Caldon 2012 - Consall Forge to Leek

Caldon 2012

Consall Forge to Leek via Froghall

October 2012

12 miles - 12 locks - 6 hours

The day dawned grey and dreary, with rain falling on an off from beginning to end.

Froghall Basin

Rather than turn round and head upstream we decided to spend the morning visiting Froghall and hopefully find some fruit in the grounds of an abandoned farmhouse nearby. 

The river section ends at Flint Mill lock which is being slowly converted into housing. WB, as usual, gave the height barrier a hearty wack  but we know better and set to, stripping everything off the roof to let us squeeze through the diminutive proportions of the Froghall Tunnel, the smallest on the system. 

Froghall Tunnel

I am getting better at the Froghall and ran through with just one light touch. Instead of the usual emptiness of Froghall basin we found two other narrow boats present, but they were both closed up and laying over. In the event the foraging wasn't great, just some blackberries and apples - but it could be worse. The rain eased off as we returned to the tunnel and back to Consall Forge - the only boat moving. We paused at the Black Lion, picking us a couple of pints of take out, and then back up the docile little Churnet.

Caldon Canal near Consall Forge

We found sloes, blackberries and rose hips, but all the pears were in private gardens and beyond reach. Then it was up the Hazelhurst three, finding the paddle to the side pound at the bottom lock firmly and emphatically blocked. No playing with the side pound this time!

 Bolted side pounds and waterspouts

Hazelhurst Top Lock

Then it was round into the very slow but pretty Leek Arm, the trees arching over the channel which expands and contracts like a pair of bellows. We stopped short of the Leek tunnel, mooring in the wide as the rain really started to fall. Its a lovely spot, if a bit shallow.

Voyage into England - book review

Voyage into England (1966)

by John Seymour

October 2012

Helen picked this one up for me on spec, and then worried that I may have already read it. She needn't have worried - it was new to me and provided very entertaining read for my latest flight back from Istanbul.

Its an account of a four month journey by John Seymour, his wife and three daughters aboard British Waterways Water Willow in the mid 1960's, 1965 I think. 

This book offers an interesting insight into a slice in time of the inland waterways history, a time when British Waterways was in its infancy and hopes of a return to commercial carrying remained very much alive.

The book records a journey inland from Nottingham, up the Trent and Mersey and then up the Welsh Canal to Llangollen. The return took the the Shropshire Union, the Staffs and Worcester and down the Severn to the Lower Avon (the upper hadn't been restored then). The route then included Birmingham, Warwick and then out to the Fens for a rendezvous with a BBC film crew.

 But it wasn't the journey as such which was of interest, much hasn't changed a lot, but it was the series of cameos which really grabbed me. Lets take them in turn:

1. His experiences through the Potteries included an evening with the Stoke Boat Club who were then based in the stub of the Newcastle branch. The branch is gone beneath a redevelopment scheme and the club has moved to the Caldon Canal which was itself closed at the time.

2. Then there are the accounts of the mines, steelworks and potteries in Etruria. He paints a picture of industry in expansion mode which has all been lost in the intervening 50 years.

3. Perhaps the finest section was on the Weaver. They descended on the old version of the Anderton Boat lift onto a navigation thronging with coasters. They then ventured south and made what was probably the last ever ascent of the Runcorn and Weston flight, rising through a canal which all has assumed were impassable.

4. Finally there are the encounters with the latter day carrying pioneers who were making a last ditch attempt to revive the commercial trade. All was optimism and Seymour was certainly an ardent supporter, but whilst many of his insights were almost prophetically accurate, renewed commercial carrying wasn't to be.

The book is probably not a classic, but its cameo's make it stand out from the crowd.

Towpath Tale - book review

Towpath Tale

by Arthur Truby

October 2012

I happened upon this 1978 publication published by The Blackcountryman by chanceas I was leafing through the waterways section of Aacus Books in Milford (Caldon Canal). Therewere slim pickings to be had but this little (32 pages) booklet was found sandwiched between two other books. The Blackcountryman is the magazine of the Black Country Society and this august body offers good provenance of an interesting article.

This booklet represents eight separate articles recounting personal recollections of the BCN in the Tipton and Oldbury area between the 1930's and the 1970's. Whilst not always entirely historically accurate, its a fascinating insight into the boating characters of the time, their craft and the local canal scene, all told in the authors own words. He offers an unusually intimate series of recollection of the canals as he found them and there are several locations which will never be quite the same for me as I pass them.

Perhaps the quirkiest tale concerns the gas lights through the Netherton Tunnel. According to the old boatmen the gas switches were turned on in the morning by specially trained pigeons, who were then released from the other end an night and flew back, shutting them off. Typical boaters humour!

What it lacks in length it makes up for in richness of content, just what you would expect of The Blackcounrtyman.

Small Boat to Alsace - book review

Small Boat to Alsace (1961)

by Roger Pilkington

November 2012

It seems a bit odd to be captivated by a series of inland waterway journeys undertaken so far in the past. In this case it was 1961, the year of my birth, and marks a change of direction for the Commodore.

