Stoke Prior (one of the more recent salt towns)



With strong winds and rain expected for most of the week I decided to set off to Stoke Prior early on Monday morning.  There’s a water point there and it’s easy for Karen to park – ideal if we’re going to be stuck for a while.

It wasn’t raining when we set out but the wind was up but fortunately I didn’t have any problems getting into or leaving the locks.  We had the remaining five locks of the Astwood flight to go up and then a long straight before reaching Stoke Prior.

Buddy waiting for the boat to rise at the first lock

One of the locks didn’t have a lock landing so I had to leave the boat in the previous lock and walk up to get it set.  Another lock only had one landing bollard and that always makes it a bit trickier to tie up the boat.

Approaching the fourth lock with only one mooring bollard

Tied up whilst getting the lock set

As we were running the engine I got the week’s washing done as we cruised.  The wind had strengthened by the time we reached the top and I decided to pull up for lunch.  It was a bit tricky as it was quite an exposed spot but I managed not to lose the boat.  There was a boat casting off in  front and they were taken by the wind leaving one of the crew on the bank.

Moored for lunch

After lunch I carried on to the water point which is opposite the pub we went to with Judith and Nigel on Sunday.

Our mooring for the next few days


We will probably stay here for a while.  It’s not the best of locations but we’re on mooring rings which is the best option when strong winds are forecast.

We didn’t have much of a walk in the afternoon as it wasn’t very pleasant and I think Buddy was pleased to get back onto the boat out of the wet.  It felt really chilly and I also had lots of washing to dry, so I lit a fire.  If the washing dries inside the boat without a fire then it can get very damp inside, so with no prospect of hanging it outside because of the rain, a fire was the perfect result.  As it was, Karen and I were both glad it was lit as it certainly was a cooler evening than of late.

Looking back at last year’s blog entries for June I noticed we had a fire at about the same time and a second one in the middle of June!

We are moored at Stoke Prior which came into existence because of the large and rich salt deposits discovered just over 200 years ago.  Many of the salt extraction sites in the country were started by the Romans but they seemed to have missed this one.

This information board adds a bit of recent history and I’ll expect I’ll have an explore over the next couple of days.
 
Information sign outside the Boat and Railway pub

















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