Breathe in!

Monday 26^th August; Froghall to Hazelhurst Junction

Apart from the steam whistle and the sound of the chuffing engine leaving Froghall after dropping off its passengers (much faster than when it was pulling the carriages), it was quiet last night.  The boat moored behind us left at 8 am, as they were very worried about meeting another boat on the narrow section.

Enough space on the towpath for a game of ball

We were on our way before 9.30, in cool but sunny weather – except of course in the shady bits.  We were going cautiously, as we knew how bendy and narrow it would be.  Should I get off and walk, as you do on the Llangollen?  It would have meant a giant step over the overgrown towpath edge, and it was still quite early, so I didn’t.  The vegetation on the offside was so dense it was very difficult to see if anything was coming.  Luckily, NB Argy Bargy was also going carefully when we met on a blind bend, but even so the bows touched – not violently, but, shall we say, quite firmly, though nothing got knocked over inside.

Two horns tooted at the same time

We had to reverse to a stretch straight enough and long enough for him to pass.  A cheerful soul, he said there were six boats potentially following him down!  At least he would be able to moor, not sure about the others ….  We met the first as we straightened up to pass under the railway bridge at the Black Lion.  Dave had sounded the horn in good time, so NB Adventurer had already gone into reverse.  We pulled in on the water point to fill up, which didn’t take long with such a fast tap, and off we went again.  We heard the train whistle as we pulled away – would we see it?  Yes!  An excellent view, much waving from driver, guard and passengers, but sadly I fumbled with the camera and managed to turn it off instead of pressing the right button.

Off it goes

It was lovely cruising along the river in the sunshine, and soon we started meeting more boats.  It was a shame there was so much of the sickly-smelling Himalayan Balsam which infests the river and the whole of the Caldon. 

Great drifts of the horrible stuff.   Though it is very pretty, it shades out all the native plants and when it dies down in winter it leaves dead leaves and bare mud, ready to be washed away in the rain.

By the time we reached Wood’s lock and left the river section, we had passed all six boats that Argy Bargy had warned us about.  I wonder if they all hope to moor at Froghall, or intend to stop at the Black Lion?  I could see Rob’s car parked at Wood’s lock, and as before he gave us a hand, although this is not a deep lock and quite easy.

Rob off to get himself a drink of water

We met the day boat Joshua round the bend, having left the top gate open for them.  As we approached Cheddleton locks a boat was just emerging from the bottom one – so that’s potentially 9 boats at Froghall!  though the day boat would obviously have to get back by about 5 so may not have got that far.  All that boat traffic had resulted in the pound between the two Cheddleton locks getting extremely low.

On my way to run water down

Even after I emptied the top lock, then ran more water down, Dave still only just managed to get out of the bottom lock and was scraping the bottom all along the pound.  So I called CRT in case they need to take action for the eight boats coming back up today or tomorrow!  The day boat would certainly not know what to do.   We had lunch on the visitor mooring above the top lock, then went to visit Cheddleton Flint Mill, which was open, it being Bank Holiday Monday.  It’s free, and must rely on donations to keep going. 

Repairing one of the water wheels

We have visited before, in 2012.  We had just bought Chuffed at Great Haywood marina, and this was our first trip aboard.  There had recently been a disastrous flood, and although the mill wasn’t really open for visitors they had started the clean-up and were happy for us to wander around.  The chaps working on the water wheel remembered it well.  The mill was used to grind flint into a fine powder used in the production of ceramics. 

Pit wheel (vertical) and wallower (horizontal).  You can see the light from the outside of the wall falling on the axle, which turns when the water-wheel is in operation

 

Now I understand gearing and how power is transferred from the vertical plane to the horizontal - from the pit wheel to the wallower, whch is attached to the millwheel below which grinds the flint.

And now I know what calcination is

The mill cottage, where the miller and his family would have lived, is open too.  Compact, I suppose you would call it.  There is a main room with a range for cooking, a scullery for the washing, and upstairs were one and a half bedrooms.

My Grandma had a range similar to this, but her scullery was bigger!

Mill cottage.  I bet it wasn’t this pretty when it was a working mill

Sadly there was nowhere to buy an ice-cream as we had hoped!  We cruised on to the Hollybush, but rather than moor by a busy pub on Bank Holiday Monday afternoon we went on up the Hazelhurst locks.  Then at the top of the flight, Dave reversed Bonjour down the Leek arm to moor for the night. 

Reversing from the junction

We were pleased to see that the abandoned boat was still securely moored where we had left it.  There was time for some jobs before going to the pub to eat – Dave cleaned the engine hole and I scrubbed the starboard side of the cratch cover again.   I think I have now got most of the green algae off, but it still needs reproofing, though it was much too windy to do that today.  Argy Bargy passed us later on having returned from Froghall to make for Leek.  Quite a long day!  We ate in the pub, walking to it down past the locks and under the aqueduct, and coming back up the steps to the aqueduct and along the Leek branch.  The meal was quite nice – Dave had curry, which was ok, and I had fish and chips, also ok, though nothing could beat the zander and chips I had at the Wharf in Welford last year.  Good beer though.

7 miles, 8 locks