridge numbers on the canals. Also in the Railways Act of 1845 it required the Railway Companies to do this so that customers could verify that they had been charged an appropriate fare for the length of their journey. On the right the two black dots indicate a half mile marker. One black dot is a quarter of a mile marker. The Zero distance is marked from a major station, and in this case I expect it is from Birmingham as it is approx. 32 miles from there.

You can just about make out another track side sign, just to the left of centre. It is an incline marker. These came in following a n accident o Eastern Railways in 1845. They should appear where there is a change of gradient.  Hopefully you can see that we are at a dip in the line where the track raise to the left and also to the right. You can just about see that to the right the gradient is expressed as 1 in 320. The smaller the second number the steeper the gradient. 1 in 80 is normally the steepest gradient for a railway.

As we approached Weston on Trent we could see Weston Hall on the other side of the Trent. It was originally built as a Dower house in 1550. In 1660 it was extended into a three gable home. At the end of the 1800's it was bought by the Shrewsbury Settled Estates and they added the fourth gable. In 1950 it was bought by the Godwin family and they converted it to flats! In 1992 a local businessman bought it and spent 9 years creating a restaurant and function rooms.

Our first ducklings, twelve of them! It is 1st April and expected to below freezing tonight!!

Just after Bridge 78 and behind some trees is Wychdon Lodge. It was built in about 1807. It seems soon after William Moore a banker from Stone moved in with his family. He also was the owner of the Shirleywich Salt works nearbyHe became a JP and the Sheriff of Staffordshire. He died in 1869 but the property stayed in the family until 1875 when it was bought by Thomas Hughes, a master potter who had developed his fathers business into a massive concern buying Davenports business and ending up with several factories. It became Thomas Hughes and sons when his son Allan Edward joined the business. Thomas retired in 1900 and died in 1909. It was rented out for a while but the widow and daughters lived there until around 1925. It then was bought by Clifford Thornburn who was a shoe dealer from Tamworth. In 1942 an airfield for bomber command was built at Hixon just to the north. The end of one of the runways was just 400m away from the house and a plane crashed into the servants tower and a later extension. After the war Wing Commander Thorn lived there. The airfield closed in 1957

By Great Haywood Marina we passed Ben Cruachen. It looks nothing like the ship I think of that hit a freak wave off South Africa! 

Ships were advised not to sail along the 100 fathom line off that coast after this as there was a greater frequency of these ship killer waves there.

As we were at Haywood Lock these merry men trudged past to play in the river. I'm not sure who they were but they were going to practice rescues by line from water.

This is another thing I had never seen before as we passed this way. Hadrian's Arch at Shugborough. It was built in 1795 to commemorate Admiral Anson who was in charge of the Navy during the 7 Years war and circumnavigated the globe. Shugborough is the Anson, Earl's of Lichfield family home. It is a copy of the Hadrian's Arch in Athens.

We were enjoying ourselves so kept going until we crossed the aqueduct over the Trent by the Bloody Steps on the outskirts of Rugeley.

Snow, sun and Stone.

 It seems that it had got down to -3.3 last night but we were nice and cosy. In the morning the sun was shining as we stirred our stumps and then drank our tea in bed listening to the radio.

After breakfast, and as we were getting ready to venture outside and get moving it started snowing! However we didn't need to sit very long as it soon passed over.

The sun was out straight away and I hopped out to take a picture. By the time we actually let go at 0930, there was hardly any sign of it left at all.

As we approached Sandon Wood I was looking out for Pitt's Column and happened to see the above. I have never noticed it previously so maybe some trees have gone. It turns out it is the top of one of the towers of Trentham Hall that was built in 1840. It was demolished in 1910-12 and the very top of the tower was moved here for the princely sum of £192 7s 0d! It will have a great view from up there, and I am surprised we hadn't seen it on our walk in the area last year.

It is said that Sandon Canal bridge is especially ornate due to demands of the estate family. However if you just put a standard bridge in would the dip down to the deck of the bridge and up again on the other side be too much for wagons etc! Part of the design will be to bring the road level up to get rid of the dip. What ever, it looked well in the morning sun.

There are so many dogs these days! I was impressed by these walkers who seemed to be a long way from anywhere with their dogs, and still met up for a chat. It seems that in 2020/21 there were 12.5 million dogs in the UK. That is up from 7.5 million ten years previously. 33% of homes have a dog it seems, 27% have a cat and 2% a rabbit! The dog food market along accounts for £1.4 billion never mind the coats, collars leads etc. No wonder vets seems to charge what they like these days as they have more than enough customers. 

I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of a yellow sign I saw on the length of railway by Sandon Wood but it was yellow with 32 on it. I think it was like this. I had never heard of a 'curve board' before but it may be that is what it is. I will have to check it when we pass on the way back as it may be a distance marker too. If you are riveted by this, keep on reading tomorrow! Well, hopefully you will anyway.

