Day 6 - 8 Fradley to Great Haywood via Rugeley

Thursday 4 July and we spent most of the day moored in Fradley.  It's a lovely spot but it is also a major meeting point for bikers and we had a couple of hours of noisy comings and goings last night.  Presumably, a bikers' meeting at the Swan pub.

The Swan at Fradley Junction

We moved to Wood End Lock just over a mile past the junction and moored there on Thursday night. Friday morning and we set off in beautiful sunshine through the wooded landscape between Wood End and King's Bromley Wharf.

 A sunny summer morning...

 through dappled light...

 Happy days!

 Old buildings at King's Bromley Wharf

 Towards Rugeley with the huge Armitage Shanks factory on our left. Between this and the fact that the Armitage church organ is described as "enormous" and practically deafens the organist, the absence of double entendres in this post is a miracle.

 A fine example of one of the taller bridges locally

 Here is the remains of the now collapsed Armitage tunnel, where boats must pass in single file along a narrow channel with jutting stonework (the original tunnel sides, we presume).  A crew member goes ahead to stop oncoming boats entering.

Obviously, a gnome wasn't good enough for this boater's garden

 

 Entering Rugeley, where three large supermarkets near the canal make reprovisioning easy

 The Leaning Shed of Rugeley

 Attractive signwriting

 This boat's name means 'tailor' in Irish - be interesting to know why

The site of a Victorian murder dramatised by Colin Dexter.  In 1839 Christina Collins was a passenger on a cargo carrying narrowboat travelling from Liverpool to London.  She was last seen alive at Hoo Mill Lock, two miles north of Rugeley after which her body was found at Brindley Bank.  Two crew members were convicted of her rape and murder and publicly executed.  Rugeley was also home to Dr Palmer, the 'Rugeley Poisoner', was convicted for the 1855 murder of his friend John Cook, and was executed in public. He had poisoned Cook with strychnine and was suspected of poisoning several other people including his brother and his mother-in-law, as well as four of his children who died of "convulsions" before their first birthdays. Palmer made large sums of money from the deaths of his wife and brother after collecting on life insurance, and by defrauding his wealthy mother out of thousands of pounds, all of which he lost through gambling on horses (acknowledgments to Wikipedia).

 

 After all that, here we are moored up for the night at Brindley Bank hoping Christina's shade is a gentle one

 Discussions about the route tomorrow (and where the tea breaks will be)

Saturday 6 July, Day 8 of our trip and we head for Great Haywood.  Weather is fine but slightly overcast.

 Crossing Brindley Bridge over the Trent

 Power gives way to paddle

 As we passed we realised the hull really is "Maid of Oak" and was built in 2006 at Bates Boatyard as a replica

 Speaks for itself

 Realised as we went through this bridge that the graffiti is part of an ongoing debate as some continous cruisers (boaters without a home base) accuse the Canal and River Trust of hiking up license fees to price them off the waterways.  CRT maintain that they are merely trying to fairly regulate and raise revenues to fund the huge amount of work needed to maintain the network and improve services.  It reads: No License Hike. No Gentrification of Canals.

 Colwich Lock Cottage

Essex Bridge, a packhorse bridge which replaced the original wooden structure built by the Earl of Essex in the late 16th century.  It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

On Saturday night we moored just before Great Haywood Junction our last night on the Trent and Mersey before turning to head South on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire (Staffs & Worcs) all the way down to the Severn.