Slow Pace Cruise 2015: Penkridge to Fradley Junction

On Tuesday 16 June we cruised to Stafford where we moored overnight. After a visit to the town the next morning we cruised on to Great Haywood where we turned onto the Trent & Mersey Canal. As planned, this was the end of the journey for Chris & Elaine, who went home in a hire car on Thursday. They were accompanied by Peter & Anne who stayed overnight at home while Bill and Sandra looked after the boats. On Friday Peter & Anne returned to the boat and on Saturday 20 June Slow Pace & Scotch Corner cruised to Fradley Junction, the junction with the Coventry Canal.

We cruise the last part of the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal

We turned onto the Trent & Mersey Canal at Great Haywood Junction

At Great Haywood we moored in nearly the exact spot that we had moored just after the boat was launched during our maiden cruise from Stone in Staffordshire to our mooring in Stanstead Abbotts. As can be seen in these next two pictures, the weather was rather different

17 June 2015

5 January 2009
We were iced in!

Shugborough Hall is a stately home in Great Heywood.

The estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, upon which it passed through several hands before being purchased in 1624 by William Anson, a local lawyer and ancestor of the Earls of Lichfield. The estate remained in the Anson family for three centuries. Following the death of the 4th Earl of Lichfield in 1960, the estate was allocated to the National Trust in lieu of death duties, and then immediately leased to Staffordshire County Council. The estate is now open to the public and comprises the hall, museum, kitchen garden and a model farm.

The gardens have some interesting features

Essex Bridge is a packhorse bridge located on the Shugborough estate.

Lying on the River Trent one hundred yards downstream of the junction with the River Sow, it was built in 1550 by the then Earl of Essex for Queen Elizabeth I so that when she visited the estate she could go hunting in the woodland around the local village. It is now the longest remaining packhorse bridge in England with fourteen of its original forty span arches left.

This nice pub was very close to our mooring...

...where we sampled a pint or two!

Well, after 277 miles and 333 locks it's time to say goodbye to Chris & Elaine who were going home the next morning. Here we are all ready to go out for a farewell meal at the Clifford Arms.