5th to 11th May – continuing along the Caldon Canal
Another 4 day weekend! Bank Holiday Monday saw us setting off at around 10:30, heading for our first lock of the day – Engine Lock – a pretty deep one at that! It raises you 11′ 3″ (3.42m). I walked on to set the lock while Paul readied the boat for the off. By the time I had it empty, Paul was able to steer straight in.
There were a couple of swing bridges – one powered, but over a very minor road. Where’s the fun in that? And then it was on to the 5 locks of the Stockton Brook flight. It’s a nice flight, nicely spaced and with a total rise of 41 feet (12·5 metres), There is a sadly decayed but imposing red brick water works, built in 1884 – once the property of the “Staffordshire Potteries Water Board” as the rusty old entrance gates proudly announce. It’s in a sorry state today, sadly
It was good to read that the building’s fortunes are hopefully on the up. There are plans to turn it into a community hub with meeting rooms, art exhibitions and possibly a cafe too. It looks as though work has commenced. If you are interested, you can read more on The Red Haired Stokie’s blog, here. For anyone interested in Staffordshire, his blog has a wealth of really good reads.
We had finished Stockton by 12.40 and then decided we’d look for somewhere to moor for lunch. As we approached the old canal arm near Endon, home of the Stoke on Trent Boat Club, we saw an unusual sight. A small roundabout in the middle of the canal, with an arrow directing you to go to the left of it! It seems that it was once the pivot point for a now long-defunct railway swing bridge. It’s not unique (I can think of one other canal roundabout in Birmingham) but it is certainly a curiosity! And there was a Canada Goose nesting on it. Safe from predators!
Shortly past the arm, there is a nice long stretch of Armco and we bagged a spot. As it happened, we had a few odds and ends of Electrika tasks to do, so we decided we might as well stay the night here too. It’s nice and quiet. We were joined at the mooring by a very proud Duck and Drake and their brood of 12 ducklings! Utterly adorable – I flipping love this time of year.
We had a very quiet night – there was actually quite a hard frost – and decided we would not move on Tuesday. Paul had quite a heavy day workwise and I had plenty to occupy my time, what with Electrika admin and a project that I am working on to turn an earlier blog of ours into printed form.
It’s a nice spot and the boys drew lots of “oohs and aahs” from people passing along the footpath, which, by the way, is excellent. A great hard surface. Unfortunately that makes it a bit of a target fro speedy boys on their very fast (and probably illegal) electric bikes.
On Wednesday morning, i couldn’t help but notice that the clouds were in an unusual formation. It reminded me of pleated cotton wool – if any of you are old enough to remember that? Actually, I’ve just had a quick look. You can still buy it – but goodness knows what it is used for.. I’ll let the picture speak for itself – see below.
I set off at about midday. We were aiming for the services at Endon. The plan was for Paul to do the loo while we watered and dumped the rubbish, during his lunch “hour”. The plan worked well and we soon set off again towards Hazlehurst Junction, where a set of three locks takes you down onto the Froghall Branch.
We were turning right and onto the Leek Branch. Progress was pretty slow as the water levels were low. Bridge holes in particular were shallow. I was starting to worry about getting back to Stoke, where we plan to leave the boat on the Bank Holiday weekend, to go to Crick.
The scenery is getting progressively more beautiful as we near Leek. I had forgotten how lovely this canal is. Eventually, we arrived at the junction. As you approach, you’d genuinely never suspect there was a junction there – obviously we knew there was one – but it’s pretty well hidden until the last minute.
I made the turn and we moored on the Armco just past the bridge. It was shallow and we could not fully get in, but it will be fine for one night.
We slackened our ropes before we went to bed on Wednesday – just in case the water levels fell even more, but actually, the levels improved overnight. I guess no boats were dragging water off the summit to lock down onto Froghall Branch overnight, so they had a chance to recover?
We stayed until lunch time and then moved on. We had a grocery delivery the next day at a bridge (Bridge 6) and we needed to be in position. The cruise was quite short, but we passed over the Hazlehurst Aqueduct, which carries the Leek Branch over the Froghall Branch. We had a very heavy session, many years ago, in the Holly Bush pub down on the Froghall. We were moored on the Aqueduct, on the Leek branch and had a drunken stumble home – up the steps in the pic below! The folly of youth eh?
