On the Cut: Tuesday revisited (somehow lost the blog and have had to re-write (mutter, mutter)

You may remember that we spent Monday night at Stockton Brook, a village with five locks (41 feet) on the Caldon Canal. We had moored before the locks, so first thing we worked through the locks and then, at the top, I lost John and Stan - they were standing gazing into the middle distance, for there stretched before them was the Greenway Hall Golf Club. I suggested to them that they should walk over to the club and see if they could borrow some clubs and play 9 holes, which is what they did and had a great deal of fun. The Club was only too willing to charge them a very reasonable fee and lend them clubs, so it was game on.

They were off the boat for just under three hours and for the rest of the afternoon there was much discussion on the fairways, greens and the good and bad points of each hole. I took the opportunity to stay on the boat, try to make Skype contact (failed) and read my book.

On the move again we swung past Endon and stopped at the Park Lane Wharf where we took on water. Leaving the wharf with Stan at the helm and John in the bows, I pushed off and made my way down the side of the boat towards the stern. My foot slipped out from under me and next moment I was hanging from the rail, that runs the length of the roof, by my fingers, and my legs dangling up to my knees, in the canal. There were shouts from the British Waterways men on the bank and Stan, seeing that I had disappeared called to John, who raced back down the side of the boat, grabbed me by my belt and hauled me up onto the side again.

Funny how things play tricks with your mind - I had this fear that I was going to be crushed between our boat and a British Waterways work boat that was moored ahead of us. In fact I was up on the side of the boat well before we passed the work boat.

So, John has had a 'paddle', I have had a dip, and Stan is still dry!

So we arrived at Hazelhurst Junction which is the meeting place of the Caldon Canal and it's branch, the Leek Branch which is 2 miles long. It leaves the Caldon on the right, travels parallel for a short distance and then turns back over the Caldon to head north east. More of that tomorrow.

At Hazelhurst we dropped down through three locks (25 feet) and travelled east under the Leek Branch aqueduct on our way to Cheddleton. Here John and Stan took the boat down through two locks (16 feet), while I went to the Post Office to post postcards to Australia and South Africa. Cheddleton had an industrial past with a flint mill and other industry related to coal and limestone. There were even silk and paper mills here. Now there is a huge factory right next to the canal where steel in all shapes and sizes was being fabricated and galvanised.

Outside Cheddleton is the main yard of the Churnet Valley Railway. There we saw all sorts of rolling stock - wagons, coaches, a kitchen car and a dining car, and a number of the earliest diesel locos. There is a group of entusiasts who are restoring the line and during the summer months their steam locomotive pulls holidaymakers up and down the line.

By now the Caldon is in deep woodland as it makes its way into the Churnet River valley. This is England at its best! And pheasants - we saw them everywhere!.

At the Oakmeadow Ford Lock the Caldon drops 7 feet and lands in the Churnet River, whose waters took us gently on to Consall Forge. Here the canal takes its leave of the river, as the river runs over a weir, and takes us on to Flint Mill Lock which has the last winding hole for boats of our size. Stan made a masterly turn through 180 degrees and, having travelled the navigable length of Caldon, we made our way back to Consall Forge.

Consall Forge is a village of two or three houses and a pub lying deep in the woods in the Churnet River valley. The peace and quiet were not always like this. At its peak in the 1860s there were over 1000 men working on the limestone mines and lime kilns in this little valley. Pearson tells us that there were 30 boats a day leaving Consall Forge carrying lime and iron ore, which was also mined in the area. One imagines the lime kilns belching clouds of toxic smoke into the atmosphere and dust and dirt everywhere. These pictures catch something of Consall Forge today.

The old lime kilns, Consall Forge - the kilns are built into the side of a hill so that limestone and coal could be shovelled in at the top, the kiln was lit and then, when ready, the lime was shovelled out the doors at the bottom.