November so far

We have been lucky to have had some great weather this month, the first few days weather was good enough to enable me to get some more of the paintwork repaired although there is still an awful lot to do!
We decided to have a few days out of the marina and took the boat out to cruise down to Burton U Trent. We had a glorious trip with beautiful clear skies and no wind, the remaining leaves on the trees were in all their autumnal magnificence against the blue skies.

We moored at Shobnall Fields, a really pleasant spot adjacent to the open fields of the parkland, this is a great mooring with a well maintained bank side and sensibly spaced mooring rings.
This mooring gives easy access into the centre of town (approx. 20 mins walk).
We awoke to overcast skies the following morning and the rain soon began to pour culminating in a torrential downpour. I sat outside a coffee bar under a veranda watching the rain whilst Lucia went for a look around the shops,

The entrance to Barton Marina

The Barton Turns formerly The Vine Inn
One of our favourite pubs

We decided to find a bus to get back to our mooring and soon located the required bus stop, only to find that Midland Busses do not allow dogs. We had no alternative but to walk back and thankfully the rain had eased so we didn't get too wet.
The next morning saw a return to blue skies so we set off retracing our steps back to the marina, fuelling up with diesel and coal on our way in.











Saturday 11th November
Today we drove up to Duffield to meet Keith (a friend from rugby) and his wife Cheryl, Keith had organised a trip to Cromford to visit the canal, railways and mills that form part of the Derwent valley world heritage site.
This is an incredible place, a mecca for industrial archaeology, the mill complex built over a number of years by Richard Arkwright who developed the process of cotton spinning on a truly industrial scale. His first mill was driven by a waterwheel fed by the water draining from the local leadmines, a shrewd move as the water flow remained the same all year round unaffected by the seasonal variations that occur in rivers and streams. The mill complex has been rescued from dereliction and is now a pleasant complex of shops and information points describing the history, the locations of several of the water wheels can also be seen.
We had a walk along the Cromford canal, this is no longer connected to the network, however it used to join the Erewash Canal at Langley Mills giving access to the river Trent. A lot of work has been done to restore the basin at Cromford and a short walk down the towpath brings you to the visitor centre at the junction with the High Peak railway, here the railway descended down to the canal via a steep incline, this is one of a number of inclines that took the railway right over the hills of the lower Peak district linking to the Peak Forrest canal at Whaley Bridge close to the point we reached at Marple back in September. This is a rare occasion where  the railway enhanced the canal network rather than destroying it through competition.
The inclines were served by steam winding engines located at the top of each of them, one of these still survives today at  Middleton with special "steaming days" held throughout the year.
We went for a walk up into the village and had lunch at the Boat Inn, a lovely old pub with good beer and even better food, I opted for the Chicken, mushroom and stilton pie, absolutely crammed full with chicken, this is a must stop if you decided to visit the area.

Lunch was followed by a visit to the incredible Scarthin bookshop and its vast array of volumes spread across  three floors, the building has suffered from a lot of movement over the years with twisted floors and staircases and is another "must see".

A warped window frame evidence of
 the movement of the bookshop building

We were grateful to Keith and Cheryl for the introduction to such a fascinating area and will return again to see all the things we missed. We returned to Duffield  before driving back to the boat after a thoroughly enjoyable day.