GNOSALL / COWLEY / NORBURY JCT.

Over the last 3 yrs of cruising although i have by no means visited all the canals i have come to have a few favourite stretches but not a complete canal that is until my return to the Shropshire Union or the Shroppie as it is affectionately known to boaters. Sixty six miles and 47 locks make up the Shroppie

This return visit at a much slower pace has brought home to me what is so different to other canals. For one thing it must be one of the straightest with very few corners or bridge holes that restrict spotting oncoming boats and the way it was built to plough through whatever got in the way unlike other canals that followed the contours of the land the Shroppie goes through deep cuttings, across man made embankments and tunnels through solid rock.

Telford (1757-1834) was not just a builder of canals but also churches, bridges and roads like the London to Holyhead (A5). His intention with the Shroppie was to link the Birmingham canals with the sea at Ellesmere Port on as straight as possible time saving route by digging cuttings and using the soil to create embankments across lower ground avoiding previous canals that twisted and turned following the land contours that added miles and time to the journey.
Embankments like Shelmore that took 6 yrs to build and all because Lord Anson would not allow the canal to pass through Norbury park on lower ground causing Telford to skirt around Shelmore Wood on an embankment 1900yds long and 60` high in places.
Woodseaves Cutting 100` deep is today still likely to suffer land slips.

The Shroppie was the last canal that Telford built and fully opened in about 1835 upon the completion of the Autherly Jct. to Nantwich section that connected to the section to Chester.
The new town of Telford was named after him and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1834 just before the Shroppie fully opened.

One of many high bridges that span the deep cuttings.

Above is the entrance to Cowley Tunnel just 81yds long but as you can see in the pic below it has

been cut through solid rock, no brick linings as you would see in other tunnels and the picture below shows the exit and looking at the solid rock each side i`m wondering if this tunnel was longer at some time, mental note to check, unless someone out there can answer.
After Cowley Tunnel i made a brief stop at Gnosall below to get some bread and milk and have
some lunch.

Below entering the Shelmore Embankment past the stop lock for use in case of a canal breach the
gates at each end can be closed stopping a large section of the canal draining.
The end of the embankment brings me into Norbury Jct. where the Newport branch left the mainline. At the right front of picture NB Valerie and the arm can be seen behind but is very short and used for moorings and just one of a very long flight of locks remains in use as a dock.
When i arrived here i was moored 500yds back with poor Internet access but i learned that in the basin Wi-Fi can be picked up free courtesy of the boat yard so i moved for my second night.

No sooner had i left Norbury than i entered another cutting this one being Grub St cutting and below another of those high bridges unusual in that from the past it still has within it a short telegraph pole. In the past telegraph poles ran the length of the canal.

BREWOOD to CHURCH EATON

Brewood below is a nice little village to stop off for a few supplies as besides the usual mini-supermarket it has a butcher, greengrocer and tiny bakers.


Wheaton Aston bridge 19 must be one of the cheapest places on the cut to fill up with diesel at 46.9ppl. The black pointed roof at the top of the steps is a small garage roadside that must get agricultural sales and one of the fill hoses comes right down to the canal. The garage also sells boat chandlery and offers engine repairs.


A nice 10 min stroll from High Onn Wharf at bridge 25 is the village of Church Eaton. The10 mins actually stretched to 25 as i leaned on a 5 bar gate watching a buzzard gliding back and forth across a field looking i guess for a meal. My thoughts were he might get lucky and give me my first sighting of a magnificent bird of prey striking, but it was not to be as the crows started to chase him off. Nice way to pass the time on a sunny day all the same.
Church Eaton or Eitoine as in the Domesday book of 1086 has just the one pub remaining of 5 over the centuries, the Royal Oak is now owned by a village consortium but i wonder after seeing so many pubs shut down if this will be enough for it to survive.
St Editha dates back to the 11C and is believed to be dedicated to the daughter of Alfred the Great. It has 5 bells in the tower and a stained glass window that takes up most of the east wall.





