Tuesday 29 May 2018 Shardlow to
Willington along the Trent & Mersey Canal
Popping in for a cup of tea on the way with Liana's mum, Flo, we
continued from Nottingham to Shardlow. We stopped for milk at the
local store a mile from the canal,before we reached the Malt Shovel.
Leaving the car just around the corner, we realised that John had
left the fridge switched off: He had left the mains switches on, but
had forgotten that setting the Inverter to “charger only”
switches off the inverter …... doh! Some food was spoiled, and our
experiment to see how much the solar panels reduce battery discharge
with fridge on was undone …. doh!
As luck would have it, we joined NB Yarak (which means the state of
mind of a bird of prey about to strike, John was told) and shared the
wide locks at Shardlow, Aston, Weston and Swarkstone, making the work
much easier: Thankyou! There was no hurry, as we were following
working boats leaving the Erewash Canal after their Bank Holiday
Festival. We saw loads of walkers and boats, too. Three silly boys
dropped a pebble on the roof at a bridge, the first such incident for
years. After a lovely, sunny but windy afternoon enjoying the fields
in the Trent valley, we reached Stenson Lock. The three volunteers
speeded things up, organising pairs of boats. Going up, they had John
keep Annie against the bottom gate and opened both ground and gate
paddles. By hanging back, the bottom paddles' water didn't get under
and behind the boat and push it forward, for the gate paddles' water
to sink us, so they said! It seemed to work, thankfully. After
Stenson, we left Yarak to pump out at Willington Marina and continued
to Willington village moorings. The coop is close and quite good, for
a village, so we were able to make good our losses. Three pubs are
very close, the Green Dragon, Rising Sun and Green Man, where we both had good main
meals. This pub is a franchised Heineken pub, a new one to us, but we
liked it.
Wednesday 30 May Wet Willington to Alrewas
John had just taken off the back cover to set off when it teemed
down! Cue cover replaced and watch a few hardier souls setting off
while we wrote our blog and diary. We were surprised by how many were
braving the elements! The drenching stopped late morning, so John set
off wearing his inexpensive bright yellow wet weather gear (charity
shop).
Overcast and grey, with bitty rain at times, it was ok-ish, and the
countryside was very green, if wet, with the bright red of
Rhododendrons brightening the woodland scene. Horninglow Wharf, Dallow Lane Lock and Burton passed by, with the brief excitement of
Jannel Cruisers at Shobnall Marina, once the Bond End Canal, now their basin. The massive housing project near Branston Lock had not progressed as much as we expected.
We were tempted to stop early at either end of Branston water park, a
favourite mooring for us, away from the A38 noise with a beautiful
lake to walk round and view the wildfowl. The improving weather
encouraged us to carry on a few more miles through the easier Tatenhill, Barton and Wychnor narrow
locks alongside the A38, until we turned away and passed through the
Trent watermeadows, past isolated but pretty moorings to the river
crossing just above the weir. Previous warning signs at Barton Turns
Marina and Wychnort lock had been “Proceed with caution” (amber),
but we passed several happy oncoming boats who had crossed without
trouble. We found that the green was showing as we reached Alrewas
Lock. Below is a series of pictures showing the short passage across the Trent.
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| Wychnor Lock, after which sluices and weirs are on the left |
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| keep away from the weir as you turn right onto the main river |
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| Weir on left and boatmen's bridge in distance by Alrewas lock |
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| turn left before the boatmen's bridge |
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| turning off the river onto the short cut to Alrewas Lock, with lock moorings on left |
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| about to enter Alrewas Lock off the Trent |
On locking up, we moored just past the first bridge at 6pm, as
closer moorings were occupied. Alrewas is a lovely village to walk round, so we did so, buying excellent strawberry jam (again) from a thatched cottage honesty stall, and used the wifi while having a pint at one of the local pubs. Happy days!
Thursday 31 May Old haunts:
Alrewas through Fradley Junction to Rugeley
The sun
shone and John cooked himself a fine English breakfast before setting
off. It's
only a couple of miles and five locks (Bagnall, Common, Hunts, Keepers and Junction locks) to Fradley Junction. There was no hurry: there were boats ahead and behind us going
our way, plus plenty coming the other way, so the locks were busy,
without really holding us up. We had great chats with a number of
other boaters as we all worked together. The Fradley locks were
manned by helpful volunteers who were having their assessment day, so
we got up very easily! Reaching Woodend Lock, ¾ mile beyond, was a
different story – four boats ahead of Annie, and boats coming
down. John tied Annie to a pin until she was close enough to the lock
to use bollards, and we chatted to folk as we operated the lock and
waited in the sunshine.
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| Junction Lock and the White Swan, Fradley: We were watched up the locks :) |
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| Young boating family on Free Thyme at Woodend Lock |
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| Liana walking to Armitage Tunnel to see if the way was clear for Annie |
Eventually we were through the last lock of
the day, and continued the six miles through countryside and the well
kept gardens of Handsacre. At Armitage the white ceramic toilet
factory looks to have expanded. It was fun to go through the narrows
to the embankment by the Plum Pudding Inn. We saw Lady
Patricia, the first boat we used, thanks to our friends John &
Sheila Lamming.
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| Lady Patricia |
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| apart from lovely gardens, this old wharf has been well renovated |
Armitage Tunnel, long opened up but still very narrow, was
fun to pass through (Liana hopped off to check the way was clear). On
to Rugeley, where we moored on the visitors moorings, which are very
handy for town and shops. For us, it was Rugely Trent Valley Station
and a train trip to Derby via Tamworth, then bus to the car at
Shardlow and home for the weekend to help at our local Gardeners
Fayre.
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