Oldies On Tour

We noted in “Nicholson’s” there was Canal Museum here in Shardlow but couldn’t see it, so set off straight after breakfast heading towards Nottingham. After passing through the floodgates we were onto the

River Trent

actual River Trent, the 3^rd longest river in England, and it immediately opened out into wide, open countryside; in fact we thought we had gone into a lake it was so wide after the narrow canals. We passed

Massive locks on River Trent

through Trent Lock; a crossroads where the River Soar comes up from the South, and the Erewash Canal heads north.

Heading down stream passing a number of giant locks, all manned fortunately, we eventually left the river to join the Beeston and Nottingham canal and moored up outside Sainsbury’s. Whilst securing the boat we were pounced upon by an employee of the Canal and River Trust; oh dear are we going to be moved on we wondered but no, he was a fundraiser.   After quite a long exchange about the lack of funding of the system, we were convinced to become friends of the trust, and signed up there and then.

We spent a couple of nights moored and therefore had time to wander around the town. One of the main attractions of the town was obviously “Nottingham Castle” but again, just our luck, it was closed for refurbishment. The other main reason for stopping here was for Christine to have a hair cut, and she was successful but unfortunately the lady who cut her hair, got carried away and Christine walked out only a couple of steps away from a “number one”, still it will grow back!!!!!

We had a mooch around the old “lace market” area where we had

Micro brewery

lunch in a pub with a microbrewery as part of the bar; certainly different, but nice beer and the food wasn’t bad either.

Next morning we left early, back onto the “Trent” and headed to Newark, 24 miles down stream with 5 monster locks to pass through. Fortunately, again these locks are all manned but being so big and with so few boats going through, Christine had to hold a secure line at the bow’s whilst I held one at the stern. These locks being so deep, there were metal wires set back into the lock sides for lines to put through, they then slid up or down these wires as the boats moved up or down.

Travelling downstream through the Trent valley, passing herds of cows and recently harvested cornfields we were amazed at the number of fishermen that were lining the banks, with there lines well into this wide river. Like most rivers, mooring places are limited so we were determined to make Newark by a reasonable time in the afternoon, so we had lunch on the “hoof” and foot hard down; with a slight current going in our direction we made 5-MPH, wow, this is probably the fastest Meg A Star has ever travelled.

We arrived in Newark at a reasonable time and after turning the boat

Newark Castle

round moored below “Town Bridge” and right opposite the remains of “Newark Castle”.   Martin, who was in Newark this day paid us a visit and, as he is very familiar with this town pointed us in various directions so we could enjoy our stay.

One of the tasks we had to do on Friday was to get our “not-so-shiny” generator’s first service completed by the local Honda Dealer, which was in Tuxford, 16-miles away. We considered a taxi, then getting the train or even jumping on a bus, neither one was really acceptable but after chatting to the Honda dealership, it transpired they had an engineer out and about, so we met up on Town Bridge and he took it with him; success.   To further excite us, the manager mentioned he was

Inside the church

travelling through Newark Sunday morning and if we could manage without it ‘till then, he would deliver it back to Town Bridge, another success or what?

Friday, and the weather was warm and sunny, and after delivering the generator we went into this historic town and wandered accross the

Market Square

Market Square, through little alleyways and narrow streets, and visited the Grade 1 listed “St Mary Magdalene Church” with it’s spire rising 236-feet, dominating the town. Having got our bearings we wandered around the market then enjoyed a couple of drinks in the sun watching the world go by.

Newark is a very historic town; the origins

One of the many interesting buildingd

are from Roman times due to its position on that all important Roman road, the Fosse Way. It was here, in the castle opposite, that King John died of Dysentery in 1216, and also the town figured heavily during the English civil war. Historically Newark became a centre for the wool and cloth trade though today there are a number of other large companies around the outskirts, but mainly dominated by British Sugar.

On Saturday, I trotted off to the town’s museum for the day and enjoyed getting to know the facts about this historical town. Though the Museum is advertised as the Civil War museum, it covers all aspects of historical Newark and I only just returned to the boat in time to change before going out. Tonight we were meeting Martin and Marian for an “Indian”, at a highly recommended restaurant; and I have to say it was good.

Sunday we received our generator back then said good-bye to Newark and headed back to Nottingham.

Friday, and we up fairly early as we expected our Electrical Engineer to arrive around 0900hrs and apart from clearing breakfast things away, we had to empty the two large cupboards at the stern. As it turned out it was a good job we did get on with things as he arrived around 0845hrs!!! We had been recommended to this “sparks” by Simon, Meg A Star’s builder and whilst queuing to get into a lock got chatting (as one does) to another boatman who, it turned out had used our electrician before and was very happy; what a recommendation.

Apart from the washing machine, we had been experiencing numerous other electrical problems, but we felt that by the end of his visit today, all our electrical issues would be over.

The washing machine we had installed is a small “Zanussi” model, but unfortunately there is a glitch in the design, which, though acknowledged by the manufacture has yet to be sorted and this means this model is not really suitable for an installation that relies on power, fed by an Inverter. So our “not-so-shiny generator “ will still have to drive it. The make we should have bought was a Candy; never mind.

