Tuesday 23rd March 2021
We were up at 07:00 and set off at 10:00 heading for Market Drayton and diesel. Empty rural agricultural people-less landscape on each side of the canal and an exotic aroma of muck spreading and pig farms until we got into Woodseaves Cutting. Evidently a masterpiece of engineering, this narrow gorge provides a dank damp haven for moss and lichen and bats which flitter about at night. Prone to land slips and rockfalls we nervously traversed the shallow channel passed a recent treefall that Canal & River Trust have been clearing.
Other parts of the canal had long term moorings where narrowboats in various states of repair had “gardens” by their moorings, generally furnished with tacky garden ornaments, skulls, skeletons, dolls on gibbets, man cave paraphernalia, sheds, storage cupboards and boxes, windmills and solar panels.
We reached the Tyrley (pronounced Turley) flight of five locks. As Hilary steered out of the top lock there was a nasty clang and she lost all power. Pulling in to the side using the central rope we tackled the weed hatch in the stern. After a struggle we got it open and found a section of tree trunk about the size of a Watney’s Party Seven tin lodged against the propeller. With this removed we cooked up some chicken soup for lunch before tackling the next four locks.
At Market Drayton we filled up with diesel at Talbot Wharf and water at the Canal & River Trust Facilities here.
We moored up at 14:30 and did a family walk into town, finding an ASDA.
Sadly the splendid looking old pubs in the town were all closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Local people and narrowboat residents here were very welcoming, including the lady who filled us up with diesel, happy to get some business in lockdown.
Bridge 64 where we moored up had the ubiquitous metal posts with the striations from years of the ropes between the horses and the narrowboats that they were towing rubbing across them as they went under the bridge and onto the towpath.
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