Last Sunday we were at Acklam Farm on the west slopes of the Yorkshire Wolds for a very informal lambing 'experience'. It was a glorious day in the warm sunshine and we could see York Minster in the distance. I bet it wont be as lovely to day. We were just a it slow to take a picture of the second of two lambs getting to its feet after being born, but these were in the next field. The lambs were realy gamboling so it was a real pleasure to watch them as we passed.

We passed two swans grazing from the water and next to them was this nest with four eggs in it. I wonder if they are wasted now with the cold or the warmth of the sun and the decomposing nest is enough to give them a break. We shall see on the way back.

After heading up Aston Lock and on the way into Stone the blue of this periwinkle stood out in the sun

A little further on wish this orange blossom. Is it a quince (japonica)? I hadn't noticed the blue grape hyacinth and the yellow dandelion earlier. I had asked Helen earlier whether grape hyacinth was native to the UK. It seems that there was one variety that was native to eastern England but this has morphed with incoming species from south eastern Europe. Looking closely again there is some sort of yellow flower below the quince? that could be a yellow spurge!

Before bridge 91 on the way into Stone is this large old house. I have often wondered why it was built here. Pearson's says that it is an old brass works. I had a poke about in the archives and found that it was a brass and wire mill that opened in 1794. It lasted until 1840 apparently. This building is listed and is known as Brassworks Farmhouse and was built when the works started so I think it was the managers home originally. As you can see from the sale item of 3rd October 1825 it was quite extensive with steam and water wheel power.

I love the bit about women and children being available locally! Different times. In the mid 1990's the land was sold and planning for the houses that are there now was given, against the wishes of the local council. Bridge 91 is called Brassworks Bridge.

We pottered on to the winding hole before Star Lock and turned. I made a bit of a pigs ear of it, but were soon round and moored back up. After lunch we headed into town and went to chat to the boat yard as we are booked in for a blacking at the beginning of June which is now a Bank Holiday for the Queen's Jubilee. I wondered if they still wanted us on the Monday. We then had a wander through the town as Helen wanted some blue wool. There seems to be a few more shops full, and maybe even a little more 'up-market' than previously. It looks like a Titanic pub to open soon in the main street. I wonder what the Royal Exchange will think of that!

Spring is in the air, but not the sun!

 It was a quiet night last night, and even after the radio came on we managed to drop off to sleep again. Never the less we were away by 0930.

The Armitage Shanks building is one of those sights that I seem to take a picture of every time we pass. I love the curved building that wraps around the canal bend.

Helen jumped off for her exercise but there wasn't anything coming so we headed through the opened up Armitage Tunnel. There was nobody on the water point after the Spode Hall moorings so we pulled in and topped up. Never miss a vacant tap is our motto.

I have often wondered what this old complex of obviously old buildings was and today I have spent a bit of time tracking it down. It is just a bit closer to Rugeley than the basin, now hidden from the canal that sat at the bottom of the cable track from Brereton Colliery above. It was an iron foundry in about 1820 but by 1834 it was being used as a brewery and it was to be let in 1840 by brewers Yeld and Dawes Co. Ltd. The complex consisted of six workers cottages and a manager's house as well as the brewery and linked premised. It obviously had a wharf with the canal and right the other side was the Armitage toll road,

There was not one boat oored alongside Love Lane as we came into Rugeley. I have never seen it so quiet. We were stopping to get some items from Tesco so we had the pick of moorings. We didn't linger very long as rain was forecast and we were soon on our way. I have often wondered what this house, the one with the glassed in swimming pool by the canal. It seems that they are not heating the pool at the moment as it wasn't all steamed up as usual. No wonder with utilities priced as they are today. The building has a date stone of S E 1841. Having had a look at the old maps it seems it was part of the Churchdale House Estate. The big house was further away from the canal. This was a wharf. It seems that the stone block work on the bank to the right of the photo was the start of a wharf on the 1880's map there is a crane at the end furthest away from the building.

After the aqueduct and after Bridge 68 there is a winding hole. This was apparently a transhipment basin, as you can see it is very near the railway line. However on the 1879 it doesn't look as though there is any infrastructure associated with the basin, no roads, buildings etc. I wonder if it was just a wharf used for the construction of the railway and then not used as it isn't close to anywhere really. By 1900 it was definitely unused as the map indicates it is full of reeds.

This monumental vase is by the A513 and seems to be close by the site of the Oakedge Hall. It doesn't seem to appear on old maps so it must be fairly new. Oakedge Hall was demolished in 1694 and some of its remnants were used in the foundations of Shugborough Hall. Just by the house are four medieval fish ponds that must have been associated with the old hall. I wonder what this monument is. I felt sure I had found something about it previously, but not now it seems.

We caught up with a boat going up Colwich Locks but it gave me time to pop down the weed hatch to pluck off a dish cloth that I had caught going alongside. They stopped for water so we were now in the lead. As we passed Great Haywood Marina there was a bore driller. It seems that HS2 is starting its work here. There is to be an aqueduct across the canal and river in this area and they are undertaking ground investigations. There is also a gas pipeline that needs diverting it seems in this area.