By midday everything had been completed, we had more reliable power; and the heating system worked, now hopefully we can relax and not worry of draining the domestic batteries.

Tonight we are expecting Jane, Dave and Mia to arrive late so we took the opportunity to re-visit the Swan, the “Morris Dancers Music” Pub for their “Fish & Chips” Friday special, and of course they serve good

Unicorn made from Pom poms

pints of real ale.

Saturday morning, with 2-bicycles loaded, and 5 of us on board including Mia, any chance of a lie in was naturally out of the question

The boys at the fair

so after breakfast we set off, straight into the first of a flight of three locks; welcome aboard a canal boat!!!

Whilst in one of the locks, a fellow boater told us about an art sale in the Village of Alrewas and this interested Dave as he also enjoys painting. Two miles after heading off we arrived at Alrewas; moored up and headed into the village to find there was a village fete with numerous stalls and attractions in full flight. After

Enjoying a pint in the pub

wandering about we found the “art gallery” in the village hall. A quick scout round and 10-minutes later we were in the

Dave and Mia

pub enjoying a few beers. The fete certainly looked to be a great success, especially as the weather today was particularly good, sunny and rather warm, a complete contrast to the previous day.

Once back on the boat we headed off again towards Burton 0n Trent, picking up a “Hitch Hiker” on the way. Our “Hitch Hiker” was actually an instructor from one of the hire boat companies who had just left their client to his or her own devices. We deposited him at his boat yard and carried on but suddenly remembered there was a car still parked back at Fradley Junction that needed retrieving.   As the forecast for Sunday was mainly rain, Jane and Dave left Mia with us

Me enjoying round about, Mia would not go on anything

and cycled back to Fradley to collect the car then drive to Mercia

Jane enjoying a skate board

Marina, park up, then cycle back along the towpath until we met. This all went well, we re-loaded the bikes and carried on until we found a suitable mooring place, unfortunately not near any pubs so after dinner we played “Phase 10” much to Jane’s disgust!

Sunday arrived as predicted, cold and very wet but we had to get going especially as we had promised Mia a visit to the swings that they had

Dave playing Mia refusing to have a go

passed whilst cycling back yesterday. When we arrived it was still raining and Mia, undeterred, donned on her wet gear and out we all went. It was a very comprehensive children’s playground, quite empty of course, though several of our adult party did try things out but not Mia; she didn’t like the wet seats and though we had taken a cloth to wipe them down she didn’t participate so we all headed back to the boat.

Their actual car was in Willington, about 1-km before the Mercia

Dave driving in pouring rain

Marina so that’s where we stopped for the rest of the afternoon and listened to the rain, though the three of them did venture out to have a look at the shops in the marina whilst Christine conjured up a hearty dinner before they left and headed back to Essex.   It was a good

We were all soaking wet

couple of days but 5 in our boat is a little “tight”; It was a very good decision not to bring the two dogs with them!!!!!

The following mooring we sailed to Mercia Marina and when we arrived immediately recognised this marina; we had been here before to look at boats, in fact it was here we made an offer on one.

Monday night we spent at Shardlow, this is where the double size locks start before we arrive at the river Trent itself.

We left first thing in the morning, as we are re-tracing our steps, looking for places that we can go, as the canals are all closing, due to

Plenty of sheep Around

shortage of water. We stopped at Stone again, Geoff treated me to another Italian meal, as we so enjoyed the first ones and it was excellent again. Next morning, I walked all around the town, I am desperate for a haircut, but Monday, they are all closed, we did some shopping, and moved onto Great Haywood, where we have not been before, we are still on the Trent and Mersey canal. We wanted to stop at Rugeley, but it was packed, no spaces at all, so we travelled onto Armitage, and moored right outside of the Armitage Shanks Factory, where you could hear someone smashing up a toilet or two! In the morning we walked into the village, found a delightful butcher, where we stocked up with fresh meat, I tried to get my hair cut, but oh dear they close on Wednesday! Up quite early and away we had a few locks to do before arriving at Fradley Junction, the first lock took us one hour and a half, there were ten boats either side waiting, still we kept busy talking to everyone. Finally

Lovely scenery on route

we arrived at Fradley and managed to get a parking place right by the car park of the pub, so our visitors could park easily. In the evening we went to a Folk evening, I have been to better ones, this was quite a large group, but the music was more fitting for Morris Dancers, I was very disappointed.

Marian and Russell arrived at 10.00am and we quickly went to Tesco for some fuel for the Generator and some food for us, we then had a coffee before Marian left, with a big bag of our washing, very grateful for that.
Entering the double locks at the entrance of the canal, we meandered

Very peaceful

through a very quiet canal, with Russell

Going through the tunnel

being navigator, and me over seeing the locks with him, after three locks and one automatic lifting bridge, we stopped for some refreshments,the boys went in the local pub, whilst I cooked bacon butties, which were soon devoured and we were on our way again. Six more locks and two lifting bridges, we stopped for the night, I cooked dinner, and we then walked to

Navigator Russell

We spotted a milkman!

another pub, which took us about twenty minutes, so we were already for a pint or two…
when we got back we played UNO, which I am pleased to say I won.

