The Shropshire Union

Thursday 11th April
We awoke to a fine sunny morning although there had been a hard frost overnight.
Just as we were preparing to get underway a boat appeared and started down the locks in front of us, this meant we had to reset each lock as we descended the flight. Oddly enough I was relieved about this as the last time we came up the 21 locks there were problems with low water in some of the pounds so the boat in front would need to deal with any of these before we got there.

A cold and frosty start at the top of the Wolverhampton 21

Whilst in the first lock a lock keeper appeared from the cottage at the top of the flight, he set about sending water down the flight and ensured a smooth passage for us, and the few other boats coming up. We arrived at the bottom lock just over 4 hours after setting off.

The bottom of the 21, we turn right here on to the Worcs, Staffs canal

At the bottom we turned left heading up the short distance to the junction with the Shroppie at Autherley, here we had to negotiate the stop lock dropping us some 5 inches onto the new level.

The start of the Shropshire Union and stop lock at Autherley Junction

The Shroppie is a wonderful canal, built at the turn of the 19th century, by Thomas Telford. As with all of Telford's canals he preferred to  build his canals as straight as possible using cuttings, embankments, tunnels and compact lock flights rather than Brindley's approach of contouring requiring many twists and turns.
A few miles along brought us to the aqueduct carrying the canal over the busy A5, a road improved and built by Telford along the line of the roman road Watling Street.

Approaching Telford's Aqueduct of his improved A5

Looking down at the A5

Passing through the pretty village of Brewood we entered the first of the cuttings before emerging into beautiful scenery eventually reaching the single lock at Wheaton Aston.

The pretty village of Brewood

Avenue Bridge nr Brewood, built in a style to suit the local landowner.

We moored just below the lock as we were waiting for Streethay Wharf to come out the following morning to look at the stern gland as we had developed a significant leak over the last few days.
They arrived and made a few adjustments and we ran the prop for a while to see if all was ok, it appeared that the problem was solved and we got underway, calling for fuel at the town garage, they have a pump on the canal so we didn't have to sail onto the forecourt!

Cowley Tunnel hacked out of solid rock

We decided to head for the next village up, Gnosall Heath, a small settlement connecting the larger Gnosall village to the canal. Just before the village we passed under the short but impressive Cowley tunnel, carved out of solid rock. Further leaks occurred so another call to Streethay and they agreed to come out on Saturday afternoon to have another look. They reset the propshaft axial position (this had been adjusted following the work at Mercia Marina) and repacked the stern gland and again we ran the prop for a while and all seemed ok.

Tyrley wharf and the top lock of five

We decided to remain here overnight before setting off the following morning to the top of Tyrley locks, this stretch of the canal has some of the most spectacular features including the colossal Shelmore embankment, deep Grub Street and cavernous Woodseaves cuttings. It really is incredible that these features were all built on and carved out of the land using nothing more than hand tools and shear hard graft. Woodseaves cutting is, in some places, cut through solid rock with the canal being a stone tough, unsurprisingly it is quite narrow and shallow in some places. Progress was quite tricky when passing boats coming the other way, the displacement from the boats left us high and dry on a stone ledge on more than one occasion. The cutting has its own micro climate as the bottom rock faces rarely see sunlight so it is a haven for ferns and mosses.

The Iconic double arched bridge in Woodseaves cutting

Shortly after the cutting we arrived at the pretty wharf at the top of the locks, deciding to wait until the following morning before descending down to Market Drayton.
I was extremely pleased to see that after 6 hours of running the stern gland seems to be fixed although it will need to be monitored for a few days yet before I get my confidence back. It is a credit to Streethay that they came out twice to the boat and I can't thank them enough for their efforts.
We have heard bad reports about them but in our experience they cannot be faulted.
Monday morning brought more frost and bitterly cold winds as we made our way down the five locks of the Tyrley flight, the last two locks descend through another spectacular cutting again carved out of solid rock.

The last couple of locks at Tyrley cut through solid rock

On reaching the bottom it was only a mile or two before we arrived at the moorings in Market Drayton, it was fortunate that we arrived early as they  quickly filled up during the afternoon. There were a few historic working boats arriving, breaking their journey on the way up to the Easter Boat Gathering at Ellesmere Port at the end of this canal.
We had a walk into the town, now sadly looking a bit below the status it must have held at one time. There are plenty of  interesting old buildings some in need of restoration. We called at the Joules Brewery tap at the Red Lion, a large and pleasantly restored place. The brewery stands across the yard from the pub.

