An unexpected hitch

Monday 31^st August; Tixall Wide to Penkridge

After arriving at the boat later than originally planned, and the last two cruising days having been very short, we thought we’d better push on as close to Penkridge as the weather allowed.

Looking towards the Broad Water

It was a little chilly first thing but otherwise it was a beautiful morning.  Yesterday I collected a bowl of windfall plums from Hoo Mill lock, the little yellow ones, and we had some with breakfast.  After a bit of a pause while we waited for a hire boat to pass us, we left for Tixall lock.  They were just disappearing as we arrived and we were soon up the lock which is not very deep.

Moored above the lock – the camper van is parked not far away.

Soon we were crossing the Sow aqueduct.  Somewhere along the flood plain here is the confluence with the Trent.

As you can see from the photo the sky had clouded over and it was quite cold in the wind as we turned towards the north-west at Milford towards the bend at Baswich, where the canal bends right round again to head south.  Work on the site of the Stafford River Link is proceeding and you can no longer walk round the works to have a look.

Work in progress where a new lock will descend to the River Penk

Pipes for the bywash culvert?

Wolverhampton, Stafford, Haywood Junction and River Canal Rescue – RCR’s HQ is pretty much opposite

The flood plain between the canal and Stafford is very wide.  Somewhere on it the Penk joins the Sow on its way to the Trent.

Already some flooding after the recent rain.

At Deptmore lock, several miles since we had last seen them, the boat we had followed up Tixall lock was pulling in on the lock landing.  It transpired they had caught up with a very slow boat which had only just gone into the lock ahead of them.  They were picking someone up in Penkridge and hoping to get to Gailey for this evening.  The lock is deep and it was quite a while before we were finally up.  The towpath side paddle gear of the bottom gates is extremely stiff.

Align the gates - I’ve not seen that sort of sign before

Nor this kind of running repair.  Very wobbly.

While Dave was walking Jess along the towpath towards Acton Trussell a stoppage alert for the Staffs and Worcester came through on my phone.  When they were back on board I read it – a ‘boating incident’ had resulted in a broken balance beam on the top gate of Boggs Lock and the lock was closed until further notice.  Boggs lock is between Penkridge and Gailey and we would have expected to be using it tomorrow.  The engineers will assess it tomorrow morning to decide a plan of action, so we’ll have to wait and see.  At Park Gate lock, where the chandlery is, we knew that the footboard on the top gate was out of use, but I wasn’t expecting to be told to cross over the bottom gates - fine if you haven't
opened one already.

Can't do that, sorry

I suppose I could have gone back under the bridge to the road, walked back up to the bridge, crossed over the bridge and reached the offside that way but that would have taken ages.  Although the footboard was clearly coming away from the gate it was easy to hold on to the handrail and walk sideways along the ironwork.

It was already gone 1 o’clock, so we stopped for lunch a little further on.  Then we didn’t hang about and continued to Longford lock.  A single-hander arrived behind us, and I passed on the info about Boggs lock, which she hadn’t yet heard.  We were hailed from a side hatch as we passed a moored boat – had we heard?  Then we saw the boat which had been in front of us – their hire company must have contacted them and they had turned above Penkridge lock.  We arrived in Penkridge to find Bank Holiday fishermen along the bank, but were able to moor between two of them – the ropes were on innies so we didn’t get in their way.  I thought to ask if it was a match – oh dear, yes it was, no wonder one of them looked a little annoyed.  But they were all using poles, meaning they were actually fishing the far side of the canal so we weren’t disturbing the fish nor their keep nets!  The match finished at 3.30 but it was another hour before they had all had their catch weighed, packed up and gone home.  There had been 30 taking part – all the way to the Cross Keys pub, two locks further along the canal.  We pulled back about fifteen feet so we could moor properly with outies and close up the git gap left by the fisherman, and so did the boat which had moored in front of us.

8½ miles, 5 locks