Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Two day’s wait.

We came down Meaford Locks today to get past the stoppage at the top lock, due to start tomorrow. I just hope it doesn’t last too long, delaying our trip back north. We’re not due in to the dry dock at Canal Cruising till Friday morning, so we’ve a couple of days to kill.

Barlaston is a popular spot for an overnight halt. There are plenty of moorings, the refurbished Plume of Feathers on one side of the bridge and a handy mini-supermarket and Post Office on the other.

Barlaston BridgeIMG_3965

It’s a couple of miles from here to the locks, passing the site of Meaford Power Station. this coal-fired electricity generating station, built in two stages between 1948 and 1957, was the furthest upstream in the Trent valley, known as Megawatt Valley for it’s profusion of power stations. It was formally closed in 1991 and mainly demolished by 1996.

Part of the site is now occupied by a modern power distribution hub with impressive security…
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…and the spur line bridge still crosses the canal from the West Coast Main Line.IMG_3971

Meaford Top Lock is the one to be drained and inspected tomorrow.IMG_3975

The problem is a leaking top gate, although we’ve seen worse…IMG_3977

We’d had drizzle and a bit of “proper” rain as we cruised to the locks, but the cloud cleared and we had sunshine as we dropped down the four locks, at least until we were coming out of the bottom one.

Coming down Meaford Locks
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Clouds gather again as Mags enters the bottom lockIMG_3982

We pulled in on the straight below the locks. We could have gone onto the 5 day moorings above Limekiln Lock, but it’s quieter here.

Locks 4, miles 2¾

1 comment:

Adam said...

Looks as though you'll be swapping with Festina Lente. They're in the dry dock at Stone at the moment.
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