nb Bridge Street

Friday 31 st August 2018 I was awake early and had done a few jobs before Brenda woke. The tiles were fixed to the bulkhead above the hob using Stikaflex, just need grouting now.   River Trent viaduct                                                                                        with Repton on the skyline We walked into Repton crossing over the River Trent on an impressive viaduct. The river has grown no end over the time we have been following it, from the small, dirty stream we first saw in Stoke-on-Trent. Repton is reputedly one of the oldest towns in England and was once the capital of Mercia. There were many lovely old buildings in the village from differ...

Thursday 30 th August 2018 We left our moorings at 9:30 for another slow cruise to Willington where we are meeting with Martin, Michelle and Abbey. We are not so much bridge hopping but are definitely village hopping. Just outside of Burton-upon-Trent, the canal passes over the River Dove on an impressive 12-arch aqueduct. The River Dove has its source on Axe Edge to the west of Buxton and so flows a long way before entering the Trent just north of Burton. This also marks the boundary between Staffordshire and Derbyshire and it is guarded by a World War II pill-box. Is this to keep the Staffordshire lot in or the Derbyshire lot out? There are actually many of these pill-boxes, and tank traps on bridges, around the canal system. During the Second World War, in case of invasion, the canals were to be used as lines of defence.      So at last we pass out of Staffordshire which we e...

Wednesday 29 th August 2018 A Happy Birthday to our Manny who is 13 today and so becomes a teenager.     We set out to do a few jobs today. Not many have been done these last few weeks it seems. Fitted the backdoor trims which makes it look so much better. Then started to fit an extra lock to the back door but snapped my M4 tap. It was only a cheap one from Winsford Plant Hire but it has done well considering. Will have to get another. We went for a walk to see Claymills Pumping Station although it was not open. It is housed in a grand building and we must return, preferably on a day when it is in steam.            Claymills Pumping Station...

Tuesday 28 th August 2018 Had a late start today and it was only the dog waking us at 8:50. Those grandkids are tiring. After breakfast we walked up to B&Qs which is just a ½ mile or so away. We have decided to tile the bulkhead above the hob as grease and oil often splatters there, especially after frying. Also we are going to put added security measures on the front and back doors. Harvey was so funny. We were up in the night a fair bit with him being sick and baulking, so I suppose he was as tired as us. When we got to B&Qs they didn’t allow dogs so we put him in one of their trolleys. He was quite happy being trundled about and then went fast asleep. Neither of us thought to take a photo, but it would have been a good ‘un. After dropping the bits and pieces off in the boat we went to find the town centre, it was a long, long way away.        ...

Monday 27 th August 2018 We left our mooring at 8:30 for a slow cruise into Burton-upon-Trent. Just two miles and one lock, and moored up on the 48 hour Marston Brewery visitor’s moorings. We met up with Tracey in a pub just up the road, for lunch. It took her just 1 hour 10 minutes to travel the 50 miles from Middlewich. After a lovely lunch, she drove us all back to the boat, picked the kids things up, and off they went home. It was very sad to see them go and the boat seems empty without them. But it’s quiet. This afternoon we have done nowt. I was really pissed this evening though. I had wanted to see the Claymills Pumping Station for a number of years. This is a restored Victorian sewage pumping station built in 1885 and comprising of four beam engines and five Lancashire boilers. Only to discover that they have been in steam yesterday and today and are now only open for static viewing on Thursdays and Saturdays. Really, really disappointed to have mis...

Sunday 26 th August 2018 We have had today what the kids would call a “chill” day. The weather forecast was for rain from 9am until 3pm. The rain started at 10 minutes to 9. We wanted to have the kids picked up tomorrow somewhere about the A50 to make it easy for Tracey. But we want to stop in Burton-upon-Trent so it is there they will be picked up. It’s just a few hours until Burton so we will do that in the morning when the weather forecast is better. So we spent the day doing our own things and we all watched the DVD “The Greatest Showman”. Even I kind of enjoyed it. The rain cleared up in the afternoon so we went for a walk around the Branston Water Park and called into the Bridge Inn. We passed a huge gravel quarry that must have been a ½ mile long. We have an OS map dated 2004 and it isn’t even on it. We forgot to mention the other day, when we stopped outside Rugeley for our breakfast after taking on water. We were moored on a fishing marker numbered 114...

Saturday 25 th August 2018 We had our breakfast again of what has become a favourite. Bacon and cheese on crumpets. Then went for a walk and took photos of Fradley Junction.   Fradley is the junction between the Trent & Mersey and Coventry Canals and would have been a very busy place in the days of the working boats. Our canals as we know them today were never built as a national network. Rather, each canal was built individually for a specific, local need. As such, each canal guarded their water supplies jealously. At Fradley, the Trent and Mersey canal would lose water to the Coventry Canal so they built a clever little culvert that leads from the top lock, forms a small reservoir, before returning to the canal at the bottom lock, so by-passing the Coventry Canal and only losing one lock of water to them as each boat passed through, rather than a continuous supply. We visited the service...

Friday 24 th August 2018 There is a very narrow section of canal in Rugeley just beyond bridge 66. The last time we were through here was in February when Brenda was doing her practice run after her helmsman’s course. Then, we met another boat coming towards us and, with moored boats on the other side we had to move right over into trees and bushes and did damage to the paintwork. Obviously we did not want that to happen to Bridge Street so we left the mooring at 6.40am, with everybody else asleep, to get passed there early before anybody else was on the move. We cruised very slowly, in tick-over, as the engine is so much quieter to the water point just outside Rugeley. We took on water and then moved a 100 yards and tied up for breakfast.                              ...