Polesworth

The campanologists have been busy here over the last two days. For those readers who don’t know what a campanologist does I can inform you they study the design and use of camping grounds.  OK, so I’m pulling your leg!  Campanologists ring bells!  The Polesworth campanologists have been very busy with a wedding practice yesterday morning followed by the actual wedding ceremony after lunch.  This morning it was the Sunday church service.  All this bell ringing is coming from Polesworth Abbey.

Sorry…. phone photos today!

The Abbey was founded in the 9th Century, although very little of the original structure remains.  The abbey church dates back to the 12th Century and is Grade II listed.  The gatehouse is probably more interesting.  It’s also Grade II listed and is also a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

I liked the gatehouse stone arch footpath.  The gatehouse has been restored and the area above converted to rental accommodation.

Polesworth is on the River Anker and apparently the name is derived from the ancient Saxon words for pool and dwellings.  The river became shallow and wide here forming a fordable pool which led to the location being settled.

We had our usual Sunday roast lunch at the Red Lion which has had a change of publican.  We know this because they couldn’t accept cards (cash only) because the ‘new’ system hadn’t been installed.

The meal was OK (5/10). 

We wandered back to Waiouru over the main bridge.

I have completed the painting of the cratch area but have made a right pigs ear of the front panel on the bow thruster locker.  I know what I did wrong!  I was down to the dregs in the tin and raced it.  What I should have done is either added some Owotrol or waited until we had a new tin of paint.  Now it will have to be rubbed back.

Organic laundry rinse

A nice start to the day so Jan decided to start a couple of loads of laundry once the engine had completed the ‘Bulk’ part of the battery charge.  The strategy is to not start the washing machine until less than 30amps are going into the battery.  Usually the Smartgauge will be showing the batteries are 80% charged when this occurs.

Jan completed the two loads and then asked me to fit the rotary clothesline to the stern.  She then pegged out all the freshly washed sheets and ‘smalls’ only for it to start raining as she used the last peg.   “Never mind” says me “They will be organically rinsed”.

I went off to continue with the repainting of the cratch.  Have I previously mention I hate painting?  I’m attempting to follow the advice from our friend and boat painter, Bill.  Plenty of preparation, use Owotrol, don’t apply too much (or too little) paint.  Remember to “slowly and lightly feather off” the new paint in a downward direction.  Don’t “drag” the paint upwards against gravity.  Don’t finish with the brush going sideways. I hate painting (have I mentioned that) and consequentially tend to rush the job so I can move on to more interesting things.  At 65 I’m starting to acquire more patience and have broken the job into four stages with a day between each.

The first top coat on the cratch floor was completed a week ago.  Several days ago I rubbed back the rust and scratches before applying primer and then undercoat.  Bill used the analogy of Velcro when explaining paint to me.  Primer has large ‘hooks’ and very little water proofing properties.  Undercoat has smaller hooks and little water proofing.  Topcoat has almost no hooks and is mostly water resistant.  So when I go back to bare metal I have to start with primer and then undercoat before the final top coat.  Painting top coat directly onto steel will almost certainly result in it falling off.  Yesterday and today I applied top coat to the bow thruster locker top, the port locker and bulkhead wall.

The bow thruster locker

The port diesel tank.  The lid goes on top so that paintwork won’t be exposed.  It was the side of the tank I wanted to be smooth.

The port bulkhead.  There are slight vertical ripple marks from the brush which I’m hoping will flatten out over the next couple of days.

Tomorrow I will have to prepare and paint the front of the bow thruster locker, the starboard locker and the starboard cabin bulkhead.  Can I maintain concentration and patience.  Have I mentioned I hate painting?  The last of the Craftmaster light grey paint has almost been used up so we will need to buy more for the stern.  The nearest stockist is at Braunston and we are fortunately heading that way.

Have I mentioned I hate bl**dy painting?

On to Polesworth

Yesterday evening I walked down to Fazeley Junction to check on the location of the CRT services.  It’s only two years since we were last this way but despite that I wanted to refresh my memory.  We’ve not previously used the CRT services at Peel Wharf.

