Day 9 Monday 29 September Barlaston to Milton

Today the journey has taken us from the countryside into the city & back into the countryside again!  We intended to set off about 10:30 but as soon as we were ready it started to rain & as I was silly enough to leave my waterproof coat at home we decided to wait until the rain passed.

At just before mid-day we set off & soon reached the lock at Trentham which was almost 12' deep - usually locks would be in the region of about 7-8'.  After that we were on the edge of Stoke-on-Trent & the scenery was again very industrial, mostly modern but there was also some very run-down looking areas.

Welcome to Stoke - it's all happening here!

The canal winds its way round the city under new road bridges before reaching a flight of 5 deep Stoke locks raising the canal about 50', with the Top Lock being 13'2" deep making it one of the deepest in the country.

Stoke Top Lock 40

Whilst travelling between these locks we passed these couple of bottle kilns.  From the 18th century until the 1960s, bottle ovens were the dominating feature of the Staffordshire Potteries. There were over two thousand of them standing at any one time and many of the surviving kilns are now listed buildings.

Bottle Kilns on T&M Canal

At the top of the Stoke locks we reached Etruria junction where we took a very sharp right turn onto the Caldon Canal.  The Caldon Canal is a windy contour canal which was restored & reopened 40 years ago this week, as such we had been told that the canal was busier than usual as many boats came up for the celebrations.

The canal quickly reaches a staircase locks, which in this case is 2 locks joined together where the top gates of the bottom lock are the bottom gates of the top lock.  This raises the canal up by 19'3".  Luckily there was a volunteer lock keeper on duty as the paddles were very stiff indeed!

Lock 1 of the Caldon Canal

 On a staircase lock regardless of if you're going up or down you need to make sure the top lock is full & the bottom lock is empty.  In the picture above the gates for the bottom lock are open for the boat to go in, ahead you can see the massive middle gates which serve both locks.

Lock 2 ahead

Once the bottom gates of the bottom lock are closed we can open the paddles on the top lock to let the water into the bottom lock & the boat rises.  When the levels are equal we can open the gates to allow the boat into the top lock.

Entering Lock 2 of the Caldon Canal

Once the boat is in the top lock we close the middle gates & open the top paddles to fill the top lock

Top lock Almost full

 Once the levels are equal we can open the top gate & we can continue on our way.

The first couple of miles of the Caldon Canal goes through a park & then through an area which used to be industrial but now that the industry has gone new houses are springing up in their hundreds, reminders of the industrial past still remain.

2 more Bottle Kilns on the Caldon Canal

 Our mooring for this evening was in the village of Milton & once again we had caught up with John & Josie who we'd invited over for dinner!  So it was chilli prawns with spaghetti on the menu & Josie brought a chocolate bread & butter pudding which as our friends & family know is one of Stuart's favourites, this was paired with a bottle of John & Josie's Sloe Gin made with Sloes they'd picked whilst on board Eos in 2012.

Today we've travelled for about 5.5 hours through 9 locks