Tuesday 16th January 2018
We arrived in Willington mooring right next to the Dragon, a lovely pub with a large beer garden crammed with tables, must get very busy in the summer.
This is a 48 hr mooring but, as with most of these, this is extended to 2 weeks during the winter months.
We planned to stay here for the rest of the week as the weather forecast was threatening us with every sort of winter weather over the next few days.
It started out wet and windy, culminating in a howling gale on Thursday night, the boat was shaking and I had to get up at 4 am to remove things off the roof before the wind did it for us! Poor old Scruff was terrified and was restless all night. Following the wind and rain the weather settled down and became much cooler with the canal freezing over night on Saturday, then Sunday brought heavy snow eventually turning to rain in the afternoon.
Willington turned out to be a good choice for us to sit out the weather. As mentioned in my previous post it has everything you need, we took the opportunity of having the railway station close by and got the train into Burton to take the washing to the launderette. As it was cold we decided to call into one of the local pubs whilst waiting for our return train. We called in to the Coopers Tavern on Cross Street, right opposite the enormous Molson Coors (formally Bass) brewery.
We arrived in Willington mooring right next to the Dragon, a lovely pub with a large beer garden crammed with tables, must get very busy in the summer.
This is a 48 hr mooring but, as with most of these, this is extended to 2 weeks during the winter months.
We planned to stay here for the rest of the week as the weather forecast was threatening us with every sort of winter weather over the next few days.
It started out wet and windy, culminating in a howling gale on Thursday night, the boat was shaking and I had to get up at 4 am to remove things off the roof before the wind did it for us! Poor old Scruff was terrified and was restless all night. Following the wind and rain the weather settled down and became much cooler with the canal freezing over night on Saturday, then Sunday brought heavy snow eventually turning to rain in the afternoon.
Willington turned out to be a good choice for us to sit out the weather. As mentioned in my previous post it has everything you need, we took the opportunity of having the railway station close by and got the train into Burton to take the washing to the launderette. As it was cold we decided to call into one of the local pubs whilst waiting for our return train. We called in to the Coopers Tavern on Cross Street, right opposite the enormous Molson Coors (formally Bass) brewery.
Stepping inside was a revelation, walking back in time to lots of tiny rooms fitted out in original Victorian fixings, it took a little time to find our way to the tiny bar with a backdrop of different beer barrels. The pub is now a Joules house and sold a full range of their own beers as well as many others.
To compliment a great pint of IPA they also sold a number of large Scotch eggs including chilli, chorizo, black pudding as well as the standard flavour, each is a meal in itself. Joules brewery also have there own herd of pigs, presumably to consume the various by products from the brewing process. The meat from these is used to produce their own delicious sausage rolls. We almost missed our train waiting here.
On our return to the boat we decided to investigate the open mic night at the Rising Sun just around the corner from our mooring. This pub is a friendly local and the evening was enjoyable, I even managed to get up and do a spot.
Friday saw us returning to Burton to pick up the washing and of course, another visit to the Coopers.
On Saturday Keith and Cheryl called to see us and we had an enjoyable lunch in the Dragon, with a short stagger back to the boat for coffee.
Vicky and Ian called into see us on Sunday as they were on their way back to Bristol from Leeds, it was nice to see them again as they had struggled through the snow and rain to get to us.
To compliment a great pint of IPA they also sold a number of large Scotch eggs including chilli, chorizo, black pudding as well as the standard flavour, each is a meal in itself. Joules brewery also have there own herd of pigs, presumably to consume the various by products from the brewing process. The meat from these is used to produce their own delicious sausage rolls. We almost missed our train waiting here.
On our return to the boat we decided to investigate the open mic night at the Rising Sun just around the corner from our mooring. This pub is a friendly local and the evening was enjoyable, I even managed to get up and do a spot.
Friday saw us returning to Burton to pick up the washing and of course, another visit to the Coopers.
On Saturday Keith and Cheryl called to see us and we had an enjoyable lunch in the Dragon, with a short stagger back to the boat for coffee.
