On to Endon.

It was a fine misty rain when I took my first cup of tea on the stern deck around 7am but by 8am it had dried up and had the look of an overcast but dry day.

I cast off around 9 and headed up to the Engine lock (4) to set it for Rod to go through, once I had locked him through he stopped on the lock landing to lock me through.

Engine lock, 12' 1" the deepest on the Caldon canal.

I then headed off ahead again to work the first of two lift bridges taking my windlass with me and being pleasantly surprised to find that it had been ‘electrified’ since my Pearson’s guide had been published . We adopted our usual method of the first boat stopping and opening the bridge allowing the second boat through who then stopped and walked back to close it after the first boat had gone through, sort of leapfrog boating style.

Rod closing up after I had gone through.

Shortly after I came up to the second lift bridge, this one had the windlass control on the non-towpath side and would have been challenging for the solo boater due to a lack of landing area on that side, but as there were two of us I moored and opened for Rod to go through, I then closed the bridge to allow Rod to walk across it and open it for me to pass through, he then closed it again and returned to his boat.

We then cruised some open countryside before arriving at the Stockton Brook flight of five locks taking us up 41’ 1” to the summit.

Lockside artwork depicting various industries.

A masons mark on one of the lock chamber stones identified the
 individual mason, many different examples could be seen.

It was then back into open country, with some very pleasant views,

and this lovely house with its narrowboat on the cut.

It’s not often you get a traffic island on the canal, this one is what remains of a light railway swing bridge, long since disappeared.

A well placed arrow marks the direction you need to head to avoid gate crashing the moorings of Stoke on Trent Boat Club in Endon basin, which once saw Cauldon Lowe limestone transferred from the light railway to canal for transport.

We stopped briefly on the visitor moorings at Endon which were 24hour only before moving up a bit on to a towpath mooring ahead which gives us the option to stay longer if need be.

Current mooring:

Totals today: 3 miles : 6 locks : 2 moveable bridges

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.

A New Canal.....

...... for me, not literally!

Our stay at Hem Heath was quiet and undisturbed, the only problem for me was the close proximity of the housing opposite with their higher vantage point, it makes me feel like I am being watched. With no real reason to stop there another day we decided to continue on today.

We had a run of about 3miles through the outskirts of Stoke and the city centre before we would reach the first of the Stoke Locks, a flight of five lifting us 50’ exactly, according to my Pearson’s guide.

The graffiti began quite quickly, although some of it was quite handy.

Some of the old rolling stock had been cleverly given a new lease of life.

The huge incinerator looms as you approach the equally large bridge 109 which carries the A500, neither are pleasant to me although I guess some would find them appealing.

Beneath bridge 110 the nowadays too common evidence that someone may have spent the night here, the graffiti far less attractive than some I’ve seen, and also a rusty bike and scooter obviously recovered from the canal, welcome to Stoke!

Passing Dolphin Wharf there was quite a line of plastic cruisers, all lacking any love and attention and also lacking any current licences.

Nice to see someone has a sense of the important things in life though.

And this boat was different but I thought admirable, astro turf roof, wood shingled sides and a canoe as a rain cover over the bow doors, I loved it!

Evidence of a time gone by is still to be found in the odd place.

 I laughed at this sign in 2016 and I laughed again today, you couldn’t make it up, surely?

You don’t get to see much of the actual city but the Civic Centre can be seen from the canal.

And just after passing that we began up the locks, they have some interesting  approaches and views, I won’t describe how we worked through them, but work through them we did.

There were volounteers on the top lock (40)

 which was fortunate because going up was Rod myself and another behind me, coming down were four boats, the pound between lock 39 and 40 is short, so a bit of thought was needed to avoid a log jam, but it all went ok and we were soon making the tight turn onto new waters, The Caldon Canal, the turn cuts back at an acute angle and is (I would think) impossible for a boat of any length to do in one go, so a bit of reversing to achieve a nice three point turn ( no picture, I was busy!) before I pulled onto the service point. Rod had move just ahead to the 48 hour visitor moorings.

Having made the turn on to the Caldon canal, on the services point.

After doing the usual fill and empty and offloading rubbish I also moved up to the visitor moorings.

Current mooring:

 Totals today: 4 miles : 5 locks

There is a Statue of James Brindley (1716-1772) opposite our mooring which was unveiled in 1990, a nice spot for him to look out over some of his handiwork!

We took a quick wander around the corner to look at the Bedford Street Staircase locks (1&2), it’s difficult to get high enough to obtain a good picture of this type of structure but basically it is two or more locks joined directly together to raise or lower you more rapidly and save on the number of gates required, in this case the two locks have only three sets of gates instead of the normal four, there you go, clear as mud!

I am stood on a small footbridge between the upper and lower lock chambers
looking down at lock 1 the bottom chamber

Having turned around 180 degrees I am now looking at the upper chamber
with the middle shared gates in front of me.

 That's my explanation done!

A walk around Stone before moving on.

Saturday morning Rod and I walked into the town of Stone, I knew I had stopped here before, I distinctly remembered having a lunchtime pint in the Star pub, but I had no other recollections of it until we stopped at an auto parts shop, it all came back to me then, to read about my last visit     Click here.
There was a large market and some sort of drink festival going on, the drink festival was I believe set up in the park area just before Stone itself but the market occupied the whole of the High Street, and it was busy and obviously being enjoyed, we wandered around before returning to the Chandlers where I bought a new lightweight extending boathook, more money spent!

The weather was looking very dubious early this morning but it had stopped raining by 8:45 so we cast off around 9am, I lead the way out of Stone and past the very nice well maintained housing estate leading up to the first lock of the Meaford flight of four locks (31-34) which lift you a total of 32’ 5”.

The first lock was against us so I went ahead and turned it for Rod to go up, I also walked ahead and set the next lock (32) which was quite close by, so that Rod could go straight from one to the other gently nudging the gates open with his boat, he then went ahead to 33 pausing to open the bottom paddles for me on lock 32 so that I could also go straight in nudging the gates open.

At lock 33 there was a slight confusion as a moored boat had set it before moving off, Rod thought he had set it for him so continued in but once he realised his error he apologised and returned to lock them through, all was well in the end, the lock was extremely slow to fill due to a problem with sluices and paddles so it took a while for us both to get through.

Lock 33 ahead.

After eventually going through that one and the last, lock 34, Rod went on ahead while I continued up and then we had almost three miles of lock free cruising.

Nice little private mooring for two boats

We are in Stoke now, land of the potteries and the first sign of that was the Wedgewood building.

We passed through Barlaston where I had stopped before, if you want to read about that visit    Click Here

Rod was just finishing Trentham lock as I arrived on the landing so I helped him finish that and after a quick discussion left the decision on mooring or continuing up the five Stoke locks to him.

Trentham lock

Passing through Hem Heath.

Just around the corner Rod had chosen a spot to moor, I think he was considering my need to watch the Formula One race rather than feeling enough was enough, but I was more than happy with the decision, so here we are for tonight at least.

Current Mooring:

Totals today: 4 miles : 5 locks