Boating Bear Adventures

Every three months, I write an article for the local Inland Waterways Association magazine, which is called Knobsticks.  I wrote several articles about our journeys on some of the great rivers of Europe, but Hanley Bear nagged me to make the spring one about our boating adventures much closer to home, in honour of his home city – Stoke-on-Trent – which has been a city for one hundred years this year.  Hanley says that Stoke-on-Trent is the best place in the whole world (he also thinks Stoke City are the best football team in the world!) and that we should encourage more boaters to visit, so I said I would do my best, and this is what I wrote.

We spent several weeks last spring and summer cruising around Stoke, as our human guardians had things to do which kept them at home.  Because we keep Uppie (Uplander II) at Kidsgrove, a trip to Stoke always starts with a journey through Harecastle Tunnel.  It’s always good to see the tunnel keeper as you come out of the gloom at the south portal!  If you have time to moor and look around, Hanley Bear says don’t miss the Transport Trust round, red sign on the tunnel keeper’s cabin.

It's not far from the tunnel to one of our favourite moorings, at Westport Lake.  There are proper mooring rings there and views across the lake, and the café, which was closed for a little while, is open again.  We like going for walks around the lake with our human guardians and exploring the wetland area between the lake and the railway.  The geese can be noisy and we are a little bit scared of the swans but there are other birds to see, like the tufted ducks, which are Grizzly’s favourites.

Travelling along the canal from Westport Lake towards Longport, you’ll see the first bottle kiln beside the canal at what was the Price and Kensington Teapot Factory.  This has been disused for a long time and used to have lots of junk fly-tipped in it, but a local businessman called Mr Wayne Walker is trying to renovate it and has cleared all the rubbish away and started to repair the buildings, so it is looking much better, although some very naughty young humans have smashed some of the windows again.

Under the bridge is Longport Boatyard, where we sometimes get Uppie’s hull blacked and often get fuel or the pump-out done.  We are always curious to see what boats they have for sale or are building, but we wouldn’t want to swap Uppie for anything else!

A great place to stop for Elevenses after travelling through Harecastle Tunnel is just around the corner, after passing the very modern Steelite Pottery works, at the Middleport Pottery.  There are a few spaces for boats on the non-towpath side immediately beside the pottery (but you cannot stay here overnight) and plenty of mooring rings along the towpath on the other side, from where you can get to the pottery over a little bridge where some lovely art has been done by the local community. 

    

Inside the pottery there is a museum trail to visit and, if you have time and can book in advance, there are factory tour where you can see things being made and decorated.  Several local craft potters have shops and studios here as well as the Burleigh (originally Burgess and Leigh) shop and ‘seconds’ shop.  There are more craft and card shops just across the road, and another museum area called “Harper Street” and, in the main site overlooking the canal, there is the café where they serve excellent oatcakes and other savoury snacks, and very good cakes too!

Even if you don’t stop, you’ll see your second big bottle kiln at Middleport Pottery from the canal and not too far away, after Middleport Park and some flats overlooking the canal, is a little bottle kiln at Oliver’s Mill, again on the non-towpath side, along with another unusual kiln with a rectangular stack.

Just a little way from the next bridge, look out on the non-towpath side for the site of the former Burslem Branch – there is a super display board to show you where it is and what it used to look like before it closed in 1961.  Don’t forget that Mr Dave Broome is always grateful for help to look after the footpath and keep the Burslem Port site neat and tidy (we will remind our human guardians!)

The Trent and Mersey Canal curves round from here, past some rather ugly big warehouse buildings on what used to be the site of the Shelton Bar steelworks, and heads towards “Fesival Park”, named after the site of the huge garden festival in 1986. 

We bears think it’s a shame it isn’t still a big park but humans find it useful to have things there like shops, restaurants, a cinema and a big swimming pool.  There are lots of mooring rings here so it’s easy to stop here to explore.  It’s also a good place to catch buses up to the city centre (which is the town of Hanley) or across to Newcastle-under-Lyme.

I am going to finish the first part of my guide for boating in Stoke at Etruria Junction, where the Caldon Canal leaves the Trent and Mersey.  There are plenty of mooring rings as you approach the junction along the T&M and also in the basin beside the Industrial Museum, which is one of our favourite moorings - except during the Etruria Canals Festival over the first weekend of June, when these moorings are reserved for visiting historic boats.  We love the Etruria Festival and hope to see lots of you there and for other special events in Stoke-on-Trent for the Centenary, but you can read more about those in human guardian Polar’s Social Scene article.

Writing Again!

 

It's a very long time since I have written a post for my blog which is very silly of me, as I have been having so many lovely adventures and there is lots to tell you about.  But sometimes, that is the problem - so many things happen that it's hard for a Small Bear to know where to begin!

Polar says I should start with something short and simple, so here is a little post about what we did to celebrate human guardian Grizzly's birthday, back n March.

 

Grizzly loves steam railways so, when Polar saw that the Churnet Valley Railway were doing special trains going to their new station at Leek, she booked tickets for them.  Of course, we all love trains too, so we went with them - it was quite busy in the Bear Bag!  Before the train left the station, Grizzly had the chance for a look in the cab of the loco - and Hanley Bear went up with him.

