Friday 10th August 2018



Sarah went off for her run after which we had breakfast. We then walked the ½ mile or so to Middleport Pottery which we heard were displaying the Weeping Windows Poppy sculpture.

This is a cascade comprising several thousand handmade ceramic poppies which were originally seen pouring from a high window to the ground below at the Tower of London in 2014, as part of the installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red to commemorate each of the 888,246 British and Commonwealth men who died in World War I. The display, with depleted numbers of poppies, has since been touring different venues around the UK. This is to be the last before they go on static display at the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester.

Although small, it was a dramatic display that was both dramatic, upsetting and humbling.



                                                                 “We shall remember them”.








We then walked back to the boat, in increasingly heavy rain, and quickly set off to reach the point where Sarah was to leave us.

Both Brenda and Sarah were very much conspicuous in their absence during the 3-mile cruise due to ever heavier rain. But I did get a cup of tea and two chocolate biscuits handed to me through a closed hatch.

We duly came to just above the junction with the Caldon Canal and moored up. Sarah and I walked up to see the staircase locks at the entrance to the Caldon Canal and then went to visit the Etruscan Bone and Flint Mill Museum only to find it no longer open, other than on days when their power plant is in

steam. Apparently they have had their funding withdrawn. What a bloody shame. It is only to be hoped that this does not continue. As it was, the whole site looked a bit forlorn.  

We then carried on, past the boat, to see Wedgewood’s Roundhouse. This structure, the only one still surviving, marks one of the corners of Josiah Wedgewood’s original factory.



Tracey arrived, with Eva, at the nearby Toby Carvery to pick Sarah up and take her back to Middlewich before she drove back home.

It had been really good having Sarah with us and we are missing her already. Our thanks to Tracey for putting herself out and coming through to pick her up.

We then had a pint at the Toby place and were about to order food when it again started to rain. There was no facility for eating inside with dogs so we returned to the boat. Surely this state’s a case for establishments to allow dogs in at least some part of the premises. After all, they had missed out on business during a slack part of the day.

Brenda and I, then had quiet time. Harvey slept.



Day Total: 0 locks; 3 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 0.9

Overall Total: 142 locks; 302 miles; 11 tunnels; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 164.7








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