Thursday 3^rd October 2019

We left the mooring at 9:30 and quickly passed through Haywood Lock and the junction. It was a lovely day, clear and sunny if a little cold. The level of the flooding had receded dramatically overnight.

Weston-upon-Trent looks to be a nice little place; we must stop here sometime. There is quite a lot of new housing surrounding the old Weston Wharf and you can only wonder how much longer the wharf, with its cottage, workshops and slipway, will exist before it gets swallowed up, demolished and redeveloped as more housing. Funny to think, 30 years ago nobody would have dreamt of living beside a canal. The thought would have horrified them. Nowadays, canal-side housing are des-res and command good prices. However, people paying good prices to live beside the canals then tend to object to old, traditional and somewhat run-down, canal related worksites that have, and in many cases, still provide a service to the canal.  

Weston Wharf

Beyond Weston, the road and railway are never far from the canal. It is always surreal whenever a fast train thunders past next to the canal and disturbs the peace and quiet.

At Sandon Lock we met with another boat travelling in the opposite direction. The lock is deep with a 10-foot rise. They tried to be helpful but didn’t really know what they were doing and one of the guys started to lift the gate paddle until he was stopped. Ground paddles should always be lifted first and, only when the water level in the lock covers the gate paddle, should it be opened. Opening a gate paddle before half filling the lock, can lead to flooding a boat and the possibility of sinking her. It is a dangerous practice.

We presently came to Stone and moored right at the end of the bank pilings before the locks. Lucky we did, as all the moorings further up were full.

We like Stone. It is full of character and history and has a nice, friendly feel to it. We walked into the town and visited the hardware shops and bought a few things for the boat with projects and improvements in mind. Evolution as we call it.

Most canals have mileposts along their length. These were used in the days of commercial carrying as tolls were charged according to the amount of cargo being carried, and the distance travelled. All the mileposts on the Trent and Mersey Canal are of cast iron and have a small plaque cast into them that bears the legend “R & D Stone 1819”. It wasn’t until reading an information board that I learnt they were all originally manufactured by the company of Rangely and Dixon in their workshops in Stone. This company subsequently ceased trading in 1829.

We have been enjoying passing these mileposts. They count down our distance towards Middlewich. Fradley Junction was 67 miles from Preston Brook, the western terminus of the canal. There is a marker in Middlewich giving the distance as 17 miles. The post in Stone is 45 miles away, 28 miles from Middlewich.

Weather: a pleasant, autumnal, day.

Day Total: 5 locks; 9 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; Day’s running hours 4.3

Overall Total: 733 locks; 1309 miles; 50 tunnels; 61 Swing Bridges; 11 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; total engine running hours 817.1hrs