Wightwick and New Batteries

It was sunny when we set off but rain arrived before long. We had a second bright spell mid morning but after lunch rain set in solidly - varying from light to heavy. The sun then retreated behind the clouds to stay there for the rest of the day.

A brighter start to the day

We still had quite a stretch of the wooded Shropshire Union to complete, together with a few remaining high bridges.

Christine dropped off at the bridge in Wheaton Aston to go to the local shop in search of a paper and milk whilst Mike and Andrew pulled in a short distance ahead at the service block. Here we filled with water and made the usual disposals. By the time we had finished there was a queue of three boats for the lock ahead of us which we joined. Fortunately this was one of the fine spells and there were some friendly people on other boats to chat to to. One boat was very new to boating and this was their first lock so were quite keen to learn all about it. She had plenty of willing teachers!

Wheaton Aston Lock

Wheaton Aston is the last proper lock on this canal, apart from the stop lock right at the end.

 

Watling Street Aqueduct

An aqueduct carries the canal over Watling Street - a splendid combination of established forms of transport.

 

Avenue Bridge

When the canal was originally planned, some landowners managed to negotiate more decorative bridges as the navigation passed through their estate. Avenue Bridge carries a long avenue at Chillington, south of Brewood.

M54 Motorway

The last part of this canal is more open. We tried to moor before the M54 motorway but the edge was particularly shallow having been laid with inclined paving slabs just below the surface. We had to continue round a couple of bends before we could come alongside - even then not right at the edge but far enough away from the roar of the traffic whilst we had another soup lunch.

Autherley Stop Lock

Eventually we arrived at Autherley Stop Lock - jus ta tiny rise to control the flow of water. In this case it avoided the later Shropshire Union from losing water to the Staffs and Worcs.

Autherly Junction Bridge

Oxley Marine

Last night we decided to head southwards but we were still concerned about our batteries. Another investigation at lunch time yielded no further enlightenment. So, before Aldersley Junction we called at Oxley Marine - they helped us four years ago when vandals smashed a window. After removing the batteries and applying a load test, the meter showed just 9 volts on each of them, indicating that each one had lost some of its cells, probably when they went flat back on the Chesterfield Canal. Oxley Marine enthusiastically set about replacing them and sent us on our way, confident that we would now have a much better supply!

Aldersley Junction

With our revised plan, we continued past the start of the Wolverhampton 21 - happily rain as doing that in pouring would not have been much fun.

Compton Lock

There were a few locks to do on the Staffs and Worcs before we cleared the built up area - we wanted to moored well away from anyone else as we might have to run the engine for some time to see the batteries fully charged.

Temporary Barrier at Wightwick Mill Lock

At Wightwick Mill Lock we made our first encounter with the temporary barriers that have been added to the tail bridges at a number of the Staffs and Worcs locks following a seemingly badly-informed coroner's report into a sad incident at Stourport locks. They certainly do not meet any of the normal standards for modifications to listed structures!

Castle Croft Bridge

Each canal has its characteristic design features and the Staffs and Worcs has uniquely rounded ends to balance beams as well as the style of bridge name plates.

After one more lock we moored for the night and await confirmation of the success of our new batteries! A cold fridge and warm radiators in the morning are our key test!

14.0 miles - 5 locks