Till now the Pilkington family has travelled north and explored the Scandanavian waterways but now her bows are turned south, propelled on her way by a new engine. Well, to tell the truth, its a second new engine as the first one seized after a few miles - but that's another story.

The change in direction also marks a sea change in the storytelling, and one for the better. In his last couple of books Pilkington has become a bit history heavy, possibly because these was not so much to say about the boating and the waterways. Here the journey is exclusively inland and follows the course of the Rhine upstream through Holland Belgium, France and finally through the Alcase region into Germany at Kehl.

That's the thing about these books, there is never any particular ending, just chapters of an unfolding journey with each book representing a year of holiday trips.

The Rhine is a fast flowing river, with a gradient of 1% which is precipitous for a navigable river and rolls along at between 7 and 10 knots - far faster than the lowly powered Commodore could manage. So their journey into the continent was via the extensive network of canals and lesser rivers which were still thriving arteries of commerce flanking the mighty river. There was a lot to see and write about, the navigations, the boats (including the tractor propelled barges), the geography and of course the history.

This is an area defined by war, with opposing forces repeatedly crossing and destroying it. The Romans started the trend which continues right up to the two German invasions in the early 20th century. This sequence of occupation and suppression has left its mark on the landscape and its peoples, and its all faithfully recorded in the context of its watery thread. Alsace sound beautiful, with its ancient town and friendly people and a rich history.

Whist the people appear welcoming, the picture painted of French officialdom is less than flattering, with rigid observance to illogical rules and stolid resistance to Commodores progression. In the end they were registered as an unladen coal barge, which seemed to do the trick.

There are plenty of twists and turns in this tale which will have you returning to the map page again and again. Its a fascinating slice through the geography and culture of the Rhine and feels rather like U2 when they emerged triumphant from their slightly barren patch of Pop and Zooropa. A comparison between U2 and Commodore - how odd!

Anyway - a really good book in a cracking series. I am making a concerted effort to buy ahead in this series of 18 (I think) Small Boat books and for simplicity's sake, my reading progression is noted in my first post "Thames Waters". I hope that this whets your appetite but does not trigger a bidding war on e-bay!

Caldon 2012 - Consall Forge

Caldon 2012

Etruria to Consall Forge

September 2012

14 miles - 16 locks - 8 hours

For me, this is where the trip really begins - Etruria, gateway to another world.

After all the hustle and bustle of the Trent and Mersey the Caldon is an oasis of tranquility. It always amazes me that at any given time in the autumn the number of moving boats barely scrapes into double figures.

Milton Moorings

I mentioned my plan to visit the Caldon to another boater yesterday and she pulled a face, put off by the unprepossessing start through Hanley and the slow passage along a shallow channel. And I have to admit that whilst the start has  a certain historic charm, it is a far cry from the delights which lie beyond Engine Lock. Like a very good book with a weak first chapter if you like.

 Engine Lock Caldon Canal

Summit pound - Caldon Canal

Lets get that first bit out of the way. I routinely stop at Etruria and have never had any trouble. Its a good, quiet mooring with handy access to a whole range of Trust facilities. Then its a sharp twist up the staircase pair with the Caldon doubling back on the T&M and sees the boat nearly 40ft higher and looking down on the roof of the Etruria Bone and Flint Mill.

The first of several Kingfishers

Next is Planet Lock, squeezed between the heath centre and the local FE college both of which commonly provide an audience who could be described as "quaint". Perhaps the best was the drunken opera singer giving it her all but today it was all quiet. The canal corridor is the focus of a linear redevelopment which is slowly transforming the area, but at the same time wiping away much of its character.

The danger zone is through Northwood to Milton but today it was quiet. For the first time we paused to restock at Milton - the last frontier of civilisation before the Staffordshire moorlands beyond. Its a bit of a characterless town devoid of distinctive buildings but well supplied with shops including an excellent bakers, a Nisa Extra and a Co-Op. Perhaps the big find was Abacus Bookshop which is a real gem with a broad range of new and second hand stock - an unlikely find in such a small town.

 Milton

Then is was on to the deep Engine Lock which I negotiated solo and Helen was jam making continuing on to pass through the two lift bridges at Norton Green, passable solo but only with care and much fancy rope work.

Stockton Brook Locks threw up the only other boats of the day, and a good basket of cooking apples at the pumping station.

Stockton Brook locks

We reached Hazelhurst Junction at 5.00pm and had a decision to make. Carry on to Leek, as we have in the past, or to start down the Churnet valley. We opted to make for the Black Lion at Consall Forge which would let us sample the delights of this most isolated of pubs for the first time. The canal is shallow and slow going but we finally were released onto the river and opened the throttle just for the heck of it, the GPS soaring to a heady 5mph! 

Black Lion - Consall Forge

With the light gone we wasted no time in getting into the pub which was host to a select clientele of five regulars and two dogs. Amazingly they were able to opper us food and we had a good meal served quickly on sizzling platters washed down with pints of Black Hole and Hobgoblin for Helen and an Old Rosie for me.