Tyred out.

James Brindley had kept watch and our stay at Etruria was one day longer than anticipated, the shower at the facility was put to use saving depletion of the on board water supply.

Yesterday we planned to set off early to avoid the onset of rain forecast in the afternoon, so at 8:30 Rod cast off to move round to the staircase lock and text me when he was going in to the bottom chamber, I was all ready and started my engine when Rod rang and said there was an emergency stoppage at lock 3 so the staircase locks had been closed as well. Investigation revealed there was a car tyre jammed under one of the bottom gates and the pound between the locks would need to be drained to allow workmen to enter the water and free the gates.

One man has a go.

Then another

This is what you pass over as you leave the top chamber
of the staircase, luckily it's below the bottom of your boat!
the pound drained to allow access up at lock 3

We pulled Rods boat back onto a mooring and as time passed and boats arrived we decided the move was off, the blockage was eventually cleared by 1pm and boats started to move but the weather was by then very poor.

Today we tried again with more success.

In the bottom chamber, the double height middle gates in front.

Having both gone through the staircase and the offending lock 3 it was a meandering cruise around the outskirts of Hanley and through Hanley Park, there are lots of lovely moorings along this stretch but they get very little use, it is known to boaters as ‘bandit country’ so few risk stopping overnight, to be fair it didn’t look that bad to me.

We  carried on through new housing developments and past these bottle kilns which looked a bit out of place, but no doubt they remind people of the past industry.

The next obstacle was the mechanised lift bridge (11), Rod pulled onto the moorings and opened it for me and I went through then moored and waited for Rod to come through before closing it, a bit of drama as Rod struck something underwater which cut out his engine just as he was entering the bridge, luckily it restarted and he carried on through ok.

Rod preparing to open the bridge

It is evident you are on a James Brindley canal by the wandering around following the contours  to avoid having cuttings, embankments and locks where possible, it was also shallow and narrow so progress was sedate, the few meetings we had with other boats meant someone had to give way but it was quiet so there weren’t many of those.

It was around midday when we glided through Milton, there were few ‘suitable’ moorings so Rod chose to continue and not long after the canal opened up a bit in open countryside with some nice piled edging and we moored up so we could wander back to Milton later.

Current mooring:

Totals today: 3½ miles : 3 locks : 1 moveable bridge

A walk into Milton revealed a not very exciting village but a few shops so I bought some bread, bananas and milk, the pub in the village did not appeal and looked like it might be closed.