Saturday 15th October

A fantastic autumn morning with the sun streaming into the bedroom – I could have stayed at Goldstone all day however we needed to press on. Millie obviously felt the same as me as she didn’t want to come aboard and set off – Richard had to chase her back in the end! After Goldstone there seemed to be one dark cutting after the other – Shebdon, Grub Street, Shelmore plus two smaller ones without names. I got quite depressed even though the sun was shining through the trees :-( At Knighton there once was a Cadbury’s creamery where until as late as 1961 Cadbury’s collected Shropshire milk (in Cadbury's milk boats) for processing for their Bourneville factory. The milk and chocolate ‘crumb’ was carried by canal from when the creamery first opened in the 1800’s. The last boatman to trade was nicknamed “Chocolate Charlie” – he carried the final cargo from Knighton to Bourneville in 1961. Grub Street Cutting is 80 feet deep and has a very unusual double arched bridge with a telegraph pole set into it. Apparently there used to be a whole line of poles along most of the length of the canal. A black-eyed, monkey like creature is supposed to haunt the same bridge ever since a boatman was killed there in the 19th Century. We moored up for the day in Gnosall Heath (pronounced Nosall and not like a Gnu!) It was a lovely afternoon so we went for a walk then I sat on the back deck and read. There are two canalside pubs in Gnosall but we chose the Navigation and had an extremely good meal there.