The old school house in Fenny Compton village.
Sun flowers standing like soldiers watching the boats go by.
Single beam footbridge, very basic.
The footbridge view as you cross, carefully.
The end of a pleasant days cruising.
Barley Mow & Boat Inn. The canal ran right past these pubs and in fact the car is on what was the towpath. I have taken the pic from the towpath as is now and to my right the canal makes its way through the new tunnel and then along a deep cutting dead straight. The bushes on the right belong to a house built after the canal was re-routed but next to it remains the original canal w`house that had stables so the horses could rest while the boatmen drank in the pub.
right of the church itself the public footpath you are alredy walking goes off through a gate and as you walk into the field you are in the old canal bed. Look back and you can see the old tunnel.
things like this old footbridge hidden away amongst the trees and bushes that have grown in the old canal bed. I have actually climbed down into the canal bed to take the pic. Then just 50yds
further is this old bridge where the canal passed under a farm access road/track. After this it was difficult to trace the canals route but after walking across a field again it appeared buried beneath a hedgerow.
on the footpath bridge that can be seen in the above picture the only surving part of the arm can
be seen in the picture above. 
Newdigate Mine when it closed in 1982. The mine shaft was sunk in 1898.
not these pictured, at bedworth Hall. 
and below you can see his calling card a mini-pac of chocolate buttons that he gives to all he meets. Nice to see you Andrew.
The anchor i bought for the R. Severn trip is now stowed away perhaps not to be used untill next year, still i shall need one sometime so it`s not wasted money.
Don`t think anyone will be to bothered if this lot below escapes preservation, it`s Rugeley power
station. So south we head as we are also prevented from going to Burton on Trent because of the River Trents intrusion at Alrewas has caused flooding. Shame really because i wanted to go down through Leicester where one of my boys is farming.
On the way back from market canalside is the Boat pub with a wonderful cooking range which apart from the surrounding brickwork is original.
the canal swings west and we arrive at Gailey. The tower here lockside looks as though it was part of some long demolished castle but was in fact built by the canal company so the toll collecter had a good view in both directions of approaching boats. The toll on coal was high as this was the main cargoe and therefor gave the canal co bigger profits.
You see above the lockgates next to the road bridge with just enough room to cross for locking but not enough for the normal straight lockbeams, i say normal but these L shaped beams are quite common on gates near bridges all over the system.
Wide and in this case you get what it says on the tin WIDE. It came about when the canal was built past Tixall Hall and the owners wanted their land to run down to a lake and not a canal.
canal by 200 yrs so that puts it back to the late 1500`s. It had at one time stabling for 12 boat horses and in the past has been a butchers shop and a slaughter house.
Inside the floor of each bar is on a slightly different level so if you have one to many blame the floor. Out back in the garden are some large excuse me a mo Now look Swannie my old 
mate i know i`ve just fed you half a loaf but i`m in the middle of my blog. Right the garden has 2 giant umbrella thingy`s with infra red heaters so us smokers can sit out.......and thats all i am saying on that subject.
These are the 3 dry docks that is now the base of the Canal Cruising Co. said to be the oldest canal boat hire company on the system. Talking of old, Stone was the home of Eva Morris who died Nov. 2000 6 days short of her 115th birthday and for a year prior to her death was the oldest recognized person in the world.
So leaving Stone we cruise down the Trent&Mersey stopping overnight at Weston upon Trent 
and as we prepare to turn right at Gt Haywood Jct another new marina of 200 berths has been built.
as in the pic Parrots flying as free as a bird....sorry. Also in one barn amongst many just hatched birds of all types 6 Rotwieler pups were in with a Vietnamese Pot Belly Pig.
Racoons and even a very large Owl all go to make this a pleasent stop off and also there`s a farm shop and being boaters themselves with a boat for hire you will be made welcome.
are waiting to go through the Harecastle Tunnell which is the left portal the right hand one is the original that suffered subsidence. Eight or so boats go through at a time in each direction and as it gets low in there i had to move my bike to the rear of the boat.
Perhaps when we get some decent weather i might get a better sunset pic.
the propeller. The rubber seals inside that shiny gold bit decided they would let the water drip in, now as you can imagine water inside a boat is not a good idea. The engineer said it was unusual for the seals to go so soon and after checking the engine alignment was ok his only thought was it had not been properly installed from day one. Anyway all ok now and my engine bay is bone dry. Being delayed by Johns alternator problem meant we were in Middlewich for the annual festival which was quite nice and attracted a lot of boats. All over the town at variouse venues some being halls and others marquees music of all types was being played. Many of the pubs had continuse entertainment from the friday to sunday night.
The parade through the town was small but a lot of effort had been made on costumes. A fun fair was on hand for the youngsters and many stalls of all types filled the local playing field
Down by the canal a large grassed area housed a large cicus tent that gave anyone a chance to juggle and try their hand at variouse cicus stunts. Also in this area was the horse boat society giving a talk and demonstrating harnessing and the control of the horse using only voice commands, very impressive and most enjoyable.
Anyway in the last week or so we popped up the Caldon canal and being in the Churnet Valley the reception for TV, phone and internet was poor and at times non existant.
Coming back we had to use a section of canal that a river also used and because of the heavy rain of late.......so much for flaming June..........the river name of which escapes me at moment was in flood and we only just got under the bridge you can see Nb VALERIE moored by at the top of the blog and then i had to remove stuff from the roof. So having cleared the bridge by no more than a half inch, yes half inch it was that close the next 2 miles was hard goimg against the flow and was i glad to see Tina/Andy at the lock where the river flowed into the canal waiting for me with the gates open as the lock moorings were under water!
Anyway i am sitting in a library doing this blog because with so many pictures to show it is so much faster on a landline with Broadband speeds. Where we are moored at the moment is a good internet signal so i must get a picture of Molly and tell you about a bit of trouble with the boat on the next blog.
This is `HOLLY` a hire boat of Middlewich narrowboats. Now Holly is famouse all over the canal system as earlier in the year she was stolen by a chap who hired her leaving his van in the boatyard car park and paying by credit card and i am told having hired from the yard before.
Tina holding an Owl that the handler told us was capable of taking a Fox.
Ahoy shipmates. Lot of boaters have Parrotts on board.
Kings Lock pub was our local during the festival. The top picture was also taken at the pub.
it would be any good to put my dinette place mats on. Now as you know place mats are larger than CD`s and would keep falling off the boat so i cut the boat in half and as you can see i now have a home for the mats and coasters.
