The view from the back of the boat at 6.10am
After a hurried and partial breakfast the menfolk :) cast off at 6.50am while I finished yesterdays blog. As I emerged from the bowels of the boat after pressing publish, we were about to go under bridge 87 looking lovely in the early morning light.
Another nesting swan
It was to be a day of birds. This time the ubiquitous Canada Geese
Aston Lock, our first of the day,
notable for being at the halfway point along the length of Trent and Mersey Canal. So called, by he way, because it provided a link between the Mersey River at Runcorn in the west with the River Trent at Shardlow in Derbyshire in the east.
What is beneath that quint little roof?
The original 'out house' I presume
more fluffly little ducklings
A startled moorhen
The blossoms are .... well, blossoming. It is so interesting to watching as spring unfolds.
The start of the Stone flight of four locks.
At the bottom of the 3rd lock we stopped to fill with water. L took the opportunity to have a shower and we stayed on the water point (which is bad form) while Tim made us toast and coffee to finish off the scratch breaky we'd had at 6.40am.
Looks as though Stone is on the up. The convent school of St Dominics getting a makeover
Working boats at the top of the fourth lock
We had a short respite on the boat before tackling the 4 locks of the Meaford flight (pronounced Medford by the locals). It was on this flight met a boat load of Australians coming down. They had just put a long gouge down the side of their hire boat in the previous lock. It was there first time narrowboating and they weren't particular enamoured. One of their number summed up their experience "too many locks, not enough progress"!
Canal Chaos. We came around a bend to see, under a bridge narrowing, a bunch of canoes, into which a number of adults were trying to coax, with varying degrees of success, a group of challenged young people. Memories of our 2014 trip with Betty and Geoff and our nearly disastrous encounter with kayakers came flooding back. To make matters worse another narrowboat was approaching the bridge from the other direction. However this time due to L's quick and deft reactions disaster was avoided as Lawrence managed not only stop our boat, but more importantly keep her from skewing into the other boats path.
The big excitement for the day over, it was back to bird spotting
Picturesque as they are, willows do obscure one's forward view
Lawrence, having refused to stop at the yummy food smell emanating canal side pub, the Plume of Feathers, deeming 11.00am to early to stop for brunch or lunch, we continued on. After much persuasion he finally agreed to stop at bridge 104 so we could lunch at the Wedgewood Factorie's dining hall. So at 11.20am we pulled in and by 11.30 we were moored up and we were soon ready to set off on our trek to Wedgewood.
Bluebells
On the way back from lunch we met a woman on the bridge over the canal and got to talking. She said when she used to work at Wedgewood (which couldn't have been that long ago as she looked about my age!) over one thousand people were employed. Nowadays they employ 2 to 3 hundred and according to her infallible source, the gate house keeper, another 100 are soon to be made redundant. Apparently Wedgewood china isn't selling so well anymore, though the jasper ware still is. So it sounds as if you want some Wedgewood china, you'd better get in quick!
We got back to the boat around 2.20pm and after much checking of the canal guide and discussion we decided to stay put on this peaceful ('cept for the trains) mooring for the night and instead make another early start in the morning.
7 1/2 miles 9 locks
Wedgewood and Waterford crystal were taken over and now owned by parent company Fiskars.
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