The Sumpners Afloat

Joining the Caldon Canal

The week was forecast to be a scorcher, with temps from low to mid 20s. As we would not be moving much, this was a cue for me to do washing. I have been stockpiling some heavy things for just such weather, including Paul’s boiler suit and also some jackets and wintery trousers plus some handwashing of woolens that need drying flat. We were full to the brim with water so that wasn’t a worry.

We didn’t move on Monday as our “this’ll have to do” spot was actually pretty nice. The train noise was not at all bothersome and we had full, unobstructed sunshine all day, resulting in a yield of 8.2KWh for the day – not massive but a good solid chunk of juice.And great drying weather. I saw a meme on Facebook that went something like “Are you even British if you are not washing every single fabric item in your house?”. That’s me this week!

We stayed where we were most of Tuesday, until Paul finished work and then he suggested that we moved a short distance, through the lock (Sandon) and then moor at the top, opposite a field of lambs. We soon lived to regret that decision!

As I approached the lock, waiting for Paul to open the gates, I saw what looked like a bag of rubbish hurled into the water between me and the lock gates. I very quickly realised it was a dog and whacked the boat in to reverse and then Paul sped over, shouting “Reverse! Reverse!” (I was!) and as he dashed to rescue Bill (for it was Lucky Bill again!) he slipped and nearly fell in himself and I realised that I had picked up something round the propeller! It was a complete chapter of accidents! And we wondered why we had bothered to move at all!

Paul plucked our boy from the water – it was quite a deep lock and we reckon he probably fell 10-12 feet – and he shook himself and choked a but but was otherwise unscathed and soon playing tag around the lock with his brother. But it was lucky he fell where he did – although we have no idea how it happened. I wondered if Paul had perhap kicked him in by accident (it can happen!) as he fell with such force, but no. We’ll never know exactly what happened. But thank goodness no real harm done. If here were a cat I reckon he’d only have 3 or 4 lives left though!

We got ourselves all tied up and it is definitely a prettier view from the boat, so we settled down happily for the night. The railway line is nigh on impossible to avoid on this canal but it’s not too intrusive – I must have become inured to it? And to celebrate our new spot on Wednesday morning, I chucked the bedding in for a freshen up – it’s not really dirty having only been on a few days, but fresh bedding is always a joy. That’s an end to my washing for now, though.

I quickly made a Cauliflower Cheese for our evening meal while the day was still cooler and then settled down to a few admin jobs and to watch the lambs playing and suckling and coming down to the canal to drink. It always feels so sad to see them with their Mums, knowing what is to come……….

Paul removed the item that had jumped onto our prop the previous evening in his lunch hour – it seemed like some sort of rubber seal from a window. It was quite long and he had to chop it into little bits to get it off. This left me free to move on whenever I pleased as there are no more locks between here and our Thursday destination.

It pleased me to move off after lunch as it happens. Another scorcher of a day with a lovely gentle breeze. Again, we did not move far. I had marked a spot in my Trent & Mersey W3W database as mooring potential. I had marked well. A smashimg spot with good solar and very quiet.

I spent Thursday morning dealing with Electrika 2025 ticket requests generated by a great video from vloggers Paul & Anthony of Narrowboat Life Unlocked (which you can see below) about the show.

While I was working, a boat came by and I remarked to Paul that it was very quiet and then I noticed the name. It was NB Rowan – a serial hybrid conversion owned by our friends Jackie and Peter. They quickly pulled over and we had a quick catch-up. Their boat was featured at Electrika 2024. Peter had given a talk on the conversion and Jackie’s help had been invaluable to me on box office at the show. It was lovely to see them.

Then, late morning, it was time to set off for our nightspot that night, at lovely Aston Marina. It was pretty hot (around 26C) and I was very reluctant to leave our delightful spot but needs must – and I didn’t have to cook that night! The bottom seemed very near the top – which is to say it felt a bit shallow. It felt like the tiller was squishing through liquid mud rather than water – quite heavy going. I hope this is not a taste of things to come?

I was in the full glare of the sun at the helm and it was a relief when we finally arrived at Aston Marina. We’d been allocated a great spot, right by the restaurant and quickly got ourselves hooked up. We celebrated our arrival with a delicious cold beer with our lunch – unusual for us to be drinking at lunchtime. But it was delicious!

Paul finished work, our groceries arrived and then it was time to get ready to go out. We had a table booked for 18:30. Sadly they had changed to the Summer Menu, it being the 1st May. But the food still looked tempting. We took the crib board with us to have a few games, rather than stare at out phones!