One of Telford's fine aqueducts at Market Drayton showing the scale of the works to build this canal

Tuesday morning brought, thankfully, slightly warmer weather so we decided to travel the couple of miles to the next flight of locks at Adderley, dropping down the locks we moored on the very pleasant moorings below the bottom lock. On this stretch we passed another of the Cadbury Wharfs again on this site they made the rough chocolate from the milk of the many dairy farms in this area, the chocolate was then transported by boat to Bournville for final processing. The last boat, skippered by "Chocolate Charlie", left here in 1968. There is still a huge plant here, managed by Premiere foods producing products such as Marvel dried milk.

Cadbury Wharf

Wednesday 17th April
The weather had improved significantly and, after a cold start the sun soon warmed things up, brightening up the pretty springtime scenery. It wasn't long before we arrived at the top of the 15 lock flight dropping us down to the Cheshire plain and the pretty village of Audlem, we have stopped here before and always enjoy our time here, this time even better catching up with old friends and a lovely meal in the Lord Combermere pub in the village centre, of course the other two pubs were also visited.

The top of the Audlem 15

A lock keepers cabin, unique to this canal

Looking down towards Audlem

The weather had now become hot more typical of a high summer's day so we took the opportunity, of not having a fire, to clean the chimney, always a mucky job but important it is done. Inspection of the engine bay also showed that the stern gland was holding up too.
Thursday, yet another fine day, brought us to Hack Green, a couple of miles and locks further north, we were debating whether to press on to Nantwich a little further on, but reports were coming back from boats travelling towards us that the moorings were full as it was the Jazz and Blues festival, so we tied up just above another two locks. The moorings here are a delight and plentiful. We decided to take the short walk down to the Secret Nuclear Bunker, a remnant of the cold war that had been turned into a museum. It is quite interesting with displays of nuclear weapons as well as a recreation of the facilities provided by the bunker in the event of  nuclear war. On Saturday we decided to take advantage of the fine weather and get some of the scratches in the paint work patched up.

Hack Green

The radar at Hack Green Bunker

Sunday (Easter) we moved on yet another short cruise up to Nantwich. Thankfully we managed to find space on the moorings, yet another fine day so we decided to walk into the town,The festival was in full swing with crowds in every pub and, most pubs were serving bbq food as well, making for a very enjoyable afternoon.

The Aqueduct at Nantwich

The impressive embankment at Nantwich with boats moored above the town.

Natwich

Nantwich marks the end of Telfords efforts, as it is here his canal reached the broad canal linking the town with the Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal at Ellesmere Port. His design and construction efforts were still not over however as his plan to join his canal with the end of the older northern section were thwarted by a local landowner who refused to have the canal cross his property. This required Telford to build yet another huge embankment and aqueduct as the canal skirts the town before finally reaching the existing route north.
We will head on up to Chester and Ellesmere Port before retracing our steps back to the junction at Hurleston and the Llangollen canal.

some of the beautiful countryside with the Long Mynd hill just showing in the haze

Historic boat and Butty passing at Adderley

Local dairy herd taking a drink, not sure how this will affect the milk!

Underway again..ish

Our last few days in the marina were spent having the boat serviced and with me going off for the annual weekend with my old rugby mates, on my return we had a visit from our old friends Paul and Steph, from Leeds.
Monday morning arrived and we readied ourselves for departure, we were soon underway making our way west on the Trent and Mersey heading for one of our favourite mooring places at Alrewas.
The weather was gorgeous, a lovely sunny spring day, Lucia managed to do all the locks despite nursing a heavy cold, the first (cold) since we left Leeds almost two years ago.
We overnighted in Alrewas and restocked the medicine cabinet with cold remedies from the pharmacy there before setting off in more spring sunshine. We were headed for Streethay Wharf to get repairs done that were identified during the service, requiring a left turn onto the Coventry Canal at Fradley junction.
The repairs required the boat to be pulled from the water and very quickly we saw the first of the problems, this was a worn key that provides the drive from the propshaft to the propeller, on removal it was discovered that the key was severely worn, fortunately it was a brass key making this a sacrificial part whilst protecting the shaft and propeller. This was soon remedied and the engineers moved on to the next jobs, firstly the installation of a hatch giving access to the fuel tank as we had developed a bad case of diesel bug necessitating the tank to be cleaned thoroughly.
Diesel bug is an algae that grows between water and bio diesel, it is foul stuff, a thick black  jelly that can cause severe damage to the engine if left to get out of control.
The second job was the replacement of the cup that supports the bottom of the tiller stock. Ours is a Liverpool boat and the tiller assembly is a poor design requiring significant work to dismantle it to carry out any necessary work.
The boat was out of the water overnight and we had the unusual experience of spending the night on the boat with out any of the usual movement experienced in the water.
The following morning work commenced and by lunchtime we were afloat again ready for departure.
We cruised the short distance along the Coventry canal to Whittington before setting the next morning in more fine weather heading for the Birmingham and Fazeley canal. We made the right turn at Fazeley junction managing not to knock the chimney off under the low bridge. We cruised to the bottom of Curdworth locks to the moorings we had stayed on in May last year. We took the opportunity to revisit the lovely Middleton Hall before walking across the fields past the training grounds of Aston Villa FC.

