Monday 7^th October 2019

It poured down throughout the night and the drops, coming off the trees onto the roof were loud. The rain pattering on the roof is quite comforting. But not all night.

We left the mooring and called at the service point just across the canal and down the junction with the Caldon Canal. A few hundred yards after the service point is the first of the Caldon’s locks, a staircase of two. Although still quite early, and drizzling with rain, we had an audience.

The Caldon Canal was built to give access to the Trent and Mersey Canal for the limestone quarried at Froghall, some 17 miles from Etruria Junction. It was opened in 1779 with tramways constructed to bring the vast quantities of limestone down from the quarries a few miles to the east. Froghall soon became a very busy terminus.

Although there is a feeder channel that supplies water from Knypersley Reservoir, close to the head of the River Trent, into the canal near Norton Green, it does not supply the summit above Stockton Brook Locks. Therefore, the canal company decided, in 1797, to build a secondary branch from the Caldon Canal to Leek, the main purpose being to use the line as a feeder from their new reservoir at Rudyard. However, due to pressure from businesses in Leek, the channel was made navigable and gives what is known today as the Leek Branch of the Caldon Canal. The last ½ mile of navigable canal has been lost although the aqueduct over the River Churnet, and the Wharf House at the original terminus, still exist.

In 1811, a further branch was completed from the terminus at Froghall, down the Churnet Valley to Uttoxeter, 13 miles away. This branch had a short life, and in 1845 a railway line was built, much of the track using the canal bed.

The Caldon Canal, with its 17 locks and roundabout route, must have always been an obvious target for railway competition. However, the canal was owned by the North Staffordshire Railway Company, who ran an extensive rail system in the area, and presumably they saw no point in competing against themselves. But at the beginning of the 20^th century, a new railway line was eventually opened and inevitably, traffic on the canal slumped badly. The navigation then gradually deteriorated until it became more or less unnavigable in the early 1960’s.

Like so many other canals, a restoration group, the Caldon Canal Society, led a campaign and the canal once again opened in 1974.  

     

                                  

                                                                                                Etruria Junction    

                                                                    

                                                                                         Etruria Staircase Locks

The start of the canal from the junction with the Trent and Mersey, is an attractive setting with much of interest for any canal enthusiast. This changes as soon as the staircase lock is left behind. The area is one of industrial and urban decay and dereliction, however, with signs of regeneration. The housing is largely older terraces and very run-down. The regeneration takes the form of new housing and a lot of student apartment blocks with a large, Staffordshire College campus.

     

                    

                                                                           Industrial Decay and Dereliction          

                                              

                                                                                       and Urban Regeneration

The beautiful Hanley Park provides a respite with its Victorian decoration, although the park is, unfortunately, considered very much a no-go area after dark.

I held the boat after passing through lock 3, while Brenda visited the local shops, many of them ethnic owned in a largely ethnic area. More regenerated areas follow, interestingly, amongst one housing estate, sit two renovated bottle kilns, these are unique to the Potteries and were used for the firing of ceramics.

Ivy House Bridge 11 is a hydraulically operated lift bridge. Then, after passing through the next bridge, the scene changes dramatically, and lovely countryside is entered for which the Caldon is well known.

At bridge 14, we came across the sad sight of a cabin cruiser, burnt out and in a sunken state. We later found out, this had been somebody’s home, had been stolen and set alight just a few days before.

A disused railway branch, linking Stoke-on-Trent with another line between Leek and Uttoxeter, accompanied the canal and crossed several times. This is the line that led to the demise of the canal. It is always amusing to see these disused railway lines that caused the closure of so many canals, and yet today, the canals thrive, albeit with leisure traffic.

We passed through the pretty looking village of Milton, with its tight bends, and moored up just before Engine Lock 4, in quiet seclusion.   

We walked up to the lock. The lock is so named as there used to be a huge beam engine located nearby, used to pump water from mine working. Today, no sign exists of the structure. Similarly, the local villages were all originally pit villages but again, the only traces of the mines are depressions in the landscape due to mining subsidence.

Weather: after a night of heavy rain, and a damp start, it was a lovely day.

Day Total: 3 locks; 4 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 1 Lift Bridge; 0 Boat Lift; Day’s running hours 3.1

Overall Total: 750 locks; 1322 miles; 50 tunnels; 61 Swing Bridges; 12 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; total engine running hours 827.8hrs