Retracing our Steps

Tuesday 8^th September 2020

We had a big day planned today, in terms of miles at least, always looking to put ourselves in the right place on Friday morning for the big climb up 27 locks into Birmingham. Having taken advice from several people on narrowboat forums, the consensus seemed to be Curdworth, which is very close to the south end of the M6 Toll – although I had never noticed the canal in all the times I have driven that way. Counting back this meant that we would need to be well down the Coventry on Wednesday night, which in turn would require us to make good progress back towards Fradley Junction by this evening. The challenge is that once past Burton-Upon-Trent there is a long stretch of very unattractive canal for mooring, running alongside the A38, followed by the stretch of the Trent between Wychnor and Alweras. Alweras itself was probably going to have little free space, from what we saw going through a few days ago, and that meant that we would have to rely on finding a mooring in the short stretch between the end of Alweras and Fradley Junction. Even that would mean a journey of at least 20 miles, which is quite a lot in a day, especially factoring in a fair number of locks.

Consequently we got up early, fed the dogs and started our journey by half eight. Our first task was the two big double locks – Swarkstone and Stenson, at both of which we were on our own. Although you need to beware of getting stuck on the cill, in other respects going down a lock is easier than going up – the rush of water into the lock when the paddles are opened on the way up produces much stronger undertows and currents, and it is very hard to hold the boat steady and avoid crashing into one gate or the other. When we got to Stenson Loulie elected to get out with the windlass, rather than be left to rattle about in the lock.

After that we pushed on through Willington and on towards Burton. We were conscious that the dogs would need exercise, so after Willington Loulie got out and took them for a mile or so along the towpath, which here is well away from the A38 which shadows us all the way along this stretch. I picked them up soon after the canal had crossed the river Dove – the aqueduct we were on is about 250 years old, but it is modern by comparison with the old road bridge alongside, which was built by monks many centuries before the canal arrived.

The old monk's bridge over the River Dove

We travelled past Burton, with a single lock near the centre, and towards the far side we moored. Loulie took the dogs for another walk, and I went about half a mile to a Morrisons which I had spotted on the map, to replenish our supplies of food and wine – I had a heavy burden which I just managed to carry back to the boat. We carried on – three more locks took us down to the stretch alongside the A38, and then Wychnor Lock saw us back on the Trent. It now seems really very small, compared to its width down below Sawley.

Alweras Lock took us back on the canal, with evening approaching. As we had expected there was nowhere to moor at all, even though we are now getting quite used to mooring close to other boats. So we carried on up Bagnall Lock at the top of the village, into the short stretch before Common Lock, which marks the start of Fradley Junction. There were a couple of boats moored along there, and though the bank looked a bit soft we investigated and found a perfectly reasonable mooring, on pins, and exactly where we had wanted to be ready for the next adventure towards Brum.

Mooring below Fradley Junction

Mabel on the towpath

TODAY: 9:45 HOURS. 20.2 MILES. 9 LOCKS.

Voyage: 48:55 HOURS. 91.5 MILES. 55 LOCKS.

In the Footsteps of the Legions

Saturday 5^th September 2020

It being Saturday we wanted to be sure to get the papers, so before setting off we walked the dogs up into Tuppenhurst village, to a one-stop shop there, about a mile. I like these trips into random small towns and villages from the boat – these are not special places, tourist destinations, just little towns and villages which happen to be close to the canal, but each one is unique in its own way, and special to the people who live there. As we were walking back we met someone with a small dog who asked us if they could introduce it to our pack, as they were trying to get it used to socialising with other dogs. Of course our lot just loved saying hello.

It was only  a couple of miles from our mooring to the first lock of the day, Wood End Lock. Wood End Turn, which is just beyond the lock, is the southernmost point of the Trent and Mersey canal. I mentioned in the last blog that the canal runs down from Preston Brook, round the bottom end of the central highlands and then back north to the Trent. Well Wood End is the point where it stops going south east and turns to the north east.

Wood End Turn

Wood End is also the start of the Fradley Junction locks, as far as the CRT are concerned – they had a volunteer manning this lock, and checking the licences of each boat going through. After Wood End there is still about half a mile, round the Turn and down to the junction proper, where there are five locks in quick succession. Fradley is the point at which the Coventry Canal takes off south, and we will be coming back here in a few days time on our way to Birmingham. For now, however, we were sticking with the Trent and Mersey. The Junction has been developed as a local tourist destination, with a nature reserve, pubs and restaurants, quite a nice lively place, even with Covid on the go. There were volunteers helping us through most of the locks, and it all went smoothly.

Fradley Junction

Below Fradley we went through a couple more locks before coming to Alrewas. This is a very nice canalside village, but the main point of interest, and the reason I knew of the place, is that below the village the canal joins the River Trent and the two become one for about a mile. It is not very dramatic – below Alweras Lock the river comes in from one side and you travel along what looks like a normal canal, if fairly wide, until the river leaves you over some sluices before Wychnor Lock. However this assumes normal river levels – when the river is high the navigation is closed between those two locks, so I regularly see warnings of closures between Alweras and Wychnor. It was good to finally pass these places, though happily the level was normal for our journey.

The Trent between Alweras and Wychnor

One of the nice things about canal travel is the variety of scenery you pass, from rural idyll to city squalor, and we had an abrupt change now. Along the Trent from Alweras to Wychnor Lock is entirely rural, with a couple of scattered houses and a church overlooking the river. Then after the lock you are suddenly running closely parallel to the A38 trunk road, so close in places that there is not much more than the towpath’s width between you and the lorries. The road is arrow-straight here – it is the Ickneild Way, though I doubt that a Roman Legionary would recognise the road now.

The Ickneild Way in 2020

About half way along this stretch there is a marina with a hire boat company, and Saturday is clearly changeover day, as we passed a constant succession of boats heading out. Beyond the marina the canal veers away from the main road and passes a water park before going through the brewing town of Burton-Upon-Trent. As with other places like Stoke, the canal was a major contributor to the growth and success of Burton, allowing them to ship their beer out to markets across the country. It’s a pretty dull town to pass through, though we did have some amusement when a boater, clearly blind drunk (he had a bottle of gin next to him) veered across the canal, tried to moor in a tree and wobbled away behind us.

It was starting to get late, and we were looking for moorings. The A38 had rejoined us on the other side, and we did not want to try to sleep within earshot of that traffic. After we had turned away we struggled to find anywhere very salubrious until we reached the village of Willington. This had a long line of moorings, but they were mostly full. One spot looked promising until we realised it was opposite a winding hole. We tried again a little further on, but we found that the bank had fallen in, leaving debris preventing us getting close. However by pulling forward a bit from here we eventually got a snug berth, though close to other boats and beside a busy towpath, with a railway just behind for good measure.

TODAY: 8:00 HOURS. 17.7 MILES. 14 LOCKS.

Voyage: 34:10 HOURS. 67.8 MILES. 47 LOCKS.