Drayton Footbridge, each tower contains a spiral staircase up to the bridge

The next morning, Saturday, we started to climb the eleven lock flight, and it was here that I noticed vibration on the tiller arm, further inspection showed that the two bolts that hold the tiller bearing had failed again. After much discussion with the boatyard it was agreed that the only option was to turn around and return to the boatyard, this required us to complete the lock flight before turning and descending again. We finally returned to the bottom of the flight and moored up ready for the long trip back to Streethay on Sunday.
By this time I had also succumbed to the dreaded lurgy, but a steady days cruise got us back ready for a lift out on Monday morning.
Much discussion ensued and it was agreed that the the whole tiller assembly would have to be removed for the rudder to be shortened and a new plate and bolts to be installed.
All work completed we returned to the water and got underway the following morning, unfortunately the fine weather had deserted us and we set off in cold and rainy weather. We retraced our steps to Curdworth locks, ascending the first three to moor outside the Dog and Doublet, visiting for a delicious tea consisting of an enormous Steak and Kidney pudding.
The following morning was drier whilst still cold and we made our way up the remaining 8 locks and up the 3 at Minworth before reaching Star City moorings for the night.
Our route took us close to the centre of Birmingham along the Satltey Cut, built to avoid the 25 lock climb into the centre, we had the 5 locks of the Garrison flight to negotiate along this stretch before reaching the junction at Bordesley where we joined the Grand Union.
Turning left we were straight into the 6 locks of the Camp Hill flight. This whole stretch is very industrial and on a couple of occasions I could here what I thought was the sound of heavy industry, only to find they were scrap recycling plants, very little seemed to be going on in the innumerable factory buildings around us.
Following the locks at we set off along the Grand Union in a bitterly cold wind and rain at first all seemed ok but as we reached the outskirts of the city the canal descended into a wooded cutting and became very shallow making steering difficult and progress very slow. We also had a rope and old fender wrapped around the prop requiring 30 minutes of cold hacking and carving to free it.
Finally arriving at Catherine De Barnes, the first advisable mooring from the city, we tied up and retired to the inside of the boat to dry out and warm up. The rain finally stopped and I took a stroll into the village, that had very little to offer.
Next morning the going was a little easier and it was dry so we made our way through the five large double locks at Knowle and down to Kingswood junction to cross over to the Stratford Canal.

Kingswood Junction

The first of nineteen at Lapworth

Here we turned right heading north back towards Birmingham, this required a climb up the top 19 locks of the Lapworth flight.
The scenery around here was sublime with rolling fields and some very impressive properties.
We made good progress and were joined by a lock keeper part way up, making for an easier passage.
Arriving at Hockley Heath we tied up for a couple of nights.
Vicky and Ian joined us on the Saturday, and we had a good lunch at the Wharf Tavern.
Sunday morning  brought good weather and we made our way along another shallow stretch filled with logs and shrubs. We finally reached the old stop lock on the approach to Kings Norton junction where we turned right  onto the Birmingham and Worcester canal heading for the city centre.

Brandwood tunnel on the North Stratford

The old stop lock near Kings Norton Junction with its Guillotine gates

The view from the impressive aqueduct at Edgbaston on the way into the city

We did this stretch last year so carried on past the impressive Cadbury factory soon arriving at Gas Street, mooring alongside the Arena.

Farmers Locks

We took a walk down the Farmers flight of locks dropping straight down from the Old Turn junction, we have not boated this flight so walked down to the bottom to explore on foot, it is an amazing place with 200 year old locks surrounded by modern office and apartment blocks.
We stayed in the city for three nights and on Tuesday we were visited by Indi and his wife Giann. I worked with Indi on contract in Wales some 15 years ago, so we had a great catch up, over a good lunch, in the Tap and Spile.