Friday morning we had breakfast before starting again, this time we stopped for water, and the customary pooh, before moving on, we wanted to go to Uttoxeter,

Uttoxeter Canal closed

but sadly that arm of the canal has been closed, so we could only get to Leek, which we arrived at lunchtime. We were very disappointed as we are now in the middle of nowhere, with a twenty minute walk to Morrison’s and a lot longer to Leek itself.

Russell helping Geoff with a new App!

We walked to Morrison’s, did some shopping had a cream tea, then returned, and waited for Marian and Martin to arrive. After installing our new printer to our IPads,thank you Martin for coming to our rescue again! we went for a quick look at Leek, and a lovely curry. We finished the

Looking over the aquaduct

evening back at the boat for coffees, before we were left on our own again.

Saturday morning, we were up and away before 8.00am, we decided an early start would complete our journey back to The Trent and Mersey Canal, we have to decide what we are doing, and where we are going, as so many canals are closing due to the lack of water. We arrived back at 1.30pm, had lunch, a lazy afternoon, and an early night.

Sunday morning we dropped Pat off at Stone railway station and headed back to the boat through the high street, again another town centre packed with charity shops. Apart from venturing out to Morrison’s, we stayed in and around the boat as the weather was indecisive, couldn’t decide whether to rain continually or not.

We left Stone the following morning after spending 2-nights on a 1-night mooring (we should have read the notice earlier) and headed

Wedgewood museum

north to the Wedgwood Factory. Neither of us had been to the visitor centre or the Museum before so were looking forward to it, though Christine was far keener than I was to visit.

After mooring at Bridge 104, we followed the signs to the factory but they weren’t very accurate and we did an un-planned

Pots made from wicker at entrance

detour to get there. Along the way we did contemplate not bothering as seeing the factory through the trees frustrated us as we struggled to find the way there, but hey ho, we persevered and duly arrived.

The original Wedgwood factory was in an area called Etruria within the

Josiah Wedgewood

Potteries region, but because of major subsidence due to coal mining in the area over the years, by the first half of the 20th century manufacturing the factory was sinking and was forced to move. The

Josiah Wedgewood

present site in Barlaston, a few miles from Etruria was selected; they even built their own railway station called “Wedgwood” just outside the factory.

In the museum there is a piece of china from every design and shape that has been made ever since Josiah Wedgwood started his pottery business in

Overlooking the factory

1759. The collection is so vast that it would take several weeks to look at everything, but in the short time we were there we got

Dragon made out of china

a good flavour of what the company has made over the years. It is also very evident why Wedgwood was so popular in the 18^th and 19^th century judging by the various European royal houses that patronised their products. Next we went round the

Officially no photos

factory and this was quite amazing, we were quite amazed how labour intensive the operation is. Though there are modern ovens and mechanical handling equipment, scores of people are employed to carry out the decorations on all the various products. There are rows ladies and some men sitting at workstations delicately applying decorations to cups, plates and teapots etc. We were mesmerised and stood watching

Marian went on a previous day

in awe at their skills, steady hands, professionalism and the pride they took on their work.   We spoke to a few and were surprised how long they had worked there. In the “blurb” they talk about how the various skills have been handed down from generation to

Showing us how to do it!

generation and it was evident to us this actually does go on, even in todays world. Of course today Wedgwood is not a family run business, it is part of the “Fiskars” Group who own

Marian enjoying a full cream tea

amongst many others “Royal Copenhagen”; “Waterford”; “Gerber”; “Royal Albert”, and “Royal Doulton”.

Halfway during our tour we visited

We had finger sandwiches and tea.

their “Tea Emporium” and we each enjoyed a rather expensive pot of tea in an ornate Wedgwood teapot and fine bone china cups accompanied by finger sandwiches.

On the way out we popped into the “seconds” shop but couldn’t find

Enjoying my cuppa!

anything suitable for the boat!!!!!

Stoke Minster

We now headed onto Stoke proper, stopping for a night along the way. Christine is still experiencing a small issue with her house; no water, no electricity; nothing major but it is holding up proceedings and she has received the forms electronically but needs to print them off, sign and scan before returning them, so we found a PC World, bought a printer and did the business; hopefully her building works will continue now.

We decided to spend the day in Stoke on Trent, so walked into the town centre but what a disappointment; it is thoroughly rundown boarded up shops, numerous charity shops, discount stores and a poor excuse for a market; I must say Campo Verde’s Sunday market is bigger, and that’s saying a something!!!!! Even getting a mid morning cup of coffee was difficult, we had to resort to a pub! Not everything was disappointing; by the time we had returned to the boat we had

Two of the restored kilns

completed nearly 9,000 steps.

The other place we wanted to do visit was the Industrial Museum but

Etruria industrial Museum

lo and behold it was closed and upon better inspection noted it only opened when there was something special happening; what’s the point of advertising a museum, encouraging folk to visit and then not open it, perhaps this is indicative of a run down town.

The afternoon was taken up with chores ready for Russell arriving for a night’s stay tomorrow when we will attack the Caldon canal.

Continue reading →