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Sunday 12 June 2022

All the Way to Alrewas.

 I went up the road to buy a Sunday newspaper. There were folk talking about the local Ironman event and I remembered that the road by Kings Bromley Marina was closed for a few hours due to it. We weren't too late when we got going but as usual there were plenty of folk off before us, in both directions.

It is still a little breezy and when the sun went behind a cloud it was cooler than a T shirt and shirt could cope with. Helen was up and down from 5 to 3 layers all day! However most of the time it was extremely pleasant chugging along down the green corridor.

The rhododendrons were out as we passed the Sluish Wood after Kings Bromley Marina 

The permanent moorings by Woodend Lock have been vacated due to the HS2 work. I have come to the conclusion that the bare poles of trees are not one that have been left in situ and stripped to the trunk, but mature trees that have been uprooted from woods that have been cut don to make way for the route. Part of the conservation remit was to shift some of the ancient woodland soils and trees to areas that were to be replanted as compensation for the loss of the old woods. The foxgloves have thrived on the disturbed soil.

I have heard that Woodend Lock Cottage has been bought by HS2. They were thinking of demolitioning it so that there would be no complaints from tenants, but have decided to hold fire and see what it will be like once the track is up and running. I'm not sure if it will be worth anything in ten years, or how ever long it will be before it is all completed! The tea pots are still in place in the niches in the lock bridge.

I am assuming that the niches were to facilitate a different sort of gate beam in the past. There are several locks hereabouts that have the access bridge right by the bottom gates and now employ these cranked beams. They can be pretty tough to open as you haven't got the benefit of the lever of a long beam. Helen got her back into it though. I reported that the gate paddle at the top gate was jammed partly open which didn't make it any easier.

It wasn't too busy at Fradley, nor too windy as there was a lot of shelter, so there wasn't the banging and crashing that sometimes goes on at the junction. We were heading straight on, continuing on the Trent and Mersey.

There were few boats about maybe, but there were still plenty of weekend gongoozlers. The cafes were doing a roaring trade with the very multicoloured cyclists with all the gear, and bikes that must have been worth as much as the boat by the look of them. The other group that were well represented when the men and women in black who sat on big, very loud motor bikes dressed in leather! We stopped for water at the very slow tap outside the cafe. There was a hire boat filling up, but we didn't mind as Helen was making us a bacon butty, and we dumped the rubbish whilst we waited. When they left we plugged infor a top up and another boat coming up took their place. It was the 'Meander' and they came over to say hello. We were pretty lost but then realised that we had come down the Manchester Ship Canal with them, so, it you read this please accept my apologies for being vague!

There was a boat shaping up to leave the new marina but the wind was making it difficult and it doesn't look very well fendered etc. There is a massive brick building there now there seems to be a trolley to bring up the boats into its confines. I'm not sure why the door has to be so tall, but it will be interested to see what they get up to in there. There are more boats in the dock now and they berths seem to have a larger gap than many marinas.

Just below Common Lock and the new marina was this building and a house further away from the canal, and they were for sale. The stables looked interesting so I took a photo to look up afterwards. It turns out that this was once the Fradley Plaster Mill, though the current buildings have nothing to do with the old mill. The earliest reference I can find is in 1863 when it was owned by Midland Counties Plaster and Cement Works which was part of the Hargreaves and Newton company that was established in the midlands in 1837 and had works at Burton and Hartshay and supplied cement to many of the Victorian project in the Midlands. They were suppliers of mineral white, terra alba, potter's and builder's plaster, gypsum, floor plaster, Portland, Roman and other cements. In 1877 this was their works and the offices were on Brook Street in Stoke on Trent. In 1899 the works and house, along with 91 acres of turf land were for sale. There was no mention of a deposit that was worked, and maybe that is why it was sold as on the map of 1901 the old works was gone.

This OS map extract of 1881 shows a works close to the canal. I suppose that the stable type building of today could be the remains of the east side of the works but looking at google it seems to be at the wrong angle. The house with orchard garden is behind.

This extract of 1900 shows that the works has gone, probably after the sale in 1899. The house has become cottages and looking at the modern building that is there it is built on the same footprint. As to the round structure where the works was I wonder if it is a windmill, or maybe a horse mill that powered the old mill.What ever it was was still there on the 1920's map.

Bagnall Lock on the outskirts of Alrewas is quite picturesque and a fitting entry to the pretty village. In Fradley Helen had chatted to a couple of boats, the first said there was plenty of room and the second that it was very busy, so we ventured past thee winding hole and parked up in a gap between boat that just fitted us. It is close to where we had an engineer come to fix our Hurricane heater during out first year with the boat (I think). I don't think there is a time limit on this mooring so that will suit us very well.


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