Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE YEARS BETWEEN BOATS

TO THE SEVERN & SHROPPIE

August 1985

Part 1 : Kent Green to Curdworth

This was the third year we'd hired from Dyecraft at Kent Green on the Macclesfield. This year we had their boat Kinder Scout and were heading through Birmingham to Upton-on-Severn.

Some of the pictures in this set are not of as good quality as I should like. They were scanned 20 years after the slides had been shot, and many of the slides had deteriorated.

We came up by train to Kidsgrove. Peter & I took the luggage to the yard to collect the boat while Ian & Wendy shopped. The weather was surprisingly kind after the fierce rain we'd left in London. We set off southwards from the boatyard at 14:25 and passed through Hall Green Stop lock and Harding's Wood junction, stopping just before Harecastle tunnel to rendezvous with Ian, Wendy and the shopping.

Harecastle Tunnel

After a wait for the tunnel, we went through then kept going past Stoke until we found a peaceful mooring before Hem Heath at 19:59. We were opposite a mine and next to a residential area disguised by bushes, with green meadow-sweet outside the saloon window.

Etruria Junction	Etruria Dry Dock
		Etruscan Bone Mill (above & below)
Stoke-on-Trent, the new....	... and the old

Rainbow

Barlaston

Shroppie horse-boat

We woke to dry weather, so decided to make an early start at 06:47. By the time we reached Meaford power station it was raining so we stopped for breakfast. A kingfisher perched very close to the boat for several minutes. After breakfast we went on to Stone, where we stopped part-way down the flight to take on water and for Peter & Wendy to buy new waterproofs. Then we stopped again at the bottom of the flight to go to The Star for a beer, before having lunch on board.

The Star

Stone locks

Aston

After lunch we towed a broken-down boat from Aston to Haywood, before arriving below Colwich lock at 21:03 for a pleasant sunny evening mooring. Peter cooked dinner

Armitage tunnel

Armitage

near Handsacre

We set off next morning at 06:39. The boat was listing to one side. We tried moving the anchor to the other side, but that wasn't enough to cure the problem. We found squadrons of kingfishers in the early part of the day and fallen tree-branches obstructing the canal in several places (bridge 69 was the first and worst of these). We fished out some of the smaller bits out & managed to get past.

near Fradley
Fradley junction

At Fradley junction we passed onto the detached length of the Coventry Canal. This makes and end-on junction with the Birmingham and Fazeley at Whittington, where we did some top-up shopping & had lunch. According to the log, a "gentleman in a canalside garden" told us that heavy rain was forecast for the rest of the day, which proved a false alarm. In retrospect I wonder whether it might have been Eric Wood, who lives there and whom we were to get to know in later years at "Nationals". We took on water at Fazeley BW Yard and headed towards Birmingham.

Lichfield	Hopwas	Tamworth
Fazeley Junction	Drayton Basset	Curdworth locks (above & below)

In Curdworth locks we met Peter & Audrey in nb Maid of Kent. We'd first met them a few years before on the Grand Union, and I also knew them (and still do) through the Thames Barge Sailing Club. They told of stoppages in Birmingham. They'd come down Farmer's Bridge on Friday, although a notice at Fazeley, dated 26th July, said there was a stoppage there. The alternative route was via the Tame Valley Canal. Curdworth is a lovely flight, but it's too shallow to moor for much of the Curdworth village pound, so we went on to moor at Broad Balk bridge at 20:40.