We pushed on through Tyrley Locks, the last five locks before the Shroppie summit. This task was not without incident. It turns out that the pound between lock 5 and 4 has a substantial stone sill next to the tow path and pound very shallow. Once aground it took 10 minutes for both of us with rope and boat pole to free TM. Was'nt till we were doing the bottom gates for lock 4 that we noticed a sign telling boaters to set the lock for lock 5 before leaving 4 - wrong direction for us - did'nt notice any instructions on lock 5 top gate! Busy flight of locks as everyone moving early before day got too hot.
 |
| Tyrley Locks |
Much of the Shoppie here is either in a deep rock cutting or on top of an embankment. The scenery is fantastic. The cuttings make for interesting boating as they tend to be rather narrow.
 |
| Tall bridge in Woodseaves Cutting |
Most of the embankments are tree lined so you can only glimpse the view through gaps but occasionally the trees disappear to give a view of Clee Hill and The Wrekin.
 |
| Clee Hill |
We finished the day moored at the Wharf Inn at Shebdon, however the pub had been sold and was closed. This was not a problem as the mooring was nice and we met Carol and Dave from Nb Moon River. Carol and Dave quite upset re pub closure as they had run out of beer! Back to TM and a bottle of Gordon's was cracked open - the rest is history as they say but a very pleasant chatty evening ensued.
Before mooring we had passed the old Cadbury factory at Knighton (now owned by Premier Foods). Cadbury moved milk, cocoa and sugar by canal until 1961. The last boatman to trade to Knighton was Charlie Atkins senior, known by his nickname 'Chocolate Charlie'.
 |
| Cadbury Knighton Wharf |
No comments:
Post a Comment