As we entered Hoo Mill Lock I remembered last year when we had to call out RCR as I couldn't start the engine as the isolator switch had given up the ghost. Just as an aside. How many of you actually turn off your battery isolators, and if so when do you use them? Personally I have only ever turned them off when I have actually been working/changing batteries. There was a lovely carpet of cowslips just on the offside by the lock.

There were a few of these ducks about and I think they are Muscovy ducks. It seems that they are the only breed of domestic duck that have not descended from wild mallards. They have come from common wood ducks and roost in trees at night. They originate from central and south America and are really escapees from collections and are now considered domestic.

Spring is definitely in the air, with the leaves starting to appear on some of the trees. The canada geese and mallards are scrapping over mates and the swans are pairing off, or rebonding. We even saw a pair of swans on a nest which seems very early it feels, especially in the cool wind of today.

It seems anti spring that the beautiful velvet bulrushes are bursting and becoming so scruffy and untidy. I suppose though that they are scattering their seeds but they do look like a burst mattress found under a bridge. The circle of life!

From Great Haywood it had been spitting but it wasn't really getting us wet so we just carried on Hixon and Shirleywich where salt was extracted. There are a couple of arms still there that led to salt makers works. I have found an advert for saline baths in Hixon too.

An advert in the Staffordshire Gazette for May 1841. On the 1880 OS map there is a row of cottages between St Peter's Church and the Methodist Chapel called Bath Cottages and just next to them a building labeled BH (Bath House?). By 1900 the bath house building had gone, or at least got smaller so changed use.

We didn't go much further pulling up at Weston on Trent, and just in time as the rain got heavier for a time. We got settled for the night in the warmth of the stove.

Out and about, at last.

 Well hello again! It has been such a long time since I have sat on the boat in the evening and tapped away with some nonsense. Life certainly has seemed to get in the way of boating over the winter at least!!

Anyway we are here on 'Holderness' for a few days, and of course the glorious weather we have been having is set to change, but to be honest I don't care as it is so good to be away at last. If the worst comes to the worst it will be a real pleasure to sit in front of the stove just doing nothing. I wont bore you with what has been going on but it is all starting to come to and end now, although knowing me I will say yes to something else that will keep me way too busy.

Macy the cay knew something was going on and hid away but once the car was packed up we soon had her on the parcel shelf and she settled down to another trip away on the boat. We got away after popping in to the mother in law, just getting over COVID and we were on our way.

A couple of hours later we were at the marina and disgorging the contents of a small pantechnicon into the boat. It all seemed to fit. I did all the usual arrival jobs as well as checking the fuel. I do this now as I am sure we had some stolen when we were moored over winter at Saville Town Basin, Dewsbury. I don't know how they did it as the lock was there still, but hey ho, once bitten twice shy! I purchased another three bags of coal, just in case, with one eye on the forecast. We were soon on our way and heading out of the marina. Helen was frantically trying to remember what her tasks on departure were and eventually popped up on the bow to let go etc.

We had intended to do the a Ring, but as I have to pop back home on Sunday we had to be somewhere to facilitate that. There is a lock at Penkridge that is still closed for the winter maintenance and another at Minworth so we decided on an out and back to the marina and then another out and back after Sunday. Once we left the marina and turned left we were on our way. I would hate to live in a marina full time myself, but does give you a very liberated mood once you leave! I was amazed that the sun came out, as I wasn't expected it. It was quite warm, but boats in the other direction were dressed up to the nines, wind behind makes a bif difference. There were patches of yellow along the banks, and not from daffodils but from the gorse/broome/winn/furze. I have always liked this plant for the colour, the aroma of coconuts and later the snapping sound when the dried pods burst to project the seeds as far as possible. It is a member of the pea family by all accounts.

As well as the yellow of the gorse there is more of the white blossom in the hedgerows. It is not hawthorn or may so I am assuming that it is blackthorn or sloe. It is nice to see, and we should make a note of their locations so that we can return to pick the sloes. We haven't made any sloe gin or vodka for a couple of years now,

We didn't go very far, just as far as Handsacre. We have never moored here and we found a spot in the sun, just before the winding hole. The curtain of weeping willows just before our moorings have been well trimmed, but I wonder how long it will be before they grow back to be a curtain again.

Helen was dressed up to the nines, but was out on the back enjoying the sun. She wasn't asleep, I promise.

Just to get us into the holiday mood we walked up to the Olde Peculiar pub just a little up the road from Bridge 58, It turns out that it isn't open on Monday and Tuesday, so we just wandered back and had a pint at the Crown  by the bridge. There was only pedigree and Hobgoblin on, but a pint of pedigree and a packet of peanuts was a great start to the holiday.

Once back on the boat I lit the fire and di some more of the chores, like make the bed, put stuff away etc and then settled down to bash the keyboard for this. It is lovely to be sitting her at the end of the day and still in daylight. It is good to back aboard. Our few visits to the boat since last year have been a real break for us, but to get underway and head out of the marina is a real treat. I think we will head up to Stone and then just head back. We shall see what is what with the weather though.