Indi and Giann

Later that day we met up with Tore and Kirsten whom we met last year and had a good evening comparing notes from last years travels.
Wednesday was a fine day if rather cold for the time of year so we cast off making our way along the new and old lines to Wolverhampton where we are now moored ready to descend the 21 locks down to the Worcestershire  and Staffordshire canal where we turn right a the short distance to turn left onto Shropshire Union and our journey north.

Leaving Birmingham

The M5 crossing, the lower bridge is the old line canal 3 locks higher than the new line

Ascending the three locks upto the old line (Wolverhampton) level

Springtime on the waterway

New season approaches

We are still moored up at Mercia Marina and and just paid up until late March, this will take us beyond the local canal closures so hopefully we should soon be underway to continue our exploration of this country's waterways.

We have enjoyed our time here so far, exploring the local towns and villages, and as the weather (hopefully) continues to improve we hope to use our remaining time here to catch up on some maintenance.

Frosty Sunrise

Back in January we were invited to visit friends Keith and Cheryl up in Duffield in the Derwent valley, after a delicious Sunday lunch prepared by Keith, we had a walk around the village climbing up to the Hollybush Inn at Makeney. The pub is very old with twisting corridors leading to various bars, and little seems to have changed  for centuries.We continued down the road the the King William where we were entertained by two very adept guitarists. Returning by bus we ended a very enjoyable day with coffee at Keith and Cheryl's and we were also pleased to meet their daughter Miranda.

During January we were pleasantly surprised to have a visit from old friends Toby and Marge, who called in to see us on their way back from Birmingham.

Carsington Water and Ashbourne

Carsington Water

During late February the weather improved significantly and although the nights were cold the day time temperatures were more like summer.
We decided to take a ride up to Carsington Water, a large reservoir serving Derby and the surrounding towns, it was quite low, a hangover from last year's lovely summer. The reservoir is not fed by any major streams but by water pumped up from the river Derwent during winter and times of flood, acting as a supplementary supply  during the drier periods.
We had a stroll from the visitor centre, with its museum and small array of shops, round to the large dam wall creating the 35,412 megalitres volume flooding the valley.
Carsington brought back a few memories for me, as it was here, several years ago, that I was introduced to windsurfing. My brother in law, Andy, suggested one day that it would be good to spend the day here as he is an accomplished windsurfer, and that I would be able to hire all the necessary equipment to have a go.
We duly arrived and Andy prepared his kit, whilst I strolled down to the visitor center to see about hiring the items required.
I was presented with a surfboard, sail and wetsuit, the instructor showed me how to connect the sail and board before sending me on my way to enjoy my days swimming!
Things got off to a bad start as I had never used a wetsuit before, and after struggling in I stood there thinking typical of the watersport types with far to much room at the front of the groin area, they must regard themselves as so well endowed! It was only when I stood holding the end of the long neoprene strap on the zip and thinking my arms aren't long enough to pull such a long cord and get the zip up to my chin, that it dawned on me that I may have done something wrong. The answer came crashing to mind when it dawned on me that I had put the suit on back to front, and hastily tried to drag the suit from my body, hoping no one would have noticed me. Looking up I became aware that there was a car park full of people sat in their cars watching me with incredulity.
Finally correctly attired in my wet suit I wandered down to the shore surfboard and sail underarm. Dipping my toes in the water, I pushed the board out ahead of me and then tried unsuccessfully to climb aboard,  further adding to the mirth of my spectators.
Eventually I was on board and stood upright gingerly trying to hoist the mast and sail into the vertical position, finally succeeding and suddenly hurtling across the surface, without a clue of what to do next, it was time to turn, how hard can it be you may ask, well extremely is the answer and as I hauled the sail round I instantly found myself floundering in the water.
Mr Smart-arse shot past on his board, bone dry and sunglasses on, whooping as he skimmed along, it was at this point that I decided next time he comes past me he would be joining me in the water.
After spending hours of mastering the technique of making a turn I decided that it was far simpler to fall in, turn the board round the get back on. I got into my stride, adopting my new found skill, and before I knew what had happened I was confronted by the rescue boat insisting that they tow me back in. Looking round I realised that I had ventured way beyond the limit for windsurfers and in my excitement just hadn't noticed.
Back to our more recent trip, we left the lake and its memories behind, calling into the small market town of Ashbourne on the way back to the boat.
Ashbourne is a lovely little town, however as it was a Monday and given that it is popular with weekend day trippers most shops were closed.
There is an interesting notice board in the centre relating the history of the town and how in 1745 the forces of Charles Edward Stuart passed through during the Jacobite rebellion, ransacking the place as they did so. Unfortunately for the town, the forces soon returned, after having reached the valley of the Trent to the south, then deciding to give up their assault on London, further ransacking the place.

