Gnosall to Norbury Junction (Shropshire Union Canal)

We are on the move today only a couple of miles to Norbury Junction as we have booked for Sunday lunch in the pub there.  They do a great carvery, not really the best day when it is boiling hot to be eating carvery but never mind it is absolutely lovely.

Under the Old Railway Bridge

We chugged off from our mooring under the old Railway bridge and on along the canal.

Lovely Morning on the Canal

Shelmore Enbankment with Flood Gate

We then came to Shelmore Enbankment which is a mile long and was the source of endless grief and expense to the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal Company in general and to Thomas Telford, the engineer, in particular.  It was an enormous task anyway to shift the millions of cubic feet of earth to build the bank; but while the contractors struggled to complete it, the bank slipped and collapsed time and again.  By early 1834, Shelmore Enbankment was the only unfinished section of the whole canal.  It was not until 1835, after 5½ years’ solid work on it and well after Telford’s death, that the embankment was completed and the Canal was opened as a through route.  There are flood gates at each end, to close off the channel in case of a breach.  These were closed each night during World War II as a precaution against bombing.

Junction Inn

At the end of this embankment is Norbury Junction where we moored up.  This canal was once the outlet for the Shrewsbury, Newport and Trench branches on to the rest of the Shropshire Union Canal system.  There was a long flight of locks from the junction down to Newport, but these are now closed, except for the top lock which is used as a dock.

Cafe at Norbury Junction

Old Buildings at Norbury Junction

We walked up to the pub, The Junction Inn for lunch and it was really busy.  We had a lovely carvery, a choice of four different meats, Gammon, Pork, Turkey and Beef and with the Beef they do a rare one and a more cooked one and there is a lovely choice of vegetables.

Suitably fed, we left the pub and headed over to the café which is opposite the pub and had a coffee sitting by the water.  It is extremely hot today so we then headed back to the boat where there was some shade from the trees so we sat outside for the afternoon letting our lovely dinner go down.

We are staying here tonight then off in the morning to Goldstone and we have 8 miles to do tomorrow, wow that’s a long trip for us, how will we manage!

Moored at Norbury Junction