On Tuesday (13/04/2021) evening we moored up at Barlaston where the Plume of Feathers with Neil Morrissey was going great guns with people scoffing food and downing drinks packed in under their awning.
We decided to stay on our boat and Vera explored the tow path.
We have been travelling towards Shardlow on the Trent & Mersey Canal.
We set off on a cold, bright Wednesday morning and passed through 13 locks to Great Hayworth where we used the Canal & River Trust Services and moored up near Shugborough. There were some great canalside pubs with the smell of cooking drifting out.
We were buzzed by a scary Chinook helicopter (two sets of rotor blades on top) at one stage as we passed fields of dairy cattle and beef cattle. We passed through Stone, sadly watching a huge M&S Foodstore fade into the background.
We passed quite a few baby ducklings and one black baby coot on our travels. Towards the end of the day we passed through the Weston Lock, the Hoo Mill Lock and Hayward Lock before mooring up at Great Haywood at 17:00 hrs.
We were alongside the River Trent with it’s distinctive Essex Bridge with a series of arches close to Shugborough Hall stately home. There has been a bridge crossing the River Trent at Great Haywood since the sixteenth century. It was rumoured that the bridge was built by the Earl of Essex, to allow Queen Elizabeth I to visit him at Chartley Castle, without having to cross the forded river, but this is most probably romantic legend.
Looking south along the River Trent in the picture below.
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