A marina and a new canal – Coventry to Trent & Mersey canal
It is again a while since I last posted as I am still moving very slowly, biding my time until I dare go on the river Trent. I am signed up to all the flood warnings in the area and the last couple of months flood gates and locks have been closed every few weeks with the endless rain that we are having this winter (where was all that rain in the summer!?).
Having returned from my little excursion up the Birminham & Fazeley canal I started making my way north towards Fradley junction, which is where the Coventry canal meets the Trent & Mersey canal. It was finally time to say goodbye to Tamworth, which has been my temporary home since August.
Tamworth to Kings Orchard marina
As a change of scenery from the endless dark and rainy days, I decided to go on a little holiday (without the boat!) to the Cotswolds in early January. Not wanting to leave the boat alone on the towpath for a week, I booked into Kings Orchard marina for four weeks.
In December I moved slowly towards the marina, stopping over amongst other places at lovely Hopwas. The main attractions of Hopwas are two canalside pubs right opposite each other and Hopwas Hays Woods, a lovely sprawling woodland spread out over a hill. Occasionally it is used for military shooting exercises, so the frequent warning signs can be a bit disconcerting.
I use the OS maps app for my walking excursions and usually it is pretty accurate. In Hopwas woods it failed me completely. No paths in the actual woods matched anything on the map. I got completely lost in a big area of dense rhododendrons with the path getting ever narrower and more muddy and slippery on a steep slope. Fortunately I met a local couple who let me tag along to get out of those woods. But I bet the rhodondendrons are gorgeous in the spring.
Some more impressions of the woodland. It was obvious that these are not ancient woods as they look very planted in separate areas of mono-culture (a birch area, a beech area, a pine area …).
After the stopover in Hopwas I cruised through the woods and on to Kings Orchard Marina. The cruise was fairly uneventful, but a beautiful cold and sunny day. I met the river Tame again, which had flooded the surrounding fields. I always find it odd, when the land is so much lower than the canal. This took on a whole new significance, once the big breach on the Llangollen canal happened, where a whole embankment collapsed in early January.
Kings Orchard marina
Now on to the marina. I was looking forward to it as a way to get out of the constant mud bath, aka the towpath at this time of year. The route there offered a lot of wide vistas over the fields. The reeds on the bank have all died back by now and a lot of them are floating in the canal sometimes in big clumps, waiting to get wrapped around the propeller of a passing boat. I managed to avoid them by putting the boat out of gear and just gliding through those patches.
Marina life is not completely new to me as I spent my first three years on the boat in Willowtree marina in Southall. After that time I was sure that marina life is not really for me. I can’t stand to be wedged between other boats for a long period of time. But here in the middle of winter it was a good decision to get some facilities like shore power, unlimited hot showers, washing machines and rubbish disposal for a while. Plus it can be quite lonely in the winter as well, so it was nice to have some company too.
My time at the marina coincided with a big freeze in early January, which saw the canal ice over for almost two weeks. It is an eerie sound to hear the ice breaking in the morning, when you move around in the boat. Fortunately I had a big stash of smokeless fuel to keep Willum warm.
It was bitterly cold, while I was there, but also crisp and sunny for a few days. This is the canal just outside the marina, before it froze completely.
On to the Trent & Mersey canal
I left the marina in the middle of January. My original plan was to go to Fradley junction, where the Coventry canal meets the Trent & Mersey, turn right and cruise slowly down to the junction with the river Trent. But as this was only about 20 miles to cover in more than two months, I decided to turn left at the junction instead and go up the Trent & Mersey for a bit first.
The idea was to stop over in Rugeley, where the canal goes right through the town (shopping!) and on to Great Haywood. The canal goes roughly alongside Cannock Chase AONB, which I wanted to explore as well. Then I will turn around and come back down.
Fradley to Rugeley
From the marina it was only about an hour’s cruise to Fradley junction, which is very popular in the summer with a pub, a large cafe and a Canal and River Trust site, plus a lock flight with volunteers, a place where a lot of gongoozlers hang out. At this time of year it was deserted as almost everything was closed.
Over the next few days I moved on to Rugeley. The route goes through Armitage and right past the historic Armitage Shanks factory! I love historic industrial buildings, so this was an unexpected treat in a small town.
But the most exciting and slightly scary part of travelling through Armitage came shortly after. Suddenly there was a sign for a tunnel. Oops! Normally I put my headlight up on the bow for tunnels, but this little tunnel had completely escaped me on the map. Anyway, too late to do anything about it and it was quite short, so not completely dark.
As you can see in the picture it was very narrow though and had a sheer rock wall on one side, which I couldn’t see at all while in the tunnel. I tried to stick as close as possible to the white railing (which I could see) and managed to get through without scraping. But that was not the end of it, as the very narrow channel continued for maybe 100-200m past the tunnel. As this was so narrow I couldn’t really afford to look down the side to see how far away from the rock I was. I was afraid that I would not steer completely straight and scrape the rock face. I knew that I was too close, but I couldn’t do much about it. An unexpected tense moment.
I read later that originally this was all a real tunnel, but the roof was removed in 1971 after cracks appeared due to subsidence from mining. What is the remaining “tunnel” today is more like a wide road bridge.
I am now in Rugeley, a fairly unremarkable small town (sorry Rugeley!), but it has supermarkets, hairdressers, launderettes, all the things boaters need every now and then, so I am staying here for a few days.
I will tell you more about the Trent & Mersey canal itself as I will be on this canal for a while.
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