Vicky and Ian called into see us on Sunday as they were on their way back to Bristol from Leeds, it was nice to see them again as they had struggled through the snow and rain to get to us.
Monday 22nd January 2018
A much better day today, the wind had subsided and the temperature had almost reached double figures with some welcome sunshine. We got underway making our way back to Burton, crossing a swollen River Dove, with the aim of making our way to Alrewas. We called at the services in Horninglow and whilst there received a notification from CRT informing us that the river section at Alrewas was closed due to high water levels. We had no option to moor up at Shobnall fields (again) and await further news.
I have to admit that cabin fever was starting to set in and I was ready to move on from Burton as we seem to have spent too much time here. To make matters worse I managed to lose my varifocal glasses seeing them slowly and teasingly sink into the gloom of the canal. No amount of trawling around the area managed to rescue them.
The following morning brought the news that the river was still shut so we spent the day catching up with a few jobs before going for a walk. The forecast was bad again so we battened down the hatches in readiness for a rough night, sure enough, the early hours brought strong winds with torrential rain starting around 8.00 am, it was beginning to look as if we would be stuck for another day.
A much better day today, the wind had subsided and the temperature had almost reached double figures with some welcome sunshine. We got underway making our way back to Burton, crossing a swollen River Dove, with the aim of making our way to Alrewas. We called at the services in Horninglow and whilst there received a notification from CRT informing us that the river section at Alrewas was closed due to high water levels. We had no option to moor up at Shobnall fields (again) and await further news.
I have to admit that cabin fever was starting to set in and I was ready to move on from Burton as we seem to have spent too much time here. To make matters worse I managed to lose my varifocal glasses seeing them slowly and teasingly sink into the gloom of the canal. No amount of trawling around the area managed to rescue them.
The following morning brought the news that the river was still shut so we spent the day catching up with a few jobs before going for a walk. The forecast was bad again so we battened down the hatches in readiness for a rough night, sure enough, the early hours brought strong winds with torrential rain starting around 8.00 am, it was beginning to look as if we would be stuck for another day.
Amazingly, on Wednesday morning, the news came through that the river section had reopened so once the rain eased a bit we set off. Our first port of call was the marina at Shrobnell, enjoying the intoxicating smell from the Marston Brewery on the opposite bank. Here we took on supplies of fuel and the rain finally subsided although the wind was still quite strong. We progressed well, cruising alongside the busy A38 past Barton Marina and the Barton Turns pub, resisting the temptation to call in for a pint and another sampling of the delicious food they serve there.
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| Alrewas river section |
We then arrived at Wychnor lock lifting us onto the Alrewas river section. Here the canal joins the river Trent for about 1/2 a mile or so, above the lock you enter a short canal section directly fed by the river and the flow was quite strong, inching our way along past the moored boats, before arriving at the river proper. The flow here comes downstream from the right before hurtling off to the left over a large weir. The flow at this point almost brought us to a halt and required full power to traverse the torrent. Finally we made it to the lock at the other end lifting us back onto the safety of the canal.
We moored just above the lock, relieved that we do not have to worry about river flows for a while.
Thursday 24th January 2018
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| Canalside cottage in Alrewas |
A lazy day to day with just a stroll around the village, we always enjoy our visits here, the village has lots of old half timbered and thatched cottages as well as most of the amenities a boater would require. There is a butchers here that is famous for its wide selection of home produced meats, pies, etc and we couldn't resist calling in to stock up for the next few days, like most of the local butchers they are always happy to vacuum pack fresh meat to enable it to last a few days longer in the fridge.
We also called into the local church, another fine example of a village church and to our joy the church yard was full of snowdrops in bloom with daffodils not far behind. The weather really did feel spring like and we managed to get quite a few amps into the battery from the solar panels.
Alrewas is also the location for the National Arboretum http://www.thenma.org.uk/ this is well worth a visit in its own right with a very moving centrepiece.
Our next move is onto Fradley where we will join the Coventry canal.
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| Medieval Art in the church |
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| Alrewas mooring |
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