Bridge 30 to Top side Cheddleton Visitor Moorings
Cows slurluping at 5am across the way woke Tilly and myself, Mick totally oblivious as he was making his own noises! It took us a while to get back to sleep, but we managed it.
A load of washing was put on then we moved up to the services. Here we joined two more boats. The far one was the boat that had followed us up the staircase a couple of days ago. When had they gone past? They were facing towards Stoke too!? Have to say we’d been surprised not to have seen them yesterday. They are very early risers, 6am, so had passed whilst we were well asleep. They’d also been to the end of both arms of the Caldon! No stopping them. I asked where they moored on the Oxford, the bottom of Claydon before Cropredy, Yes I knew where they meant, we’ll wave next time we go past. They’ve certainly been going for it, our map suggests there and back with both arms is a 21 hour cruise from Etruria, I suspect they’ll be off the canal before the end of the day.
With water topped up, the alpine strawberry plants tidied up, their babies added to the hedgerow, we moved on towards Hazlehurst Junction. Here the canal splits into two. The right turn stays on the level and sweeps round over Hazlehurst Aqueduct and on to Leek. Straight on drops down three locks goes under the aqueduct and onwards towards Froghall where the canal used to meet up with the Uttoxeter Canal. We decided to go straight on, down the locks.
We’d brought with us a reed island, Mick hauled it out of the lock and deposited it over the lock bridge out of the way before lifting paddles. Just after the third lock there is Bridge 37, this had to be rebuilt a few years ago, closing the Froghall Arm for quite sometime. It does look new, some weathering required for it to sink into the landscape.
Landscape is what we’d have today, it’s nice to be back in the hills.
We wound our way down under the aqueduct, here we’d had two kingfishers sat on branches waiting for us to pass the last time we were here, no such luck today. The moorings at the pub were full, a large Hare sat behind a garden shed. Residential moorings ask for you to slow down, we’d no choice as Oleanna’s depth slowed us to just about a stop in one bridge hole.
Through plenty of wood, Rowan a common sight with it’s red berries. The moorings before the flint mill were just about empty. We pulled up as soon as we could a view to our portside to wake up to between the trees, that would do nicely. Tilly was warned not to eat her own body weight and let out for an hour whilst we had lunch.
Debby from NB Bonjour had mentioned about there being Pre-Raphaelite windows in St Edwards Church, we could just see the tower from our mooring, anywhere to the south of the canal would mean a steep hill to climb, but it couldn’t be that far! Surely!
With walking stick in hand we set off down past the flint mill both water wheels turning, crossed the canal and started to walk uphill. The first turn on the right gave us a steeper hill to climb, a very steady pace required.
St Edwards dates back to the 13th C, some walling possibly back to the 12th C. The church has had several restorations, one in Elizabethan times but the biggest was in 1863/4 when Sir Gilbert G Scott made major changes.
The chancel roof was repainted in the 1950s, symbols depicting local connections to the church. The book, for paper. The knot, the Staffordshire knot (not a pretzel!). The boat, for the canal. The plant, Madder from which dye is produced a favourite dark red used by William Morris. Morris spent three years in Leek learning about dyes.
At first glance around the church the one window that stands out from all the others is of three angels drawn by Burne Jones. The colours which were chosen by Morris sing out. It’s a lovely window.
Then closer inspection, the majority of the other windows are of a similar time. One depicts a couple facing each other. The chap is reported to be a portrait of William Morris stood opposite his wife. She is bare footed, he has red socks, but he also must have been a messy eater as he needed a very large napkin tucked into his collar!
What a lovely church, thank you Debby for mentioning it. My knee was going to have to walk down the hill, so as along as we found a fairly level path to the shops I’d not have to do too much more downhill. A footpath was found which connected the older part of Cheddleton to the newer busier Leek Road. A pint of milk and a loaf of bread, Bargain Booze managed to have both and tucked in the fridge were a pile of freshly made oatcakes. At £1.45 for 6 they make the ones you make yourself very expensive.
Back on board I made up the Oatcake mix we’d bought at Great Haywood, leaving it to rest for half an hour, so the yeast had time to do it’s stuff. I cooked up the last of our Oxford sausages and sliced them, some mushrooms were cooked and cheese grated. Four oat cakes were cooked, kept warm, then the filling was added to each in turn, cooked in the frying pan to melt the cheese. Two each, very yummy. The remainder of the batter was then cooked up, each cake left to cool before being popped in the freezer for another time.
Where we’re headed we may not have internet for a couple of days. Where we’re going has a low tunnel, we’re going to see if Oleanna can get through it! Tune in next time to see if we succeeded. If we never post again, it’s because we’re stuck in Froghall Tunnel!
3 locks, 2.8 miles, 1 straight on, 1 speedy cruising boat, 1 pretty wooden canoe, 1 late night boat, 1 church, 1 steep hill, there and back, 3 angels, 0 pretzels, 5 oatcakes, 6 for another time, 0 oxford sausages left, 2 bricks purchased, 1 Mrs Tilly stamp of approval.
