Saturday 17th September

There were a couple of showers before we set off but Richard put on his waterproofs which are guaranteed to keep the rain off (well hopefully!). The first place we passed was Tixall Wide, a wide expanse of water which is was said was built to placate the owner of Tixall Hall. The Hall itself is long gone but the gatehouse, see photo, still stands. If that is the gatehouse I bet the Hall was a sight to behold!! It wasn’t long before we arrived at Haywood Junction where we turned left onto the Trent & Mersey. Next time we pass we will turn right and head down to King’s Bromley Marina where Mary H will stay for the winter. There is certainly no shortage of water on this canal – it is over the bank on the non towpath side in places. We passed Weston-on-Trent which looked lovely with some nice houses along the canal. We will certainly stop there next time we pass. We stopped for lunch at Aston lock and then meandered on to Stone which looked to be a rather nice town but, of course, we didn’t have time to stop! There are a total of eight locks in Stone and at the last one we came across an ambulance with its blue lights flashing – apparently someone had fallen off their bike and into the canal! From there to Barlaston the canal isn’t particularly appealing and certainly nowhere to moor but we were heading to Barlaston anyway. We could hear the thunder rolling around and the heavens opened just as we pulled in to moor up.