Olde Worlde thatched cottages at Alrewas	Fradley Junction - now seems quiet & remote (apart from the Swan pub) - but in Brindley's era, this was actual CENTRE & HUB of the canal system in England.	Peaceful towpath setting at Wolseley Bridge, where the T&M borders Cannock Chase.	Willow turns in towards the towpath on the T&M near to Great Haywood.

Many of our cruises start at Kings Bromley, just North of Fradley Junction, from where we head North and skirt the eastern side of Cannock Chase from Rugeley thru some very pleasant ‘water meadow’ countryside with the River Trent never far away. Soon we approach Great Haywood, with Shugborough Hall adjacent. Great Haywood is only a small village to those living on land, but an important canal junction town to those of us that live aboard. Here the Staffs & Worcs canal heads off south westwards to eventually reach the River Severn and then the Bristol Channel - It was a very important route in years gone by. North of the ‘Haywoods’ we start a gradual climb up to Stone, where the canal enters the ‘potteries’.

Shugborough Hall at Great Haywood. Family seat of the late Lord Lichfield (Queens cousin & famous photographer)	Visitors are welcomed at Shugborough - A view of the Dining Room (permission was needed to take  photos)	Great Haywood Junction - Holds equal first place with Fradley for being centre of Brindley's original canal system	Just north of Haywood the canal passes the village of Barston, complete with duck pond..

Still south of Stone the canal follows the River Trent, with an attractive water meadow landscape. At Burston village we can stop and admire the village itself, with attractive village pond, or cross over a small bridge over the Trent and visit a nearby wildlife reserve. Stone itself is a historic canal town.  The hireboat base in Stone is the oldest established such firm still operating in this country.  Their base occupies a charming series of, still operational, dry docks (listed buildings) - we would also recommend their engineering skills.  Further on is the site of the Joules Brewery (now a CNC engineering firm).

The Joules Brewery at Stone - sadly no longer - now an Engineering Works.	On the approach to Trentham Lock, south of Stoke.	Hem Heath area	Suburbia on the Trent & Mersey.

The ‘potteries’, home of Wedgwood and Royal Dolton are sadly not the hive of industry that they were in years gone by. A few of the factories are still in production. But the canal still has interest with the albeit few remaining bottle kilns and derelict wharves. Sadly much of this industry, which brought about the birth of our canal system, has been razed to the ground.  But our progress is good because the canal is deep.

At Etruria the Caldon heads off eastwards, but we progress north thru Stoke until we reach the Harecastle Tunnel. Here the water in the canal is rusty coloured, not by dirt, but because of underground drainage water passing thru ironstone ore from old mine workings within the hill. Where water drains into the canal thru the brickwork inside the tunnel, I’ve felt the water spouts and it’s naturally warm (almost tepid). A possible sign of some sort of chemical reaction still taking place in the old mine workings.

No matter how often I do the Harecastle, I always find it interesting. Huge fans keep the air clean inside. There are doors at the south end which slam shut behind you.  This is to force the fresh air to be drawn by the fans all the way through the 1.75 miles of the tunnel from the northern end. In the photo below, see the hanging chains to ensure boats will fit thru some of the sections with reduced headroom.

South portal of The Harecastle Tunnel, as we left the usual friendly wave from the BW tunnel keeper.	It's quite difficult to get a decent photo of the inside of the tunnel - mind your heads please - what bats.	North portal of the Harecastle -  to the right, you can just see the entrance to the Brindley's original tunnel.

Almost as soon as we emerge from the tunnel, we have the option of heading off east on the Macclesfield canal, but we keep heading north and almost immediately start down the ‘heartbreak hill’ flight of locks.  The term 'heartbreak is a relatively recent term - traditionally they were known as the 'Cheshire' locks.  Almost immediately the scenery changes from an urban to more attractive rural canalscape. Over a very few miles we descend several hundred feet down onto the Cheshire plain. This canal used to be a very important trade route and to speed things up most of the locks (although narrowbeam) were made in pairs, to allow boats to pass in opposite directions. We have even been known to ‘go for an overtake’.

After ‘Heartbreak’ we pass pretty Wheelock (pronounced 'willock' by an old ex-boatman I recently spoke with).  Then on to Middlewich, where we could branch off to towards the ‘Shroppie’ to the west. But staying on the T&M we enter some very pretty stretches of canal, en route to Northwich (briefly industrial) then rural again on to the Anderton Lift.  We have the option of using the Lift to take us the 50ft down onto the River Weaver.
 

LEFT: Further north, Croxton Aqueduct just north of Middlewich...       RIGHT: Just a bit further north again, the approach to Bramble Cuttings - these views are quite representative of the scenery between Middlewich & Northwich.

I have described the Anderton lift in more detail in the piece on the River Weaver - so I won’t repeat things here. Passing Anderton on the higher T&M canal level, we pass thru Barnton and Saltersford tunnels as we wind along the hillside 50ft above, and to the east of, the river Weaver.

Soon another tunnel at Preston Brook, where the T&M turns into the Bridgewater Canal - the birthplace of our UK canal network.