Onwards and Upwards

So Wednesday morning arrived and were greeted by a frozen canal, very strange as the sun was beating down and it was really warm inside the boat. We had no alternative other than to wait until it metled. The thaw was helped by a couple of passing  boats and a team from BBC Midlands TV in canoes. They were doing the third day of the Peaky Pentathalon for Sport Relief.

We got underway just after lunch, although it was sunny there was still a chilly wind but it was a lovely cruise along the edge of  Cannock Chase. We crossed over the Trent followed soon after by the river Sow, at this point the larger of the two. 

Tixall Wide

Tixall Gatehouse

River Sow

Between the two rivers we passed through the Tixall Wide overlooked by the Gatehouse of the long demolished Tixall Hall. One reason given for the width of the canal here is that the land owner would only agree to the canal as long as it looked like a lake. 

Tixall Lock

We soon arrived at the moorings for Stafford, having passed through the only lock of the day. We were keen to explore the town as it was somewhere we haven't been before. The town centre lies approximately 1.5 miles to the northwest of the canal and it wasn't long before we arrived, walking along the busy A34. The town is surprisingly small for a county town, it has a mixture of old local shops as well as the usual chains. There did not seem a great deal to see there and the centre was noticeably quiet for a Wednesday afternoon.

We returned to the boat,  retracing our steps, passing the huge GE Alstrom factory, they make huge generating sets here and there are some incredibly large examples in the yard outside.
The next morning we got under way, heading for our next stop at Penkridge,  a trip of 5 miles and 5 locks, this is a lovely part of the canal and spring was bursting out all around, the daffodils finally daring to bloom. The canal was fairly busy and we noted just how many more boats are now on the move. Just before our destination the canal passes beneath the busy M6, the northbound traffic not moving any faster than we were!
Penkridge is a delightful little town,  retaining it's old world charm as well as providing all the facilities a boater may wish for. There is a good selection of pubs too,  we visited The Boat, along side the canal. The weather was similar to the day before, plenty of sunshine but a cool breeze.

Penkridge High Street

Friday saw us moving along to the village of Coven, a short trip of a few miles and no locks, as the lock at Penkridge had brought us to the summit of the Staffs and Worcs canal. The moorings at Coven are right outside the famous Anchor pub, now known as the Fox and Anchor. This is an old boaters pub but has been enlarged with a large restaurant to the rear. The pub is dog friendly and it being Friday we thought we would give it a try. The beer was good with a choice of Black Sheep, Pedigree and a few other local craft beers. The menu also looked tempting, however, not sampled on this occasion.
The following morning we awoke to a rather dull and soggy scene, we had heavy rain through the night and this was forecast to carry on thoughout the day,  fortunately it stopped early morning so we set off to explore the village. Sadly there was little to see here, it was yet another dormitory village with just a few shops and lots of housing built in that typical 60/70's style. We found the whole place slightly depressing, not helped by the gloomy weather. The only highlight was the small Farm Shop selling a reasonable range of local produce.
On our return to the boat we decided to move onto the moorings just below Aldersley Junction, and the start of the climb onto the Birmingham Canals Network (BCN). 

The Narrows just before Autherley Junction

We awoke to lovely warm sunshine on Sunday morning, we had arranged to call into Oxley Marine before setting off, to get an engine hose replaced, they were really helpful and soon had the repairs done, we took on fuel and coal here too.
A few hundred yards along brought us to the junction,  a very tight turn and straight into the first lock of the 21. We quickly passed through the first couple of locks travelling alongside Dunstall Park racecourse, the pound between the third and fourth lock was really low and we just managed to scrape our way through to the next, helped by the fact that a boat was coming down the flight bringing water with it.

 We continued on our way passing the boat coming down the flight,  this was a working boat on its way to the gathering at Ellesmere Port. A couple of locks later we passed a Butty, being manually towed through the locks before being reunited with its tug at the bottom.
We pressed on through the locks using our routine of Lucia preparing  the lock ahead whilst I closed up behind. Luckily all the locks were in our favour so we didn't have to empty any before proceeding. As we arrived at the last eight locks we started to run out of water, the pound above was three foot down so progress was impossible. I walked up the locks, letting water through until  balancing the deficit across a number of the pounds above. We struggled along having to clear the prop of plastic bags, rope etc a couple of times, finally reachng the top after around 4.5 hours toil.
The moorings at the top are a fine place to moor after a hard days work, and only a short walk to the centre of Wolverhampton. Following dinner we had a walk into town,  this was the first day of British summer time so it was nice to be able to walk in the evening daylight.
Wolverhampton was a real suprise, I had assumed that it would have been badly damaged during the war and rebuilt in  hideous 50s and 60s architecture, this was not the case at all. Many of its old buildings have been retained and  much of the modern building seemed to be carefully arranged to fit in.
There are plenty of old pubs around too. Our stop was only brief (these moorings are only 24 hrs), and next morning we were soon underway to our next stop in the centre of Birmingham.

Views of Wolverhampton