Saturday 5 May 2012

New Territory, onto the Caldon Canal

We left this morning at 8:30, early for us these days but we thought if we left it much later we may have had to queue at the locks, by the time we left, two boats had passed us heading for Stoke and at the first lock one pulled in behind us.  We didn't have to queue much, we often just caught the boat in front up as they went into the locks.  We didn't pass a boat until Planet Lock.

At Etruria top lock we turned onto the Caldon Canal, this is new territory for us we haven't done this canal before.  We used the services by the junction and then continued up the staircase locks.  The canal twists and bends away from Stoke, very obviously following the contours.  We have left the urban area of Stoke behind and are moored at the bottom of the Stockton Brook Locks, a nice little flight of five locks for first thing in the morning!

More industry along the Trent & Mersey through Stoke, both past and present






The locks are a bit deeper about 10' or 11'

James Brindley statue

Bedford Street Staircase Locks

The old & new, new flats but kept the bottle kilns

All around these bottle kilns has been flattened probably for new
 housing as that  is what is on the other side of the canal

Looking forward

Looking behind from the same spot, its twisty!

The view from our moorings tonight
 



 John spotted these markings in the locks today, 
anyone know what they are?  Masons marks?
  


10 miles, 11 locks, 2 manual lift bridges, 1 electric (stop traffic - road bridge)


2 comments:

  1. Hi both - yes they are mason's marks - each mason has their own mark, and marked the stones as they put them in. Unusual to see them as they are usually covered in weed - these must be new stones, or the inside of the lock has been cleaned.
    Enjoy the Caldon, but prepare to scratch the paintwork if you go much further than Consall Forge! xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Pip. We thought they were masons marks. They do not appear recent though as they were low down in what appeared old stone work within the lock chamber. Each one pictured was in a different lock. We have moored out of the urban area in a pretty location.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments