TNC On Tour 2002 Page 30

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The Tuesday Night Club on Tour

Tour 2002

30 - Rode Heath to Endon Bank, Trent and Mersey Canal and Caldon Canal.

Saturday 27th July 2002

Reasonably early start at 07:35. We had another boat do a "I'm not really ready, but I am going to pull off in-front of you." Amazingly the other boat won, which is certainly not the norm, seeing as we undo chains, stuff ropes straight on, push boat out, them start it and pull away. Anti fendering, rope tidying etc then occurs when we are under way. By the single first Church Lock we had overtaken them in a rather put-on, effortless sort of way!
Not much traffic until around Red Bull Junction. We arrived at Kidsgrove portal of Harecastle Tunnel at 10:00, having just missed the first convoy through. Still, we had a back up plan, the water tank was nearly empty, so we tried to motor across to the Water Point on the non towpath side. In doing this a rather lot of crap was stirred up, ending up in a clattery engine stall! A keep net remains was rather round the prop and was removed without having to pull out remains. Half way through watering and showering at the same time a smart Steve Hudson narrowboat "Saxon" arrived. Upon pulling up guess what happened!.............yes he really caught the keep net as well. It was a hacksaw job to remove the remains.............I commented that we thought we had passed over something about the same spot!
At 11.30 the last boat came through the other way. Not to be first in line and having all the smog pulled passed us by the ventilation fan at the other portal, we went last. Start through at 11:50. Amazingly the Hudson boat had a fast run through as we were held up by the two boats behind it, arriving at the other end at 12:25. The other boats stopped and we eventually caught up with Saxon just before the Festival Marina.
Much change noted around the old Shelton steelworks site, though the large shed was still clinging to life. The junction with the Caldon Canal was passed at 13:45 and we branched off on the Caldon. A few kids messing about on the Staircase locks soon disappeared. An ownerships boat was found stranded in Planet Lock, but soon managed to extract a lot of crud from their weed hatch. They let us go first, muttering about how messy the Caldon was, we had no trouble. A couple of boats passing the other way, but no more our way until a rather slow boat going up Stockton Brook Flight was met. After they finally removed their front fender on a lock gate, we were waved past.
The rather sad and "Tell taled" Engineers Blue brick bridge No25 at Stockton Brook has been finally replaced by a sympathetic steel arched affair. We thought that the stables conversion at the top of Stockton Brook was a bit out of order, somewhat dominated by a large and ugly conservatory, which is very visible from the canal.
Finally we stopped for the night (18:15) at the end of Endon visitor moorings (new ones just above Br 28), still on the piles, but rather shallow. Linda found a nearby Spar, on the outskirts of Endon, which also had a still open pharmacy.

Our venue the night before - The Broughton Arms at Rode Heath. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Lawton Treble Locks. Middle Lock No 51. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Lawton Treble Locks. Middle Lock No 51. Looking back at Lawton Bottom Locks No 52. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Lawton Treble Locks. Middle Lock No 51. Looking up at Upper Locks No 50. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Looking up at Halls Locks No 49 from Lawton Treble Top Lock No 50. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Looking down at Lawton Middle Lock No 49 from Lawton Treble Top Lock No 50. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Leaving Halls Locks No 49. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Church Lock No 48. Looking up at Church Locks No 47. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Church Lock No 48. Trent and Mersey Canal.

The disused Church Lock No 47. We have watched this decay over 30 years. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Church Locks No 48 from Church Lock No 47. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Church Lock No 47. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Church Lawton. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Church Lawton. Bridge No 135. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Red Bull Flight Locks No 46. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Looking back at Red Bull Flight Locks No 46. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Red Bull Flight Locks No 45. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Red Bull Flight Locks No 44. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Red Bull Wharf. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Red Bull Flight Lock No 43. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Red Bull pub. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Red Bull Flight Lock No 43. Trent and Mersey Canal.

The Red Bull Aqueduct carries the Macclesfield Canal over the Trent and Mersey Canal, to join up after another two locks.

Red Bull Flight Locks No 42, looking back at the Red Bull Aqueduct. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Red Bull Flight Locks No 41. Kidsgrove. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Above Red Bull Flight Locks No 41 the Macclesfield Canal joins. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Kidsgrove - approaches to Harecastle Tunnel. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Harecastle Tunnels. Kidsgrove. Trent and Mersey Canal.

The disused Brindley Harecastle Tunnel. Kidsgrove. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Waiting for Harecastle Tunnel. Kidsgrove. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Telford's Harecastle Tunnel. Kidsgrove. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Waiting for Harecastle Tunnel. Kidsgrove. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Harecastle Tunnel. Tunstall Portal, with 1950's fan house. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Harecastle Tunnel. Tunstall Portal. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Tunstall. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Stoke-On-Trent Boatbuilding, Longport Wharf. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Middleport. Trent and Mersey Canal.

The remains of Shelton Steelworks. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Eturia. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Eturia. Festival Marina and China Garden pub. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Eturia. Festival Marina. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Eturia. Caldon Canal to left. Trent and Mersey Canal.

Water point and Sanitary Station, just past the junction. Caldon Canal.

Eturia. Caldon Canal.

Eturia Staircase Locks No 1&2. Caldon Canal.

Planet Lock No 3. The Indian restaurant on the other side of the bridge has finally closed! Caldon Canal.

Planet Lock No 3. The derelict pottery to the left has finally been pulled down. Caldon Canal.

Hanley Park. Caldon Canal.

Overlooking the Trent valley. Caldon Canal.

Bridge No 8 Joiner's Square, heart of the now derelict potteries. Caldon Canal.

Bridge No 9. Hanley. Caldon Canal.

Hanley. Caldon Canal.

The old loading ramp for the Johnson Pottery pottery carrying narrowboats, now long gone. Caldon Canal.

Ivy House Lift Bridge No 11. Caldon Canal.

Railway Bridge No 13. Finally breaking free of Stoke-On-Trent Caldon Canal.

The Foxley pub, Milton. At the old junction with the Foxley Arm. Caldon Canal.

Bridge No 18, Milton. Caldon Canal.

Railway Bridge and pottery to North of Milton. Caldon Canal.

The new Bridge No 25 in Stockton Bridge. We are just coming up Stockton Bridge Lock No 7. Caldon Canal.

The Tour Continues...

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