Pottering through the Potteries

We had another relaxing evening on ‘Chance’ with Olly and a very quiet night at the Harecastle tunnel entrance.

At 8 o’ clock this morning the tunnel was opened and off we went.

On the way through Middleport we were very pleased to see the lovely old disused and dilapidated buildings of the Middleport Pottery are being renovated.  Each time we’ve passed we’ve hoped we’d see this day. 

After Middleport we were soon at Etruria junction, where the Caldon Canal branches off, and into the first lock flight of the day.

Still being reminded that we were in the heart of “The Potteries” these two old ‘gents’ are still standing proud against the modern world.

There’s a lot of graffiti about, as we all know, but sometimes you just have to admire talent when you see it.

We tried to get as many miles on the clock as possible today so it was lunch ‘on the hoof’ – Olly collected his lunch from someone handing out free bacon butties from the towpath!

Stone had a few intriguing sights for us – who could resist a pump out here.

Some of the Stone workforce – or were they stoned!

The best treat which Stone had to offer was for us to meet up (all too briefly, sadly) with Carol and George on nb ‘Rock n Roll’ who were moored up.  This is a photo of Carol taking a photo of us!

George (bless him) helped us get both boats through two locks while Olly did a very quick bit of shopping in town– thank you George.

After Stone, and after Olly got back from shopping, there seems to be a bit of mix up with boats and steerers – Olly somehow found himself steering ‘Chance’………….

……… and Doug found himself steering ‘Queen Maeve’!

After a long, and very nice sunny day, we moored up at Sandon at 6 o’ clock.  Here’s James showing Olly how to tie up a boat – “now just let me see what’s gone wrong here”.  Lovely expression on Olly’s face!

We covered 19 miles and 15 locks and we have decided to pay a visit to the Dog and Doublet in Sandon this evening for a meal.