Another frosty start on
Thursday but at least it meant the sun was shining as we set off for Fradley Junction.
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| Near Little Haywood |
At Little Haywood we went
down Colwich lock which is one of my favourites; I just love that the lock bridge
is the entrance to a farm and always looks like the cows have just come in for
milking.
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| Colwich lock, Little Haywood |
Coming out of the lock feels
like you are on a river rather than a canal.
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| St Mary's Abbey, Little Haywood - rumoured to have tunnels 10 miles long to Lichfield cathedral and another a mile long to Shugborough Hall |
Just before coming into
Rugeley this bridge fascinated me as it showed so many different types of bricks
as it has been repaired over the years.
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| Bridge 68 - Trent & Mersey canal |
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| The Crown by bridge 58 at Handsacre |
The canal at Rugeley also
passes over the River Trent.
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| Aqueduct over River Trent at Rugeley |
One advantage of canals in
towns is that the towpaths tend to be made up rather than grass. As much as we like walking on the towpaths in
the countryside, the amount of rain this winter has made them really muddy and
tricky to walk along.
The second lock of the day
was Wood End lock and I chatted to a guy on a residential mooring whilst Karen
was setting the lock. I said he was
lucky to live there as the moorings seemed really tranquil and a long way from
traffic noise. He pointed out that the
route for HS2 was about 50 yards away. I
don’t normally discuss political topics but I think that the HS2 is such a
waste of resources; the train journey times from London to the northern cities
seem more than respectable as they are.
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| Wood End lock |
Soon after Rugeley we went
through Armitage which always reminds us of Aileen as she is the queen of all
things toilets as far as boating is concerned.
We can’t match her pictures of toilets the last time she and Mike went
through here as the storage yard was practically empty apart from a few shrink wrapped together waiting for shipment…
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| Sanitary ware factory at Armitage |
…but what we did see was a
pile of broken toilets (your eagle eyes will spot them Aileen) – we assumed it was where the rejects are thrown.
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| Pile of discarded porcelain |
After travelling 12 miles
we finally reached the first locks at Fradley Junction…
…and were soon turning
right off the Trent & Mersey onto the Coventry canal continuing our trek south.
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| Fradley junction and apparently the most photographed canal pub (it does get packed here in the summer) |
The white building in the
picture above is the Swan at Fradley and after mooring up for the day we popped
in for a couple of drinks and got chatting to some fellow boaters (and their
dogs) although this picture makes it look like they are totally ignoring us.
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