WaL day 13 and 14 ... with the rain in our faces ...

Rain was forecast for the next few days and we decided to take a day off from cruising on Tuesday (30th).  

George had contacted his sister who lives not too far away and arranged a visit to her house where I could take advantage of her washing machine and dryer!  They have recently moved to the area and  are busy renovating the kitchen; in the meantime she had no cooking facilities until after Thursday when her new Aga range will be fitted. Diane and husband Paul stayed with us for dinner later on What a Lark when they brought us home... it was a good day!

We left the High Offley mooring about 8:45 on Wednesday when we cruised through embankments and cuttings to Tyrley and beyond ...

and continued along the Shropshire Union Canal (SUC).

We were soon passing the long line of boats moored along the Shebdon Embankment ...

passing Mandy's boat Don't Panic ...

and Nev and Rachel's lovely tug Percy

The ex-chocolate factory wharf whose goods used to be carried to and from Bournville on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal ...

now has a boat paint shed under the awning and is so new that there is no name or information about the business yet

and where the sandstone cliffs are exposed...

and we cruise through the next two bridges

Over the open farmland we saw fields of grain; some had already been cut but with the rain and wind we've had we wondered if it could actually be brought in and in some fields the wind and rain looked as if it had flattened the crop.

We saw acres and acres of sweet corn growing

Three miles further we arrive at what I think is Goldstone Wharf and wonder if at one time these buildings belonged to the British Waterways Board ... the first building above are obviously stables where boat horses may have been kept.

The original FMC Northwich boat Bream (1933) was cut in two by BWB in the 1970's; the stern being sold to Union Carriers as a pusher tug in 1974.  It later was joined to the front 30' of day boat Tipton (1909) and used as a hire boat but is now in private ownership.  The bow was used as a maintenance boat on the Coventry Canal and was eventually sunk in Tixall Wide but recovered by a prospective buyer and was eventually purchased and restored to its original length with a new steel bottom.  This section of Bream has been apparently used as a continuously cruising liveaboard since 1999.  I am not sure if the Bream in the photo above is built with the original stern or bow!  Whitby alongside Bream is a Yarwood boat built in 1938 for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company (GUCC) 

Soon the canal plunges into the very deep, narrow cutting ...

of Woodseaves ...

excavated entirely by men through the rock ...

with no power tools at all.

In January 2011 Woodseaves Cutting collapsed ...

and was closed for quite some time.

It's still raining and George's turn on the tiller

In places the cutting is so narrow ...

that two boats cannot pass each other.

In order to span the deep cutting, the bridges are necessarily high

Fortunately we didn't meet another boat

until we were coming out of the cutting ...

close to bridge 59, the entrance to Tyrley Wharf

and the first of five Tyrley Locks

Tiny! About 15feet long!

I'm back on the tiller now, hovering mid-stream ...

while George sets the top lock

A pretty setting

The five Tyrley Locks are all downhill for us today which means keeping the stern of What a Lark  away from the cill (the 'door stop' which the top gates close against) to prevent the boat from becoming 'hung-up'on that cill.

As I slowly descend in the lock George quickly goes down to set the next lock for me

My view from the bottom of the lock

Just one gate sluice open so that my descent is gentle

More rope marks from the towing horses long ago

Tryley Locks are in a really lovely setting, even in the drizzle!

Off to set the next one ...

This lock gate has come of age this year!

The top gates are apt to swing open again!

There are ferocious, wild by-washes at the bottom of each of the Tyrley Locks which first catch the boat's bow as I pick up the revs and then catches the stern ... 

keeping as straight a line as I can to be lined up for the last lock of this flight where the most ferocious of the by-washes was waiting for me from the left below.  A chap who helped with the tail gates of the previous lock advised how fierce the by-wash was after the rain of the past few days and that there was a 'shelf' on the right which I certainly didn't want to mount!  With the revs on David's engine high I shot out of the lock, the boat quickly drifted to the right, tiller hard over and hold it there 'till the stream decreased and I was able to put the bow onto the landing briefly to pick up George from his lock wheeling duties.

A bit of clever decoration after cutting down a tree makes me smile after the ordeal of the Tyrley Locks!

45 minutes later we've moored up at Market Drayton where we walked into town to get a few essentials and back to WaL to relax.