Paws around the Potteries - Church Lawton Canals Walk

Ay up, everyone!  It's Hanley Bear here, with a post about another walk near our home near Stoke-on-Trent.

We often have a walk along the Trent and Mersey Canal or Macclesfield Canal, but on this walk we found a path that linked the two together, so we could do a circular walk back to the car - and the pub!

We started near the Red Bull Wharf on the Trent and Mersey Canal, which is between Lock 43 and 44, and near the Red Bull pub.  It used to be a Canal and River Trust office but that seems to have closed now, so we hope someone takes the building over soon and makes use of it, as it's a great site.

 

Our human guardians carried us along the towpath beside the locks and down towards one of our favourite moorings on Uppie, near the Church Locks.  Then we left the canal and followed a footpath across some fields to a little church.

 

We found that the church was open and we could go in to look around.  It was very quiet and peaceful, so we were good bears and didn't run about or make noise while Grizzly sat down and had a little rest.  There were home-made cards for sale, with a little honesty box, so Polar bought a few and Grizzly put some money in for a little chisel that was for sale with several other old tools.

 

The path from the church led us through some nice woods called Church Lawton Woods, surrounding a big country house hidden away from the main road, and a lake.  Polar said that we ought to visit again in the spring, as there are lots of bluebells in the woods here.  She thinks it would be nice to organise a walk for the Inland Waterways group.

There were some great climbing trees in the woods and also some with little bear caves in their trunks, so we all climbed out of the Bear Bag to play, but we didn't find any other small bears living there.

The path through the woods eventually took us to some houses and the A34 road, which we crossed to join another path leading to the Macclefield Canal.  It was strange, doing a walk along a section of canal that we have often been up and down on Uppie.

There are really good views across the fields to Mow Cop Castle from this part of the path.  Polar hoped one of the kingfishers might be about, but we didn't see any this time.

A little further along, we crossed the aqueduct over the A50 road through Kidsgrove, then came to the aqueduct over the Trent and Mersey Canal and the tight corner where Mr Tony has his boat repair yard.  There are steps beside the aqueduct that take you down to the lower canal, so our human guardians climbed down these and back along the T&M towpath to the pub.

It had been a nice walk in the autumn sunshine but walking, running and climbing trees are thirsty work for a small bear.  Luckily, Grizzly decided he would like a drink too, so I got to sip some of the bubbles off of his beer!

I have got some more adventures to share with you, so look out for another Paws Around the Potteries post fairly soon.