Looking around the graves this one caught my eye as it states the Reverends wife was 512 years old when she passed on. Just as i was reading this a local came by and told me the story was the Stonemason put the 1 by mistake so filled it in putting the 2 straight after but time and mother nature have caused his infill to outfall with the 512 showing today.

Through Gailey & onto the Shroppie

Away from Penkridge cruiseing to Gailey and in the picture below the lock is through the bridge and the fine looking tall round structure is the old Toll collecters office and from those high windows he could see boats approaching so the old working boats had no chance of slipping through the lock without paying their dues.
Leaving the lock i notice some of the Viking Afloat hire fleet sit waiting to be craned in after some winter maintenance, won`t be long now before hire boats are all over the canal system are once again conjesting the waterways i and other liveaboards have had to ourselves all winter.

Autherley Jct. is where i turn right onto the Shropshire Union Canal after passing through a stop lock the difference in water levels being inches not feet. (sod the EU it`s feet&inches)
I love the Shroppie with it`s high bidges and narrow cuttings and a distinct absence of sharp bends in fact i think it must be the straightest canal i`ve travelled.
I cruised as far as Brewood and in fact moored away from the visitor moorings as they are enclosed by trees on both banks so a mile walk back to access the village was worth it.
The following morning was sunny so a good chance to chop some logs and looking up i saw a familar boat approaching, Chas & Ann were coming through the bridge on Moore2Life so the kettle went on and a nice hour was passed chatting on board NB Valerie.

Don`t know what Chas is doing at the stern but Ann has the bow into the bank. Chas &Ann have been cruising with Sue&Vic on No Problem but No Problem is having some work done inside and will be moored for a while. I know many of you follow Sue`s blog but at the moment it has a bug that is causing a few problems so be patient and i`m sure Sue will fix it soon.
New link to the NO PROBLEM blog is HERE.

NO PROBLEM SITE MOVED

Just to let the many many followers of the blog "NO PROBLEM" the site has been infected by some bug and Sue has for now a new address.

NBNOPROBLEM.BLOGSPOT.COM

MARKET DAY AT PENKRIDGE

Passing through Acton Trussell below the next overnight stop will be Penkridge and from past experience i know the market is not only large with 200 stalls it also has an indoor auction of well just about everything and an outside auction of eggs & small livestock.
The following pictures show some of the outside auction items, thought these might be better than pictures of the general stalls as we all know what they look like.


Education as well a female ferret is called a gill........I didn`t know.




Eggs of all kinds for sale including Goose, Duck, Quail etc and some labelled for hatching, now me being a townie well ok so now i`m a water gypsy, i thought eggs had to be kept warm to hatch so something else to read up on, where i`m gonna find time to do all this studying beats me as i seem to have a full time job as a roving canal reporter.


Right that's caught up a little bit more and talking of catching up Mike Perham on his round world solo trip is near Australia. Check him out.

The stolen boat Que Sera Sera is still missing and more details can be found here.

IT`S THERE TO SEE at 3mph

Quite amazing what there is to see ambling along at 3mph. Unlike speeding through the countryside in a car the slowness of a boat gives so much time to take in what`s around you. A Kingfisher in the 1st pic (click&enlarge) with his golden brown breast reflecting in the water.

The second pic i believe is a Sparrowhawk but being no twitcher i wait to be corrected.

The 3rd needs no description except "sweet"










Now our 4th pic shows the good old reliable Heron, nothing strange spotting him but just after i
took the pic i decided to moor up and sitting on the front deck with my cuppa the following morning i noticed a lot of activity in the trees back along the towpath. It turned out to be a Heronry spread over several trees. If you click the pics i have circled some but take my word for it there were 10/12 flights in and out of the nests but i`m no David Bailey so you can see the best of 8 pics i took.
I was pleased to moor here for the night as this is the first Heronry i have seen. Any other boaters passing the location is towpath side Hazelstrine Bridge96 on the Staffs&Worc canal but take a good zoom camera as the trees lay back from the canal.