I have to say, it was not the most satisfactory mooring, far from it – we were unable to get very close to the bank because it was so shallow, but there’s very little traffic, so we felt it would be OK, as a temporary measure. What it lacked in adjacency to the bank, it more than made up for with the view. Some beautiful trees (I particularly love a Copper Beech) and some rather attractive houses. Lucky people to live in such an attractive spot, overlooking a winding hole – like their own personal lake!
Our shopping delivery to a bridge hole worked out rather well – even though I’d forgotten to include a What 3 Words reference. That done, we set off for the terminus. It was a lovely day – warm from the outset and no nasty chilly breeze for once. The route to the end of the navigation is very rewarding. There was one point that I said to Paul “At this moment, I couldn’t be any happier”. It’s a reminder of why we chose this wonderful life. The peace, the trees, birdsong and sunshine all combined to evoke that feeling pf happiness.
We went through the short, but very sweet, Leek tunnel and winded – this is the last winding for boats longer than 45 feet. It is very clearly marked! Once we had winded, we reversed back onto the very end of the Armco and tied up. I reckon there’s room for 5 X 60 footers here? Shortly after we moored, another boat rocked up and proceeded to play their music loudly enough for it to be an irritant. All day. We are not fans of listening to other folk/s choice of music, preferring peace over AOR.
I love the bridges on this canal – sturdy and purposeful – but they are not the easiest to steer through – particularly when the water levels are down. They seem to deposit you in the shallow water on the offside, somehow?
We went for a very nice bike ride with the boys, down to the end of the canal and around the park below it, which was a bit hairy – probably not meant for bikes? We then cycled back to the boat and on past, towards the tunnel. After a bit, we decided the boys had probably had enough in that heat and cycled back to the boat, where we rewarded ourselves with a nice cool beer. I am currently particularly fond of Peroni Capri, a refreshing, summery beer.
After a very quiet night we set off – me on the bike with the boys and Paul steering, back towards Hazlehurst Junction. It was a lovely day, sunny and warm with a light breeze. Perfect for a bike ride. I arrived at the tunnel and there was no easy place to get the bike back on board so I decided to go over the top – we knew there was some Armco there. Mistake.
The path started off OK and then became incredibly steep – too steep to ride and when I reached the summit, there were a couple of gates and then very steep steps down the other side – lots of them. In the end, Paul came and helped me down the steps. Lesson learnt.
We cruised back to the junction, stopping on Hazlehurst Aqueduct to put the drone up. At this point, the Froghall branch runs beneath the Leek Branch, having locked down 3 locks from the junction. The Aqueduct was built in 1841 and is more impressive from below, on the Froghall Branch.
Droning done, we pressed on towards the junction. I nipped off to set the lock while Paul made the turn and we were soon whistling through the 3 locks.
I had an unfortunate accident at these locks many years ago, to my embarrassment, caused by lack of concentration on my part. We were locking up. On the bottom lock, the balance beam actually swings out past the access steps. I was pulling the gate, walking backwards yakking away when suddenly my feet went from underneath me and I tumbled down the steep steps – just as the boat was entering the lock. I did a weird kind of mid-air manoeuvre to avoid falling under the incoming boat, and landed on my hip and right hand. It was pretty ouchy and lesson learn the hard way. CONCENTRATE AT LOCKS!
We were coming off the Caldon and heading towards Kidsgrove on that trip. My hand began to swell up and was so painful, I really thought I’d broken something. It continued to swell until it resembled an over blown up rubber glove! We arrived at Harecastle tunnel and decided to pop to A&E, just to get it checked. My friend Ellie and her then boyfriend, Mark, were on the boat with us, on holiday.
Ellie came with me in the taxi to A&E – no mobiles or Uber in those days – Directory Enquiries and a phone box! We arrived at the Royal Stoke, which was having a very busy time. We definitely saw a lot of life that day – including a chap who’d been attacked with an axe, streaming with blood and someone in Police custody who tried to make an escape, which meant high drama and much chasing! And it was only when we finally got back (nothing broken tsk!) that Ellie told me she was a bit phobic about hospitals. That’s a true friend, eh? Still friends to this day, too. The hand took a while to get back to normal and that bruise on my hip lasted months – the biggest bruise I’ve ever seen.
Locks done – without incident – we passed under the aqueduct, when I had a bright idea. Let’s have lunch at the Pub! The pub being The Hollybush. This was deemed a jolly good plan and we tied up and secured the boat and set off for the pub. Of course, it was a nice summery day and the pub was heaving. Paul popped in to get us some drinks and then to order some food, He returned say it would be a 45 minute wait! Annoying – especially as I had plenty of food on board, but the order was placed – and it was quite pleasant sitting there people watching.
