On the Road Again: June 16

We had a more leisurely start. First Lynette wandered into Brewood and was very surprised with the cleanliness of the place. It looked an interesting little spot.

We hit the canal after 7AM, but still well before anyone else was on the road. Progress was a bit slow as there were more moored boats than we have seen before. It was almost a mile from Brewood before we cleared them. These boats that we passed were not travellers like ourselves but mainly boats moored in permanent spots. You can have a permanent mooring, on the non-towpath side, or a winter mooring, in certain areas of the tow path side Whichever it is, you are going to get charged. The congestion is probably because this canal is so close to Wolverhampton.

Between Little Onn and High Onn we saw a large dairy farm where the cows were in a covered feed lot. So unnatural for the cows. It reminded Lynette of our train journey from London to Carlisle. We passed through an area which had had rain for several days and there was a dairy farm in the area. Obviously the farmer had been spraying the dairy effluent heavily on the paddocks. The strong disgusting smell was with the train for several minutes even though the train was a high speed one. Would hate to live in that area.

After a lock and a “tunnel” of 81 yards, we came to Gnosall Heath. We looked at stopping, but didn't see anything exciting so continued on to Norbury Wharf. Lots of moored boats still. At Norbury we found a nice tea room and canal shop. There was all sort of canal treen (souvenirs), food and of course everything for a canal boat from a new 12 volt battery to a piece of hose. The place was spotless inside and out and it had it's own comedians - a few ducks and sparrows pestering everybody for a titbit.

It was then a pleasant cruise along the canal. The speed varied from full 4mph in some areas, down to 2mph in a couple of glades where the trees overgrow the canal a lot and passing can be a little tricky. Not quite as bad as the “narrows” though. Sometimes we had to stop and pull over to the side to left another boat through a narrow section first.

Then we caught up with the traffic at the five locks leading down into Market Drayton. It was very busy. We had to wait for a couple of boats in front of us and there were a few boats coming up the locks too. There were also several boats behind us. It was very interesting to see all the lock labourers, (those who swing the windlasses and open the gates,) working together. There were usually three people on a lock and they were chatting away (mostly it was the females doing this, at times, testing work. Lynette just could not get a gate to start swinging back so Jim had to start it moving. That was a first and hopefully only time that Lynette needed extra muscles. We got some local knowledge given to us, withoout which we could have grounded as none of the canal books mentioned the problem and there were no warning notices. The last lock was very shallow on the side where you would usually moor on a temporary basis, so we had to stay in the middle of the canal.

We ended up in Market Drayton, moored on the edge of the mooring space, there are that many people around. This is our scheduled stop so that we can go to the market and see the town tomorrow morning and in the afternoon we need to fill up with water and diesel as well as pump out the sewage tank so need to get into the boat service area. Better to do those chores while we are in a service area.

After dinner on the boat, we wandered around, found the main street of the town and picked up a few goodies from a supermarket.

The weather has been treating us very well. Fine all day and after 11AM, it's been over 20C most of the time, except for the wooded areas.

Unfortunately the internet was hopeless again so the articles piled up. At least the cellphone is working for text messages. The TV reception was also pretty hopeless so we read for a while.

The bridges were protected from erosion by the ropes from the horse to the canal boat by cast iron corner pieces.
For the academics, calculate the number of miles of half inch hemp or manila rope that are required to pass over a corner of cast iron and cut a groove half an inch deep. Answer to the nearest 10 miles please.
Many protectors were grooved up to two inches deep.

Boats moored slow you down.

Another long term site

This guy had his concrete mixer running off his generator and he was making paving slabs

Note the car in the background for commuting or shopping

When the telephone came along, they sometimes followed the canal.
Today, some of te smarted broadband companies have laid their fibre optic cables along the canal tow path.

This is what an old, working, canal boat looked like. The majority of the boat was for cargo. The driver and his family of up to half a dozen kids and wife, lived in the last 10 feet of the boat, along with the engine. Very cosy indeed.