MANY of you will be aware of the difference between the South and North sections of the Staffs & Worcs, where it divides at the junction with the Shroppie, with the then loss of a gate paddle slowing things down.
Many missing lock bridges in the northern section adds to the difficulty for boaters, and the ground paddles have different gearing that is harder to operate. Then you get a ground paddle like the one pictured, where rather than repair it Cart prefers to simply take out its mechanism, leaving just one paddle in operation—and when that also fails...
Lack of instruction
It was back at Oxley Marina, and a New Zealand fella getting diesel and a pump-out, added to the now very long list of the lack of instruction for new hirers from some—and note the word some—hire companies. He told he met one poor sod who held up a windlass and asked him what it was for! And all of us who have been boating any decent length of time must have come across hirers with all the paddles raised, wondering what to do next, having had so scant instruction.
And many hire companies or even Cart should realise that new boaters just haven't a clue what a cill is. I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked.
I have often suggested that hiring companies would save themselves a great deal of money with a permanent notice on the stern bulkhead telling boaters to keep to the front of the lock when descending—then we would not get so many stoppages through sunken boats caught on the cill. And not to use tight ropes at anytime on canal locks, as they are dangerous, having seen too many boats either hung-up or rolled over.
But when you have the numbies at Cart telling us to use ropes in its locks, they do not take into account that beginners will not know exactly what is meant, so tie them tight—and finish up in a mess. Better to have none.
Prefer the northern section
Personally I prefer the northern section of this waterway as it is in open country instead of hemmed in on both side by trees and so many acute bends. We all have our tales of near misses in that area, so I shall not bore you with ours.
It was at Otherton Lock we saw a very strange being—a Cart fella out, not with his clip-board anymore, but with his tablet, examining the lock and entering his 'ticks', but alas he had no windlass and he did not offer to move a gate, which I thought was pretty useless. Then he went under the bridge, looked up at it, and made another tick, and walked on. Here's a picture.
Tixall Lock
Then eventually we reached Tixall Lock and though there were two boaters we thought were willing to help by opening a paddle, they were so busy gassing that they did not even notice the lock had emptied, and only being aware when Thomas arrived with his windlass!
Don't need many helpers like those two, pictured, when going through a lock!
Boats galore
Then they came—the boats that is, for by the time we had actually arrived by the Wide we had counted two just gone through the lock, four boats waiting at the bottom and one approaching. We were told that this was the 'Breakfast Club', boaters that moor overnight at Tixall Wide, have their breakfasts then set off, unluckily all together!
Though there were few boats on the southern section of the Staffs & Worcs, the northern section certainly made up for it having encountered 21 moving boats within four hours cruising, though mostly private boats.
Back on the Trent & Mersey
So back once again on the Trent & Mersey, with the decision we were going to moor just below Shugborough Lock and explore the many pathways, where we met Jacqui and Tony on Timewarp, who have the most extensive collection of brass tiller pins for sale that I have ever seen. The picture will give you some idea of the marvellous animals.
Smurfs
It was from Tony that we learned the name for lock volunteers is Smurfs, with another boater asking if there had been any Smurfs at Fradley! Oh dear!
Then of course it was the now statutory two miles walk with Rusty the Ridgeback, first across the Trent through a wood and across a rather large field and back, but that was not enough so it was over the bridge up into another wood into another field and back where we encountered an actual dog gate. The gate is slid up to allow the dog through then lowered to keep any young stock from escaping from the field. A damn good idea.
It can be quite interesting what can be discovered on these walks, as we saw the remains of an old coaching bridge over the Trent that connected to the one over the canal to serve Shugborough Hall in days gone by.
Sheer hypocrisy
It was at Shugborough that we came across the sheer hypocrisy of Cart, that together with an official from Shugborough Hall was showing off the waterway to important official visitors. The canal had obviously been shown where there are a few bollards with disabled signs—the only ones we have ever seen in over 20 years, then they were obviously taken back to vehicles to visit a lock.
Now here's the hypocrisy. There is Haywood Lock at Shugborough, just about 40 yards under the bridge from those bollards, but no, Cart did not want to show these visitors that lock, and the picture of it above will show you why.
Instead they were shown the very recently completely re-painted Colwick Lock, and the two pictures—one of the bottom gates and the other of the top gates will clearly show you why!
And would you believe, this was the very first re-painted lock we had seen since leaving the Avon way back at Tewksbury. And I reckon except possibly where there are visitors at Fradley, it will be the last. How's that for hypocrisy?
But how typical of Cart—simply hiding the true facts of the real state of the waterways.
Victor Swift