They are located on the right, just beyond the entrance to the private moorings.  Water, rubbish and elsan  and we need to dispose of our rubbish.  This morning we cruised down to find a boat already on the services mooring.  The boater kindly agreed to take our rubbish and place it in the skip allowing us to continue on another 100 metres to the second water point at the junction.  Good water pressure meant the tank filled in 10 minutes and then we were away heading for Glascote Locks. 

Tamworth is the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Mercia and takes its name from the River Tame which flows through it. The Reliant Robin car (that three wheeler ‘Mr Bean’ loved to hate) was built in Tamworth along with the Reliant Scimitar.  I hadn’t realised the Robin had a fibreglass body.

We crossed the Tame realising it would continue on upstream to Spaghetti Junction (Salford Junction) eventually passing under the Tame Valley Canal.  The Tame joins the River Trent at the National Memorial Arboretum.

There always seems to be a queue at Glascote Locks.  The first time we went through them was on a hire boat in 2007 and it was a very long queue (around the corner).  Both of us remember the name of the boat ahead of us (nb Black Buoy).  The crew were very friendly with their boat emitting the delicious smell of a shoulder of lamb in their oven,  Fortunately only three boats in today’s queue.

This is the first time I’d noticed the year of manufacture on the lock paddle mechanism.

 

I wonder if they have any spares in stock?

Jan took a photo of these.  Like me, you will recognize them as…….. birds!

We slowly cruised on past Alvecote Marina and the Samuel Barlow. 

It was a pleasant cruise up to Polesworth passing the private moorings where the M42 crosses the canal.  The area looks to be a former wharf adjacent to Pooley Country Park.  My guess is coal was mined locally and transported by canal from the wharf.

The clue to my assumption is the large colliery pit wheel around the bend.

Jan took a photo of a substantial building slightly further on. 

After some research this evening I believe I’ve identified it as Pooley Hall, built in 1509.  If you’ve click on the link you might have noticed a colliery and wharf are mentioned.

To our surprise the Polesworth moorings were almost empty.  On our three previous visits we’ve been hard pressed to find a vacant mooring.  The weekend weather is looking good so we’ll probably stay here and do some boat painting.

Blog Readers

I’m guilty of sometimes forgetting about you; our blog readers.  We haven’t seen many moving boats since leaving Manchester at the end of April.  In the last few days the number of moving boats has increased significantly and we were reminded of that whilst waiting In a queue at Bagnall Lock.  The lady on a boat that had just come down through the lock called out she was a blog reader.  Unfortunately I was on the bank holding the centreline and couldn’t write down any details.  Then nb Katy passed us and the steerer also mentioned he was a blog reader.  Finally we passed nb Leo moored south of Huddersford Junction and the lady on the stern mentioned she had just read our last blog post.  It has been a timely reminder that we need to consider our readers and ensure we always have the small notepad on the stern to collect names.

Bagnall Lock

We’re obviously back on popular canals as there were queues(albeit short) at every lock.  Just before Hunts Lock we passed nb Wells Cargo.  I remember writing to the owner when designing Waiouru.  He had installed an underfloor toilet tank and I was considering doing the same (we eventually did this).

There was a volunteer lock keeper at Junction Lock and after doing 10 locks (five for other boaters) Jan greatly appreciated the assistance.  Last time we ate at The Swan we thought the meal was very ordinary, so today we continued on turning left onto the Coventry Canal.

The Coventry seems to be shallower than the Trent & Mersey and we’ve been churning up the bottom at many of the bridge holes.

Streethay Wharf came and went!

The weather during the cruise was mixed.  The sun would put in an appearance and poor Jan would start to overheat in her fleece.  She’d take it off and the sun would then disappear leaving her to shiver so she’d put it back on.  Then the sun would reappear.  My only contribution was to suggest “Don’t go topless dear… you might make it snow!” 

We’ve been this way before (several times) but can’t remember it. Except for the section before Hopwas where there are military warning signs on the offside.

The high tower to the west is the Lichfield Transmitter which is no longer in use.  The tower broadcasted analogue TV signals from 1956 until 2011 when the switch to digital occurred and the new signal was broadcast from Sutton Coalfield.

We finished the day on the northern outskirts of Tamworth.

Indirect approach

Taking advantage of better weather I went for a walk through Alrewas inadvertently adopting an indirect approach to my final destination.  Along the way there was an opportunity to buy Jan’s weekly magazines from the local Cooperative and also view some of the more interesting houses in the village.