CATCH UP TIME

Not had a very good Internet signal lately so will try and catch up with the journey.
After the saga of the leaking tank i`m glad to report all is well and the woodwork is drying out nicely even below the floor the paper i`ve been putting down the inspection hatch is not absorbing any water.
So after being imprisoned at the boatyard, and i know it was only 24 hrs but not having the freedom to move at will is not pleasant, a short cruise brings me to Fradley Jct. where i turn left onto the Trent & Mersey canal and up through 2 locks i decide enough for today and moore up in Fradley wood away from the hustle and bustle of the junction.
Setting off again passing through Handsacre & Armitage and below what used to be Armitage

tunnel just a road bridge remains and the next view are the towers of Rugely Power Station which tells me that the canal side Morrison's supermarket will be waiting to re-stock the galley.
After an overnight stop in Rugely i decide to move on and find a nice country mooring for a few days and looking at the map i decide to stop at Little Haywood which is on the northern side of Cannock Chase. Walking across the Chase is wonderfully peaceful with miles of woodlands to wander through, just look at the tree below shaped by nature and time.

Back on the boat the kettle on and just noticed the Hot air balloon passing directly overhead.

Time to get the chainsaw out and cut up some of the wood that seems to be plentiful around here
so much so this narrow boat was fully loaded perhaps being shipped off for sale somewhere.


Moving on through the lock at Gt. Haywood brings me to Gt. Haywood Jct. and a change to my original plan to carry on up the Trent & Mersey before cutting across to the Shroppie at

Middlewich a route perhaps i will use on the way back from the Llangollen and who knows where. I do intend to cruise the Macclesfield and Peak Forest Canals but as they are north of Stoke off the Trent & Mersey my thoughts are it would be better to branch off west go into Wales and come across eastwards to Middlewich and south onto the Maccie & Peak.
So after taking on water and dumping the rubbish at the services by the building to the right of
the bridge i reversed and turned under the bridge onto the Staffordshire & Worcestershire canal. Just a short way along and the canal widens at Tixall where there is enough water to do a figure of 8 if you so wished.

Moored up i spy John & Fiona on EPIPHANY. We have been passing each other for some time now.

Moving on across Tixall Wide stands the Gatehouse now used as holiday flats.

Further along the magnificent tunnel mouth that takes the railway line across Shugborough Park.
Well that's caught up a little on my journey but i am in fact a lot further on than the blog but i will try and bring the blog more up to date soon.

WET WET WET

The 5 senses are Sight,Hearing,Smell,Taste and Touch but the one that played a part in the title of this blog was Touch. At my usual bedtime of 1am ish i toddled off to bed and as i kicked off one slipper it was my foot touching the carpet that gave the game away because it shouldn`t have felt cold and wet. On with all the lights out come the drawers below the bed and water every where. The hot water tank had sprung a leak, and that`s what i will call it as califier or califerer or whatever the stupid name they call it at the end of the day it`s a hot water tank.
As luck would have it a boat yard was just an hours cruise so the only thing to do was turn off the main feed and the water pump and go to bed, at least the bed being high meant i had somewhere dry to kip.

The hot water tank (above) had split on the seam that joins the rounded bottom to the tank, you can see the black marks and further up just out of picture the seam had split open.
The boatyard had to go and collect a tank from a wholesaler but at least the job was started and finished the same day. In day`s gone by i would have done the job myself but do you know what i just couldn`t be bothered so i let them do all the labouring.
The only thing i did was to strip off the bed down to the frame and in the pic below you can see where the tank was located with the 2 white metal straps to hold it in place.

the worst area of water damage was to the left of picture and below shows the water stained end panel of the wardrobe at the foot of the bed.
The water under the floor was quite considerable and an industrial wet vac was used to remove it but still water is finding its way to the back of the boat and days later i`m still using newspapers to soak it up. Movement of the boat causes the water to find its way around the tons of concrete slabs used as ballast and end up below the rear hatch under the stairs eventually the paper will do its job and just now have taken a look and the last batch of paper i put in yesterday is just damp so good news.

This is the yard that done the work Streethay Wharf near Litchfield on the Coventry canal and i do recommend them for good service providing me with a berth for the night and and electric hook up.

Hope you are like me still following youngster Mike Perham as he sails solo around the world.