Barlaston and beyond

Yesterday I went for a walk around part of Barlaston, the upper part, it would seem that the village is split by the railway and canal and I decided the upper part looked more interesting to me.

Walking up the hill I passed a lot of empty buildings that formed the now closed Wedgewood Memorial College, I think it was made up of five ‘Houses’ this one is/was Estoril House.

The green at the top of the hill with its Centenary signpost and War memorial

Lots of substantial properties on the walk to the village and some nice little rows of houses once you got more into this part.

Opposite this row was one of two pubs I found, this one being the Duke of York.

All the shops etc. seemed to be near the railway at a more central point overall.

The Wedgewood name appeared often and the estate was open for visitors but I didn’t fancy the walk along the lane without paths to reach it.

Beyond this point it opened up quite a bit to fairly new modern looking housing so I turned around and headed back passing the Parish Church of St. John The Baptist, bell ringing practice seemed to be happening which was pleasant J if you like that sort of thing.

I called in the local store and bought a newspaper and headed for ‘The Plume of Feathers’ which is canalside and boasts beneath the pub name (and just about everywhere else inside) ‘with Neil Morrisey’ (of men behaving badly fame?), I seem to remember seeing a documentary of when Neil and an associate bought the pub a few years ago and evidently today (Sat 27^th) he was going to be in attendance to celebrate its 1^st anniversary  of reopening after a refurbishment, whoooeeee, I didn’t stay the extra day to see him. I had a pint of Pedigree (50p dearer than the last pub) and read my paper before heading back to the boat. It was quite a pleasant pub though and the menu looked ok, it was a buff coloured sheet of paper with writing on it J (the snacks were called Neil’s Bites L)

Today I headed off towards Stone, it was overcast and cold, but wrapped up well with 8 locks and a flask of coffee to get through I wasn’t worried about the cold!

Not too much to say about the journey although I did like this tiny bridge hole at the first lock, it’s taken a bit of a bashing.

There are the four Meaford locks first 34-31 a total rise of 32’ 5” (or fall in my case today) before you enter Stone first of all passing a very modern housing estate with some private moorings and quite substantial houses.

And then 4 more locks to get to the far side of Stone which is very famous among the canal community, a market town and the original headquarters of The Trent and Mersey Canal Company, I will be looking around a bit more tomorrow but here’s my approach up to tonight’s mooring.

Joule's Brewery, no longer there, it's now in Market Drayton

The Star Inn pub alongside Star Lock the last of the four Stone locks

Once I got sorted at my mooring I looked on Google maps for a fish and chip shop, it was 436 feet away, if you could walk straight across the canal and through the houses, it's actually only about 5 minutes by road, so that's where I headed.

Tonight’s Mooring

Totals today: 4 miles : 8 locks