Trent & Mersey Canal - Starting the way home

Since my last post I have speeded up getting back to London, because I have now launched my RYA boat training business (in London) and am getting bookings in already. I am now on my way back down the Grand Union to London, but have a bit of catching up to do on the blog. In this post I am covering the Trent & Mersey Canal up to Fradley Junction, where I turned off.

My next post will cover the Coventry and Northern Oxford canals leading back to Braunston, where I joined the big old Grand Union canal once more. The next one will be the last blog post for now as I am sure you are all getting bored of my ramblings about the ups and downs of the Grand Union by now.

I left off last time where I was coming off the river Trent onto the safety of the Trent & Mersey canal. The canal starts at Derwent Mouth lock, but the mile markers on the canal go to Shardlow, which is about a mile in from Derwent Mouth.

Thre first of the lovely mile markers

The Trent & Mersey Canal is one of the older canals in the country, built by canal pioneer James Brindley and completed in 1777 to connect the Trent in the East to the Mersey in the West, thus providing an inland route between the ports of Liverpool and Hull. On my tour in 2017 I travelled along the other end of this canal, amongst other places along “The Potteries” around Stoke-on-Trent.

Now for the other end. The village of Shardlow on the Trent developed into an important port when the canal arrived. A lot of it is still intact today from wharfs and warehouses to boatbuilders. One of the buildings houses a canal museum, but sadly it was closed due to Covid. I did not linger in Shardlow as by then I was on a mission to get back, but it was obviously a very interesting place worth exploring in a bit more detail at another time.

I was so looking forward to finally getting onto a canal with narrow locks. The only narrow locks on this whole trip so far had been the Watford and Foxton staircase lock flights, where I didn’t lift a finger. To my surprise the locks on the Trent & Mersey were wide locks too! And what beasts they were, all between 3-4m deep, which is enormous for a canal lock. Due to the way the locks were built (bridges over the bottom), I couldn’t walk up the side, but had to climb the slimy lock ladders, which I absolutely hate. To make matters worse it was occasionally drizzling, which makes everything even more slippery. I was not able to share locks as I was the only boat coming up, but I was never short of gongoozlers (people who like to watch boats around the locks while generally not helping). It was really difficult to operate the locks as a 3-4m fall creates an enormous turbulence in the lock and controlling it with a rope from that height is not easy. Willum kept banging into the cill at the top every single time no matter how slowly I opened the paddles. I tried to look as if I was in control at all times. I don’t know how convincing that was.

Willum against the cill - the bow fender was really clean afterwards

In the last and deepest one of these humongous locks for some reason my windlass (the key to operate the paddles which let the water in and out) did not fit the spindle on the ground paddle. I had the options of descending the slippery ladder again and finding another windlass or use only the gate paddles to fill the lock. Gate paddles are holes in the top lock gates to let in water. They must only be opened once these holes are close to the water level as they create a waterfall and big turbulence in the lock. I decided against making that perilous descent down the ladder again and instead used the gate paddles very … very … carefully. I cracked open the paddle just the tiniest bit and basically created a waterfall of about 3m falling into the lock to fill it while trying to keep Willum well back against the other end. The audience really enjoyed the spectacle. I didn’t very much. It took forever, but eventually I got there after what felt like half an hour.

Little Willum in a BIG lock

After the end of that day I was very relieved to learn that from now on the locks would indeed be narrow. Which also meant that I was now out of widebeam territory. The locks went from HUGE to tiny within a few miles. The narrow locks not only had queues (as only one boat can go into a lock at a time) but also very low bridges all of a sudden.

Looks like a toy after the huge locks before

Suddenly I had to aim really well to get through the bridges

It was quite interesting to see the different demographics of boats in the various areas. Coming up to Foxton locks from the South there were lots of “shiny” narrowboats, boats usually kept in a marina that only come out in the summer for cruising. From Foxton to Leicester there were hardly any boats at all. On the Soar and Trent, it was mainly GRP cruisers and some narrowboats that looked more like liveaboards (usually identifiable by having random stuff on the roof, especially fire wood). No shiny boats anywhere. When entering the Trent & Mersey canal suddenly I was back in shiny boat territory. Only narrowboats and a few widebeams up to the aforementioned locks. It seems that the shiny narrowboats don’t venture out onto the Trent and Soar very much.

Quite soon after the start of the narrow locks I crossed a lovely aqueduct over the river Dove. Have I mentioned that I love aqueducts (if they are not too scary)? The Dove also had a lot of water at the time just like the Trent.

On the aqueduct

The river Dove below

When I came up to Alrewas I was very surprised to see a sign saying “River section - open”. The sign clearly had an option to say “closed” as well! I had thought that I had left the Trent behind, but there was a little stretch where the canal joined the river once more, about 30 miles up from where I was last on it in my scary 10 seconds. Sure enough there was another massive weir and a place where the river flowed in a bit further on. But this time it was all harmless compared to the masses of water previously. It was actually a very beautiful and peaceful place.

Don't go left!

Because there is one of these once more

Alrewas river section, very similar to the Soar

Fortunately everything green here - phew!

The bridge where the Trent joins the canal

When I had boated from the other end of the Trent & Mersey canal in 2017 I really loved it. For a long stretch it follows the Trent Valley with lush meadows and livestock. The stretch that I went on this time also followed the Trent Valley, but I was a bit disappointed that it was mostly lined by trees and hedges, so only the occasionally glimpse over the valley was possible. From what I could see the Trent still had quite a lot of water.

A rare view over the Trent valley

And of the Trent itself

The stretch from Shardlow to Fradley Junction felt a bit generic overall and not the best part of this canal. Also the canal runs adjacent to the busy A38 for a long time (another ancient Roman road). This happens so often as ancient roads, railways and canals all follow the route with the least undulation across the country.

Mural under a bridge in Burton-on-Trent

The only excitement on this canal was that I caught a solid rubber pipe fender around my propeller, which banged against the hull so loudly when I tried to reverse that I was worried to damage something. I had to let the boat drift toward the bank as I couldn’t stop by reversing. When I reached the bank I jumped off and brought the boat to a halt with a rope. Fortunately no audience this time apart from some sheep. My trusted designated bread knife sorted it quickly and I was on my way again within 10 minutes. I am keeping the fender in reserve for now!

The booty from the prop

I went as far as Fradley Junction, where the Trent&Mersey meets the Coventry canal. Fradley Junction is a lovely busy waterways place with a lock flight (with volunteers!), a famous old pub and two cafes. I was lucky to find a mooring right in the middle of the flight and spent a nice evening there.