To celebrate we took even longer than usual over a cup of tea in bed this morning. To be truthful it was less about a patron saint and more about the legs not ready to get going after our walk yesterday!
We were bathed in sunshine as we left and were soon passing Spode Cottage. It is a Grade II Listed building that is a 17th century timber framed building. In 1962 it opened as the Old Farmhouse Restaurant and became one of the top eateries in the area. The original owners retired and then other couples took it on. In 1992 it changed names to Spode Cottage but closed as a restaurant in 1992. It opened as a pub afterwards with the same. It seemed to change hands and styles quite regularly but closed in around 2015. It was given planning permission to change it to a 6 bed house in 2017 and seems to be that way now. Closer to the canal is the Plum Pudding that regularly used to get waterlogged in the car park as the canal leaked due to subsidence due to the local mining. It's other claim to fame was that it is the only pub with the name.
After the Plum Pudding pub is the old Armitage Tunnel. To read more about this see here (Armitage tunnel blog)
We had let a boat overtake us where the canal widened just before Spode House and so they checked the tunnel was clear and we just followed on behind. There was no traffic coming the other way for a while though.
Spode House was built around 1760 in the Gothic Revival style. In 1839 Josia Spode IV bought it He died in 1893 and he left it to his niece. They had previously both converted to catholism. She had a vision of Mary in the grounds and it moved her to build the church at Hawkshead. She moved out of the Hall to a cottage in the ground and left the hall to the Dominican Order. In the 1990's the priory and dorms were converted to a nursing home. The Dominicans moved out in 1988 and it became a school for a short time. After that closed the building was boarded up until 1999 when it was bought and changed to a wedding, events and conference venue.
I have always thought that this must have been a wharf at one time but looking back on the OS maps as far back as 1879 there is no evidence that it was ever used as anything other than a winding hole. It is just after bridge 65 on the outskirts of Rugeley.
The ducklings are coming thick and fast now. I think the most in one brood we have managed to count was 14. There may be more here.
There were St George's Day celebrations of a sort in Rugeley where we moored up and went for a walk and to do a little shopping. Here was St George and his sidekick Tonto.
On the roundabout at the top of the toewn centre stand the 9ft tall concrete miners and were designed by Andy De Comyn. They were unveiled in 2015. On the left is the 1930's miner facing the old Brereton Colliery site.The next to his right is the recue miner facing the Mine Rescue centre and the Lea Hall miner of the 1950's is facing towards that pit. The last one is the mine deputy who is facing towards the town.
Brindley Bank and the Trent Aqueduct is the move from town to country, a little marred by the busy A513.
The Trent is not showing its teeth today as it meanders along by the canal. There was an old mill down this way on the river that had a transshipment wharf to load/discharge from it's own craft for the short journey on the river, to the canal vessels.
We moored a little further on, just before Taft's Farm. Despite wanting to rest and take in the sun I thought I had better get on with the task of changing the oil. It didn't take too long. Whilst down the engine hole I saw a roll of sound insulation foam I had recovered from a skip on the Leeds Liverpool years ago. I just experimented by draping it over the engine. Funnily enough the sound reduction was amazing so I can see a project coming on at some stage. All in all a nice day was had by all.
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