Barlaston

Yesterday we set off from our mooring at Westport Lake for our trip through the potteries, aka Stoke on Trent. We had six locks to navigate on the eight mile journey, including the three at Etruria. The trip was fairly uneventful, meeting only a few boats on route. The amount of canal traffic seems to have reduced dramatically over the last week or so. 

       

                                                           Mooring at Barlaston.

We moored just beyond the Wedgwood factory, and after securing the boat we walked to The Plume of Feathers P.H. for lunch. Today we visited the Wedgwood factory for a tour of the site and museum. The factory had moved from its original location at Etruria, to Barlaston due to mining subsidence. Many of the original methods used by Josiah Wedgwood, remain in use today. Some of the machinery however has been updated. The modern kilns for example take just over nine hours to fire the pots, whereas the old bottle kilns used to take up to 48 hours to achieve the same result.

                          

The tour was very informative, not least the fact that there are only two hand painters working at the site. A hand painted tea service has to be pre ordered and will set you back circa 30 K. After the tour lunch was taken in the Wedgwood dining hall, but not using Wedgwood hand painted bone china.

Totals 8 Miles 6 Locks

Running total 337 Miles 197 Locks 14 Tunnels

Barlaston

Leaving Aston Marina this morning we edged our nose out onto the cut, just as Tamora No.2 passed by, pipping us to the lock. We had not seen them since the Glascote weekend, and now they were ahead of us also heading as far as Barlaston. We travelled on along the Trent Valley, running parallel to the river until arriving at Stone. We had four locks of the Stone flight, and a further four at the Meaford flight to complete before the final leg into Barlaston. We found a mooring just outside the village close to the Wedgwood factory, famous for its bone china. Later we walked back into Barlaston and had a drink at the Plume of Feathers P.H. Unfortunately its owner, Neil Morrissey of Men Behaving Badly fame, was not present today. Our mooring is adjacent to a field, which on arrival contained about 100 Canada geese.

       

You can just see the geese in the background. On our return from the pub it was apparent that several more of their mates had decided to turn up.

       

I just hope this lot don't start squawking during the dawn chorus in the early hours of tomorrow morning. If so I suspect we will be underway by 5am.

Totals 5 Miles 9 Locks

Running total 251 Miles 159 Locks 12 Tunnels