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.