After lunch we continued our passage along this very attractive canal, finally settling on the VMs at Cheddleton for the evening. As we had cruised along, we had seen puffs of smoke, heard a train whistle, and at one point could actually smell a steam train, but could see no sight of it. Better luck tomorrow, we hoped.
During the evening, we heard the Pompey Chimes from the local church. It plays the first two notes on the 1/4, four notes on the 1/2, six notes on the 3/4 and the full 8 notes of the Chimes on the hour. I also heard it at midnight at 05:00, during the night. Just so you know!
Cheddleton is famous for its Flint Mill, now a museum, which includes two water mills, a miller’s cottage, two flint kilns, a drying kiln and outbuildings. As I mentioned last week, flint was used in the pottery industry, and the Caldon Canal served the many potteries in Stoke. It wasn’t until the late 18th century that the complex was converted to grind flint, having previously been a corn mill, with mentions of a mill on the site dating back to 1253.
Our first (and to be fair, only) upset of the day was at Cheddleton Locks – a set of two. The pound in between the two locks was very low. We could not decide what to do. Logic told us to flush a couple of lockfuls of water down. Logic also told us that water levels on the summit were already low. Eventually, we decided to give it a go. Paul emptied one lockful and then refilled it. I slipped in to the lock and then and went out into the pound on that lockful of water and – ground to a halt. More water was required and the next lockful was enough to get me off the bottom and trundling into the second lock with a sigh of relief.
It was another warm sunny day and we really enjoyed the beautiful countryside, moorland like in parts and then heavily wooded. We were very close to the R Churnet and also the railway line with which we share the valley. The Churnet Valley Railway is a heritage line, running on Wednesdays and weekends in the summer, with lots of very enterprising specials like Murder Mystery events and Indian and Cream tea rides. We so wanted to see a train today.
We saw a large deer running across the fields at Oakmeadowford Lock – a great and quite exciting spot. And then we called in at the water point, by Black Lion Footbridge (B 49). Oddly for a water point, there are absolutely no rings or bollards at which to tie up while watering. There is an adjacent fence pence, where countless people have clearly tied up instead. You could tell by the wear and tear on the base.
The Black Lion in Consall was doing a roaring trade – a great location right by the railway and the canal. But we had getting to the terminus in our sights as we needed to empty the loo, so were weren’t tempted. Probably a good decision – not that there was anywhere obvious to moor, that did not already have boats on it!
And it was then we heard it – the unmistakable chuffing of a steam train. Paul was made responsible for video and I took stills. We had a grandstand view and all the people on board, eating their Sunday Lunch, waved at us. It was gone in a flash but what an amazing sight. But the smell was the best thing for me. It hurtled me straight back to childhood – yes. I am that old!
The canal is mostly narrow from hereon in, and heavily wooded. Very pleasant in the hot sunshine but not so good for solar! Our yield today will be lower, despite all the sunshine, because of the leafy cover. But it’s not the end of the world. It did feel like a long trudge to the tunnel – which we won’t be attempting.
In the pics below is the gauge that you pass under as you exit Flintmill Lock. It looks pretty close but what you can’t see from the pic, is that the red bits were actually trailing along our handrails at the bow ened, so it was a no brainer. For me, anyway. Which is a real shame, as the basin is lovely – although it could really do with some rubbish bins. There are bins by Hetty’s Tea Shop, but they are very clearly marked f”or Cafe use only”. So we’ll have to hang onto our rubbish until we get back to Endon. Not very pleasant in this hot weather, but we store the bags under the deck so we can’t smell them at times like this!
There is water and a toilet emptying point in the basin. No boats there, of course, other than a trip boat, because most folk can’t/won’t make it through. The water will have to wait but we are pretty full, thankfully. However, poor Paul had to put the loo on a sack truck and trundle it round to the basin to empty it. He’s my hero! We managed to resist the Tea Rooms!
So there it is – the end of our first full week revisiting this lovely canal. Not one to miss in our opinion. Next week will see us slowly making our way back up towards Stoke. It looks like another sunny week – although we did have approximately one minute’s heavy rain very early this morning! (Mon 12th May) I know because I had to get up to shut the bow doors and had hardly retuned to my bed before it stopped! A shame because we really do need some serious rainfall.
| Period | Miles | Locks |
| 4th – 11th May | 16 | 14 |
| Cumulative 2025 | 136 | 60 |