When we sat down on the outdoor tables, we both thought it felt a bit thundery, but it wasn’t forecast. However the clouds gathered, it rumbled and there were some great forks of lightning (I love a good storm) and then the heavens opened. Luckily we had finished our main course, so Paul quickly popped the boys back to the boat and we scuttled indoors to have coffee and dessert. The food was nice enough but a tad expensive – I’d probably eat there again but I would not suggest anyone rushed to grab a table.

By the way – our solar yield for Thurs 1st May was 9.3KWh. We’ll soon be hitting the heights!

We left the Marina at 09:30 and were beaten to the first lock by another boat. Luckily he stopped off in Stone and we had a pretty clear passage though the Stone flight of four and then the Meaford flight of four. Water levels were a tad low on the Meaford flight, but that’s not unusual on that flight.

I noticed at Aston Lock that a wag had been at work. Stop planks (used for dewatering a section of canal) are tailor made for each lock. They often have the name of the lock to which they belong on them. The planks are also numbered so that they fit correctly and snugly. I imagine its highly unlikely that any two locks have the exact same dimensions, so it all makes good sense.

There were a lot of waterbirds on their nests – Swans and Canada Geese – more new life about to emerge. And I keep meaning to mention that the Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) blossom has been nothing short of phenomenal this year – like clouds of snowdrifts over the hedgerows. So beautiful. There’ll be Sloes galore this year for your gin!

We finally arrived at our nightspot in Barlaston at around 3:30. Perfect timing for tea and snooze! We’ve stayed here before – it’s a good stop before or after tackling the City of Stoke on Trent, being semi-rural and quite quiet (other than that flipping train line!). Barlaston has, since 1950, been the home of the Wedgwood China factory – now the “World of Wedgewood” – and a tourist attraction, with a big outlet shop. We left the Marina with our batteries on 100% State of Charge (SOC) and cruised all day, including 8 locks, which uses extra power with all that starting and stopping, and ended the day on 98% SOC. That solar is really starting to ramp up.

Funnily enough, we are headed for the previous site of Wedgwood production, at Etruria, which is where the Caldon canal branches off, the next day. Etruria is named after the region of Italy inhabited by the Etruscans – roughly Tuscany today. They were renowned for their art and pottery.

We had a lovely quiet night, but a bit on the short side. I definitely was not ready to get up at 06:30 when the alarm went off. But we wanted to get up to Etruria and onto the Caldon Canal and we did not want to be following anyone up the 6 locks, so an early start seemed to be the best idea. It was chilly – a very stiff breeze – back to coats weather! Reader – I even reverted to long trousers – unbelievable!

We set off at 07;00 and had a good run through, meeting just 2 other boats on our way up. The 5 locks up to Etruria are pretty deep, raising the canal by 50 feet (15.24m) so roughly 10 feet per lock – although the top lock is actually a rise of 13ft 2inches or about 4m.

Paul met up with canal journalist and podcaster Adam Porter on the towpath near the summit. We met Adam at Ortomarine’s Electric Narrowboat Trials, back in 2021 and he is one of our readers. I didn’t realise until I’d gone past, although he looked familiar. And I had only been chatting to him online the day before!

The pound between the penultimate lock and the top lock was about 2ft down, so Paul had to go up and flush some water down, which gave enough depth to safely navigate the very short distance between the two locks. The bottom of the two locks is adjacent to Shirley’s Bone & Flint Mill – built in 1857. It’s the only operational steam-powered potters’ mill in the world. And we always seem to miss a day when it is in steam. But there is a video here. It was used to pulverise flint and bone for the pottery industry (bone china). The top lock is pretty deep, if you recall. It’s number 10 on the list of deep locks, but some of the deeper one are re-builds, combining 2 locks in to one. You can see full the list of deep locks here.

Once at the top, we did a very sharp, pretty much 180 degree turn onto the Caldon Canal. Over the years we have seen people do that turn spectacularly badly but Paul did it like a pro – as you can see in the short time-lapse vid below.

The Caldon Canal then. 20 miles and 17 locks . Built to carry limestone for the iron industry and flint for the pottery industry, it has a set of staircase locks (where one lock runs straight in to another, with no pound in between), a rep for low bridges (they are!) AND a very low tunnel – just 5′ – making it impassable for many boats. Luckily there’s a handy gauge to tell you whether you will fit. I doubt we will, sadly.