During the fine weather I was able to get a bit more fishing in, with some fine catches of Roach and Bream, I decided to have a go at spinning, using a lure to see if I could catch a Perch or small Pike, the water was gin clear and whilst returning the lure towards the stern of the boat I noticed a huge Pike following, I hastily withdrew the lure as this monster was at least 3 feet long and I am not sure I an equipped to deal with such a fish.
Returning to small hooks and a float I continued my pursuit of the smaller more manageable fish. It became apparent that the monster Pike had scared all the smaller fish away so reeling in I decided to call it a day, just as I was about to withdraw the bait the monsters little brother struck with alarming speed, grabbing my landing net I managed to land the fish, proud of my first ever Pike.

Whilst here we have visited Calke Abbey, now a National Trust property  sat in extensive grounds.
The weather was again, glorious so we decided to explore the grounds taking one of the many waymarked routes around the parkland.

Calke Abbey

Early February we visited the old mining district around the small town of Moira. We called here to explore the end of the Ashby canal (sse earlier blog). This part of the Ashby canal is isolated from the remainder of the canal mainly by the M42 that passes close by.
This part of the canal has been renovated in readiness for it reunification with the network, it boasts the only lock on this canal, dropping the level to the old coal basin that has also now been renovated, and will, hopefully one day make a great mooring spot for visiting boats.

Moira and its lock and basin

Friends Duncan and Jude called down to see us for a few days, they stayed at the Dragon B&B and we had an enjoyable time with them, we took the boat out and up to Burton on a beautiful sunny day returning to the marina at dusk.

Duncan at the helm

Burton is dominated by the breweries and maltings and we enjoyed the recent TV program, The Factory, exploring the process of brewing in the town, showing most of the process that go on inside many of the now familiar buildings and structures.

As I write this blog the fine weather has been replaced by wet and stormy weather so we are spending our remaining time on maintenance in readiness for our imminent departure.

Tank Cleaning Tea Break

We have  really enjoyed our time here and I have to mention The Rising Sun public house, landlord Neil is working hard to make a success of the pub and is always most welcoming, we have had a few great nights in there.

Spring blossoms at Mercia

The Toyota Factory viewed from the marina

The year closes

Sunday 7th October
We left Napton on a bright crisp morning making our way the five or so miles to Braunston. We have been here many times before, it is a mecca for narrowboaters, especially for the historic boats that attend the rally in June/July. The village upon the hillside overlooking the canal is also very pleasant with its useful general stores, butchers and pub.
For those boaters wishing to empty their pockets, there is also a large branch of Midland Chandlers.

We moored here overnight before moving onto Rugby the next day. We were treated to another lovely autumn day with blue skies and sunshine although a tad cooler now.

Autumn colours on the North Oxford

We passed through the three locks at Hillmorton descending onto the long pound below that provides miles of lock free cruising, we had intended to moor here but the moorings below the lock were busy and difficult due to being shallow. We pressed on hoping to find better moorings at Rugby. Our arrival was greeted by the sight of a long stretch of new moorings, recently improved and dredged.
We decided to spend a couple of nights here so we could have a walk into the town as neither of 
us had been here before. Just below the moorings is a huge Tesco store and a little further along a large retail park with the usual chains on site.
We continued our walk into town, a good mile and a half from the canal, walking through the park before entering the town centre.
The town centre has suffered the same fate, as many these days, with the competition from the out of town stores causing the closure of lots of the available units.
We walked across the town to see the school, famous for its creation of the game of the same name as the town. The 16th century school buildings dominate this part of town, they contain a museum to the great sport but unfortunately it was closed for our visit.

Rugby School

We made our way back to the boat calling in at the small cafe in the park to have a coffee and a slice of cake the size of a house brick.
Wednesday morning arrived and we decided to move on, calling at the facilities before getting underway, unfortunately the Elsan was out of order, luckily we were allowed to empty it at Rose Narrowboats a few miles along the way.
Arriving at Hawkesbury junction (know as Sutton Stop to boaters, named after the family that manned the toll office and stop lock), we found a spot just before the lock on a seven day mooring so tied up and settled in for a few days.