This one looked like it was falling over in almost every direction with some walls leaning inwards and others leaning out.

It must be a challenge attempting to fit a new kitchen or bathroom.  The purpose of this next building came a quite a surprise.

According to the sign, it’s a Chinese takeaway!

Coates & Son the local butcher appeared to be very popular.  The butchers looked like it was at the back with the shop in the front.

I made my navigation error immediately after crossing the busy A38 turning right instead of walking directly ahead.  You can see my route in the map extract below.  I followed the purple route, when I should have used the more direct red route.

There was no footpath on the A513 which meant I had to be particularly vigilant.  My destination was the…….

I am aware many boaters have already visited the National Memorial Arboretum but they were probably all sensible and walked the shorter (and safer) route.

Arboretum means “a botanical garden devoted to trees”.  The National Memorial Arboretum was opened in 2001.  It is a national remembrance site which remembers service to the nation and honours the fallen.  I spent several hours wandering around looking at the various memorials.  For me, it wasn’t so poignant as interesting!  Whilst I had anticipated the memorials the plaques on many of the trees was unexpected.

One of the volunteers subsequently informed me families and interested organisations are able to pay to have a plaque installed.  I assume it’s a useful source of revenue.  The memorial to the Ammunition Technicians (AT’s) and Ammunition Technical Officers (ATO’s).

The names of the fallen were on the side of the plinth and the first thing I noticed was the majority lost their lives in Northern Ireland.

The South Iraq Memorial

It’s also named as The Basra Memorial

The Afghanistan Memorial

The golden eagle caught my eye.  It’s the memorial to the Auxillary RAF.

Whilst the Maple Leaf was a clue on this one.  It’s the Royal Canadian Air Force Memorial.

 

The railway memorial was one of the more interesting

There is a NZ link to the Battle of the River Plate Memorial.  One of the three smaller ships to attack the Graf Spee was HMS Achilles from the NZ Division.  The other two cruisers were Ajax and Exeter.  Interestingly Achilles was the first RN cruiser to have fire control radar, with the installation of the New Zealand-made SS1 fire-control radar in June 1940.

The Burma Railway Memorial consists of a length of track removed from the original railway and transported to the UK in 2002.

More water hasn’t improved the depth

Time to move on… but not before a trip to Aldi for the essentials (chocolate).  The day was dull with a possibility of rain.  Despite this we decided to move heading east towards Alrewas.  After months of those heavy gates on fat locks Jan is finding the gates on the skinny locks much easier.  Of course the drizzle set in 15 minutes after starting to move.  Jan donned her full wet weather kit whilst I opted for the light raincoat.  It almost started to ease by the time we reached Tatenhill Lock.  Don’t be deceived by this next photo; I digitally enhanced it to make the day look better.

We started to round the last bend before Barton Turn Lock to discover CRT were dredging.  Our timing was perfect because the excavator operator had just filled one hopper which was being propelled away from us by a tug.  He waved to us to go past and then continued dredging.  We had both commented that the bottom seemed close to the top so it’s good to see CRT rectifying the situation.   A boat was cunningly moored just before the water point moorings.  His hose is long enough to reach the tap without him mooring on the “official” mooring.  You can see the dredging operation under the bridge in the distance.

It took ages to top up the water tank but we weren’t concerned because we knew the tug was ahead a moving slowly.  Actually there were two tugs moving the tailings.  The second came down the lock just as the tank filled.

We went up through the lock in the rain passing Barton Marina on the right.  Another dark photo which I’ve had to enhance.

We met the other tug and barge just before Wychnor Lock.  It was here the second excavator was moving the dredging spoil and loading It Into a farmers trailer.  I guess the farmer is happy to obtain some free nutrient rich landfill.

The pound between Wychnor and Alrewas locks is actually the River Trent and attention needs to be paid to the river level boards.  Despite the rain they were showing green but the strength of the current was noticeable.  It was raining too heavily for photos and by the time we had gone up through Alrewas Lock and off the river we were ready to moor.  Jan started the central heater to warm the cabin and eventually we found a vacant mooring just before Bagnall Lock. 

It was a pleasure to get inside and warm up.