Stafford Boat Club to Tixall Wide - Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal

 

Thursday 29^th July

We are on the move today after spending an enjoyable couple of days at Stafford Boat Club, it’s a great place and everyone is so friendly, we will look forward to our next visit.

                                                 

It was a dry morning but rather windy as we untied and thought we would have trouble getting off the side, but we were lucky and the wind seemed to ease for a bit and off we went.

                                                        

  We went on for a short while and came to Radford Bank where there is an Aldi very near the canal, we needed some shopping so we moored up and walked along the road to the store.

We got our shopping, took it back to the boat then set off on our way again. 

                                                    

                                                                                            

We chugged on along the canal and passed the Stafford Riverway Link which is the new name for the old Stafford Branch canal or River Sow navigation which formerly linked the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal with the town centre of Stafford.  There used to be a lock here and the branch was a mile long and unusual in that it was not a canal but the canalised course of the River Sow.  There is a restoration project hoping to restore this link but whether it will ever be done, who knows! 

                                                

                                                                                           

We went on, under a few bridges then came to a small aqueduct over the River Sow, an early structure by James Brindley, carried heavily on low brick arches.  

The canal was quiet today and we didn’t see many boats moving.  We were then approaching Tixall lock.  A boat was just going through so we had to wait, but this is a shallow lock so it was soon our turn.

                                                 

 As we were going down the lock, a boat came along waiting to go up, so we went out and left the gates open for them.

                                                     

We went on along the canal and then came to Tixall Wide, which is more like a lake than a canal, said to have been built in order not to compromise the view from Tixall House which unfortunately is gone and just the Gatehouse remains.  This massive square Elizabethan building dates from 1598 and is four storeys high.  It stands alone in a field and is considered to be one of the most ambitious gatehouses in the country.  The gatehouse is now available as a holiday let. 

                                                                         

We moored up in a lovely spot at Tixall Wide with great views of the gatehouse.  We are staying here for a few days now to chill out and meet up with our Audlem family then on Monday we will move down to the junction at Great Haywood and onto another canal, The Trent and Mersey.