Then we set off on our journey along the Churnet Valley.  We looked out for the Caldon Canal, as we have been along there on Uppie (our narrowboat, Uplander II) several times and know it well.

 

Soon after we left Kingsley and Froghall station, breakfast was served!

We went right up the line through the Staffordshire Moorlands to Ipstones, then the diesel loco on the back hauled us back down to Leekbrook Junction and then - the first time Polar and Grizzly had been that way - the steam locomotive hauled us into the little station near Leek.

 

The Chrurnet Valley Railway are hoping to build a proper station a little closer to the town one day - this one is on the outskirts, not far from the canal basin and country park.

After that, we had another surprise, as the train travelled a very short distance down the line that used to go all the way to Stoke-on-Trent. 

When we got back to Cheddleton Station, we had a guided tour of the locomotive sheds and the yard, then it was time for the last leg of our journey.  Hanley Bear and Grizzly enjoyed a pint of beer on the way back from there to Kingsley and Froghall!

We had hoped for afternoon tea at Hetty's Tearooms at Froghall Canal Basin when we got back, but they were just closing.  At least Hanley Bear was able to get a photograph with one of those Transport Trust signs that he looks out for.

We are hoping for another Churnet Valley Railway journey soon, but sadly won't be able to get to that part of the canal because there isn't enough water for the locks.  But we have been enjoying some little local canal journeys, and I will tell you about some of those soon.  Or maybe Hanley Bear will, because there have been celebrations for his home city's hundredth birthday and he want to share some of his photos and stories.

Christmas Adventures

After a quiet Christmas at home with Polar and Grizzly, watching Paddington films and reading books, we went to visit Grizzly's grandcubs and their family in Sussex.  As well as watching the younger cub beat Polar at foosball (several times!) and building space Lego, we joined the humans on a couple of very interesting visits.

Endon and I were chosen to visit Leonardslee Gardens to see the winter lights around the grounds.  We had hoped to visit something similar at Trentham Gardens, but had missed our chance, so it was a lovely treat when Grizzly's daughter booked this for everyone.

There were some wonderful illuminated creatures, like this dragonfly and owl, as well as flowers, stars and lights in the trees.

There were even illuminated Bears!

There was a huge illuminated Planet Earth, which looked as if was floating above the lake, and a huge Moon as well.  Both were quite magical and made us think about our special planet and how small and fragile it is compared to the huge Universe it's part of.

My favourite parts of the whole amazing show were the fountains, which changed shape and colour to music, and a huge field of giant flowers that changed colour too, which were Endon Bear's favourites.

   

The following day, Hanley and Huddlesford had a day out.  They went to Nymans, where there was a "Narnia" exhibition.  It was a misty day and the old ruined part of the house looked very spooky! 

The Bears didn't know all of the story, but they thought the moles' home looked very cosy - rather as we imagined Moley's home would look in The Wind in the Willows.

Huddlesford Bear found the gas light in the woods - only it was in one of the rooms.  And Hanley Bear saw the children tumbling out of the wardrobe into Narnia.

Then they sat on some thrones and pretended to be Kings of Narnia!

There was no snow, but it was damp and cold.  Despite that, they told Endon that the grounds had looked very nice as there were dogwood bushes with very bright stems.

When Hanley and Huddlesford got back to Grizzly's Grandcub's house, they sneaked upstairs and checked the backs of all of the wardrobes to see if there was any way out of any of them to another, magical world - but they didn't find anything.

"Never mind," said Hanley.  "I don't think I would like it much in Narnia, as they don't seem to have any oatcakes!"

Snow Day!

 

This is only a short post as I try to get my blog up-to-date and get back into the habit of writing things regularly.

We have had several very cold days with snow here and although we Bears have been hoping to go out to play in it, it's really been too nasty for us or our human guardians.  

At last, we had some sunshine today and, as our humans needed to go out to buy some things for the house, Hanley Bear and I jumped into our bag and went with them.  They walked down to the big shopping mall near our house, which is all along streets and places where Small Bears can't really get out and play, but came back through the allotments.

  

Because we had been good Small Bears during the shopping trip, and hadn't pestered for sweets or cake, when we got to our plot Polar asked if we would like a few minutes out of our bag to play in the snow.

"Yes please!" we chorused.

It was great fun having fresh snow to run about in, although it was a lot deeper than we expected it to be.

     

"Let's play snowballs!" cried Hanley, quickly rolling up a little ball of snow.  I did the same, then we counted to ten and threw them at each other!

I had made a fairly big snowball, but it was quite losely packed and, when it hit Hanley Bear, it just disintegrated into lots of little powdery flakes.  But Hanley had packed his smaller snowball quite tightly, and it knocked me off of my feet!

We carried on throwing snowballs at each other until Grizzly decided we were probably getting too wet and cold, and picked us both up.

"Boooo!" said Hanley.  "I was enjoying that!"

But Grizzly was right - it was starting to get very chilly and our feet fur was particularly damp and cold.  

Polar put us back in our bag and carried us home, where we have been sitting on the radiator getting warm and dry again.  We won't burn our fur, because Polar and Grizzly's radiators never get too hot, but they are a nice temperature for warming up Small Bears!