The following day we took the bus into Coventry to have a look around the cathedral, done in shifts due to Scruff being with us. We crossed town to the old medieval part of the city that managed to escape the pounding of the blitz during the second world war, here is the church of St John the Baptist, a little gem somewhat overlooked due to its large modern alternative.
The church is charming and well worth a visit, during the Civil War it was used to prison the scottish royalist soldiers captured at the battle of Preston, the towns folk were Parliamentarians and treated the prisoners coldly giving rise to the phrase "sent to Coventry".
We made our way back to the boat, the forecast alerted us to wet and windy weather so we stayed put until Saturday having spent an enjoyable Friday night in the Greyhound pub, a place famous in the boating world as it sits right on the junction.
On Saturday the rain had subsided, the wind was still gusty but we decided to brave it anyway.

The journey up to the Ashby was fairly uneventful despite the gusty winds, my main concern was making the tight turn onto the Ashby canal at Marston Junction but fortunately the wind did no more than to assist me in swinging the boat and we got round unscathed.

We carried on up the Ashby as far as Sutton Cheney wharf where we turned around making our way back to the moorings at Stoke Golding, we had moored here in February but this time things were a bit drier so we decided to walk across to see the site now defined as the actual site of the Battle of  Bosworth. There is not a lot to see but it fascinating to stand where such momentous events took place. We also passed Crown Hill where Henry Tudor was pronounced King following his unlikely victory at the battle.

Monday morning brought us to Hinckley Marina, we left the boat here for a week or so whilst we returned to Leeds for Dads 90th birthday celebrations. We travelled there and back by train, during our time in Leeds Scruff had eaten something that had given her bad wind causing much embarrassment aboard the train as she almost cleared a carriage at one point!

On our return to the boat we headed back up the Ashby, mooring at Sutton Cheney, this is useful for visiting the battlefield centre, we chose to go on the weekend guided walk around the area, only to find that we were the only ones attending that day. The walk is a must do if you ever visit this area, it is both interesting and informative, our guide Eddie, an ex-policeman had and encyclopedic knowledge of the "Wars of the Roses " and was currently investigating the mystery of the princes in the tower.

We spent the next few days exploring the villages along the Ashby before returning to the Coventry canal and making our way to Atherstone. By now the clocks had changed and it was getting dark by 5pm.
This was the place we had to sit out the Beast from the East in March, we moored at the top of the locks but as the weekend ahead was bonfire weekend we decided to move down 5 of the eleven locks to moor away from the houses to minimise any distress to Scruff as she gets into a real state these days on hearing fireworks. We moored at a spot with horses to one side and a small holding with chickens, ducks and geese to the other assuming that all would be peaceful here.
During the day on the Saturday we walked up to look at what remains of the old priory at Merevale, it was here that Henry Tudor spent the days before the battle. The hills around here command fantastic views across the vale towards Ambion Hill (King Richard III's camp).

Merevale Gatehouse

Returning to the boat before dusk it wasn't long before we started to hear fireworks, these were been let off right next to the boat in the small holding accompanied by a large bonfire which, once it took hold started showering the boat with burning debris carried along by the strong winds. We had no alternative but to run outside, untie and move the boat away from the inferno which by now was threatening to ignite all the trees and bushes along the canal bank.
The next morning revealed, to our relief that, not too much damage had been done as I had rushed to remove some of the burning debris whist moving the boat.
During our last visit we had had a couple of meals at the Kings Head just off the A5 and decided to call in again for Sunday lunch, as before the food was excellent in a great pub, highly recommended if you are ever in Atherstone.

Monday morning arrived and we decided to move down the remaining six locks of the Atherstone flight to moor at Bradley moorings just below the last lock. This is a peaceful spot and has full boater facilities.
The last lock of the flight was the 1000th lock since we had embarked on this trip 18 months ago.

We made our way towards the Trent and Mersey at Fradley, stopping over at Hopwas on the way, whilst here we took a short bus ride into Tamworth for a look round on a very wet Wednesday.

Rope Marks at Tamworth

We have decided to spend a few months in the marina at Mercia, as the winter closure program pretty much blocks our way until March, so following spending a few nights at Fradley, Alrewas, Burton and Willington we made our way to the marina where we are now moored up.

Wychnor Church

Its a little early, but, as this is our last blog of the year we would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and thank you all for reading the blog.
All being well we should be back underway in March for a whole new set of adventures and places to see, but for now its buckle down for the winter and carry out maintenance ready for the next stage.