Burton-on-Trent

In contrast to the past week, today was bright, sunny and warm with little wind. Plenty of fluffy clouds but no hint of rain. We were up early with the light and made a good start - well, at least we were off by one minute before nine.

The Waterfront - Barton Marina

In this case, 'off' meant backing off from the marina pontoon mooring but it was another 8 minutes of reversing before we actually emerged from the marina onto the canal. With no wind it was straight forward - look back at the blog for our arrival to recall what it was like when we arrived.

Marina Entrance

This section of the Trent and Mersey is mostly rural in character although railway line is close at hand most of the time and frequently a main road. By the time we moored for the night we were close enough to East Midlands Airport to be almost under the flight path!

Barton Lock

The locks to begin with were still narrow and very easy to operate, but only four of them before the long pound through Burton on Trent. Signs of the extensive gravel workings are evident between Barton and Tattenhill Lock and we have to assume that too many Poles have been after too many Perches! (joke)

Gravel Workings

Dallow Lane Lock, as it dives below the road bridge, marks the end of the narrow canal.

Dallow Lane Lock

Surprisingly this time there was no overpowering smell of brewing even though the town of Burton is still dominated by the breweries. Marstons very much announces its presence but Bass, which has now become Coors, is more reticent!

Progress during the latter part of the morning was rather slow as there was quite a bit of traffic, especially Canal Time hire boats out from Sawley, one of which was just ahead of us and progressed so slowly that our tick-over was too fast! In the end we opted to pull in for lunch just on the edge of Burton and let them get away from us!

Firemen's Games

At bridge 29, a fire crew were testing out their equipment but, although we asked for a shampoo and wax clean they turned off the jet of water as we arrived.

Eggington Bridge

As we passed over the aqueduct at Eggington we could see that the water level in the river is still quite high - the Trent at Sawley was closed on Friday and we have not heard whether it is yet open. From here it does seem that we may have a wait after Shardlow.

Stenson Lock

After lunch the first lock was Stenson, the start of the broad locks from here to Derwent Mouth, the southern end of the Trent and Mersey Canal. Most of them are remarkably deep - Stenson is over 12 feet - and, as a result, hard work to operate. The gates leak with the extra pressure, not helped at Swarkestone by a top gate paddle that had a lot of weed caught in it and would not close fully.

Swarkestone Stop

Just above Swarkestone lock is Swarkestone Stop - we had seen reference to this earlier on a sign about the location of rubbish bins - but we will have to find out a bit more about what was here originally. Since the Derby Canal joined in above the lock, it may have been a convenient toll place, but that is just speculation.

As the day wore on, the traffic diminished - a number were out from Mercia Marina and returned there at the end of the weekend. In Willington we pause for just a few minutes, time enough to empty the elsan and dispose of rubbish.

Swarkestone saw us lose a mop and a chimney hat into the water although we were able to recover the mop which floated!

Rural Trent and Mersey

With still a sunny evening we opted to moor after Weston Lock when we found a bank with enough water to come alongside - but with enough weed growth to make the first leap ashore a bit interesting.

17.6 miles - 7 locks