The canal fell into disuse, due to lack of traffic in the late 50s/early 60s, but was revived in the early 70s, thanks to a vigorous restoration campaign . It runs from urban Stoke on Trent out to the Staffordshire Moorlands. It follows the River Trent and River Churnet valleys and is accompanied by the Churnet Valley Railway at times. It’s a very pleasant canal full of contrasts and with lots of historic buildings to spot.

We pulled over to avail ourselves of the services and then set off, along to the Bedford Street staircase locks There are some great archive pics of them here. You really have to think through such locks. When locking uo, you need to ensure that the top lock of the pair is full, which you then empty to bring you up in the lower chamber. Once you are up, you can open the gates of the top lock and then refill the top lock. In this manner, these two joined locks raise you 19 feet 3inches (5.9m). Due to some spectacular leakage from the gates above, I had to hang right back.

We made our way along the narrow-seeming canal and through another lock (Planet) where we had to stage a dramatic rescue! A moorhen chick had gone over the edge of an empty culvert and was unable to get out. He was clearly very frightened and getting tired and his mother was pretty distressed. We keep a net on board for such eventualities and Paul was able to catch him (although he tried to evade capture) and return him to the canal, where he swam off happily with his 4 siblings and his Mama. I imagine he got quite the telling off!

We continued through the delightfully restored and very Victorian looking Hanley Park, which covers 63 acres (25 ha) and is where we stopped for lunch. Suitably replete after a very early breakfast, we resumed our journey, past a very handy canalside Lidl and on through the powered (traffic stopping! Oh the power!) Ivy House lift bridge (Bridge 11). We agreed that there had been a great deal of redevelopment since our last visit. We finally pulled over on a handy stretch of Armco, opposite a copse with a beautiful bluebell carpet at about 3:30. Time for a cuppa and a snooze, of course! Day 1 on the Caldon. Done.

Sunday was a coat on/coat off sort of a day – boiling when the sun was out and chilly when it wasn’t. We set off after a very leisurely breakfast and crept along the green corridor formed by woods one side and the Trent on the other. We are really enjoying this canal – it’s like we’ve never been here before! It’s a touch shallow in places but otherwise quite lovely.

I remembered an incident from one of the other times we have done this canal. We saw a smart looking black briefcase in the water and set about fishing it out. We thought it might have been flung into the canal by a fleeing bank robber, stuffed full of cash. No such luck sadly! Just empty and clearly unwanted. “Hmm – what shall I do with this briefcase I no longer need? I know! Chuck it in the cut”!

Ted has thrown up a couple of times, once last night – which we put down to a surfeit of grass – and again this morning. He’s clearly chowed down on something vile on the towpath and made himself poorly. We thus stopped off in Milton for a quick pop to the handy Co-op to buy some chicken and rice. Bland food for him until it clears up.

As Paul was leaving to pop to the Co-op, a host of male cyclists came bombing along the towpath, in several clumps. They were riding a motley old selection of bikes – many with baskets, some Raleigh Shopper style (like the one of mine that my brother trashed!). I asked if they’d all borrowed their Mum’s old bikes and was told they were on a Vintage Bike ride for charity. Sadly no pics, but it did remind me of a time when we were high up in the Pyrenees, waiting for the Tour de France to pass though. Three hours standing in the sun at the very hottest part of the day for seconds of cycling! We stick to the telly now!

While Paul was gone, I spent the time sweeping and washing off the roof – the bit where the handrail meets the roof gets full of leaves and stuff. I wanted to clean it while it was dry as it’s more difficult when it gets wet. As I was scooting along the gunnels (which are may 4 or 5 inches wide) sweeping and mopping, I briefly wondered what I’d do if I fell in while I was alone. I figured it would be fine – I’d get myself out somehow, or paddle about until Paul returned! Luckily I didn’t need to find out..

We pulled over early, as Paul planned to carry out the Generator service that afternoon. We found a nice peaceful spot, overlooking pastures and hills and got settled. But if it’s not railway noise, it’s flipping Canada geese, clunking and flapping and scrapping noisily, and the field opposite the boat is alive with them! But that was that was us done for the week.

We have a couple of weeks set aside for exploring this canal, so next week will find us very slowly continuing our cruise along the increasingly rural Caldon. Can’t wait.

Period	Miles	Locks
28th April – 4th May	19	19
Cumulative 2025	120	46