Great Haywood (Trent & Mersey Canal) to Radford Bank - Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal

 

Wednesday 1 September

We have had a nice weekend at Great Haywood.  On Friday our friends Sue, Steve and Monty came over to see us and we had a lovely afternoon together, lunch in the cafe, a walk along the canal to the old pack horse bridge where Monty had a paddle in the river and then a drink at the pub, it was so nice to see them and to spend time together.

                                                                   

                                                                                                

We did some trading over the weekend and got a few sales, it was a dry weekend and sunny at times so it wasn’t as busy as we hoped it would be, but on Bank Holiday Monday it perked up and it was a busy day with people and sales so all turned out okay.   We had a few visits to the lovely farm shop and got a few treats.

Tuesday we got the bus to Lichfield and had a lovely day wandering around there. We went to the Cathedral and lit some candles and also went to The Tudor of Lichfield cafe where we had their famous teacakes made from Granny Burns-Mace 1936 secret recipe, we have had them before and they are delicious with lashings of butter!

                                           

                                                                                                      

Today (Wednesday) we are on the move just a few miles to Radford Bank.

We set off from our mooring and reversed back into the services to get water. Once we had done that, we turned under the bridge and back onto the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal.  We went over the River Trent on an aqueduct and on along the canal and under a bridge and then we were at Tixall Wide where there was a few moored boats.

                                 

We went through here with a lovely view of the old gatehouse and on we went.

We were then approaching Tixall lock. It was full, so I walked up to the lock and emptied it and opened the gates so Kev could bring the boat in.

                             

It is not a very deep lock so we were soon on our way again.

The canal was very quiet and we didn’t see many moving boats.

We went under a few bridges and along this stretch the railway runs alongside the canal.  A couple of trains came flying by as we were chugging along.

                                                   

    We went 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 at Baswich with the town centre of Stafford.  The restoration project aims to rebuild this link but whether it will ever be done remains to be seen!

                                         

We were then approaching Radford Bank and there was a boat following us who obviously doesn’t know how to go slow and came right up behind us moaning that we were going too slow and was trying to bully Kev, so Kev just went slower, we were passing moored boats and coming to a bridge so you should slow down anyway, he said he was in a hurry!

                                                    

We went under the bridge and moored up, we were very lucky to get a space as it was chocker block with boats, usually there is only one or two here but we managed to get in okay.  The boat behind us then passed us and was name calling and abusive as he went by and a few choice words were exchanged! It’s a pity people think they have to speed along and not enjoy the canal at a leisurely pace like we do and try and intimidate people as well, but if he thought that would work on Kev, he was sadly mistaken!!

There is an Aldi nearby so in the afternoon, we walked up there to get a few supplies.

                                                 

Tomorrow we are off into Stafford Boat Club and leaving the boat there for a week as on Friday we are off to Scotland for a holiday we should have had last year!  We are staying in Glasgow on Friday night, then Saturday morning we get the train to Fort William for 6 nights.  We are going on the Jacobite steam train and having a visit to Neptune’s Staircase of locks and maybe a boat trip.  We are really looking forward to our trip and let’s hope the sun shines, so no blogs for a week until we get back and start travelling again.