Friday 20th August
With the Shropshire Union Canal being a relatively ‘modern” canal it employs embankments & cuttings to cut a more direct line than the older contour canals, see the straight lines on today’s map.
Wikipedia tell us
“The SU main line was the last trunk narrow canal route to be built in England.
It was not completed until 1835 and was the last major civil engineering accomplishment of Thomas Telford.”
We left Wheaton Aston before 9:30am and continued without any locks to hinder us and enjoyed views of open countryside through the trees.
There are many offside moorings along the way, some on the remains of old wharves.
Lord Talbot’s Wharf was formerly used by Cadbury’s to transport milk to their milk processing plant at Knighton.
The wharf building is now an attractive home.
We met several day boats on hire from Norbury Wharf, handled with varying degrees of competence.
Today’s notable landmark was Cowley Tunnel hewn through the rock with no need for a brick lining. On emerging we were in Gnosall [say No-Zull or maybe Knows All?]
We found a mooring opposite The Boat Inn to which we repaired for lunch, a pint and a mini ploughman consisting of a cheese or ham cob [roll to you Southerners] half a pork pie & half a Scotch Egg, thankfully without the half a plate of salad which I generally waste.
Beside us is a field with ducks, geese, chicken, sheep and goats to keep us amused.
I collected a couple of items from the village shop and then spent the afternoon creating a new mounting for Joy’s seat, the plan being to give her a better view of where we are going. I shall report on her verdict in a day or so.
I had to bore a 2¼ inch hole through ¼ inch steel plate with another purchase from Amazon, my poor old drill struggled a bit, but succeeded before the battery died!
Saturday 21st August
We elected to stay put today as the weather forecast was decidedly wet and we are conveniently placed for a delivery from Sainsbury’s later on.
Whilst having my morning cuppa at 7:30 am a boat passed by, it was Ben, the guy who did our welding recently, we exchanged greetings and maybe we’ll catch him up tomorrow.
I spent some time playing my accordion this afternoon and after an attempt at Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ I was surprised, no shocked, by a round of applause from two ladies standing outside the boat window!
Our Sainsbury delivery was delivered straight to our kitchen window, but minus several items, a common problem these days, it seems.
Another result was that we sold our old TV through Facebook Marketplace, to a chap fitting out a camper van.