Locomotive with Tom Rolt Connections

On Sunday we had a special day on the Severn Valley Railway celebrating the 70th birthday of Mike Corbett a friend who was involved in the recent restoration of the Flying Scotsman. This involved a leisurely lunch onboard a train pulled by a Great Western 0-6-0 pannier tank. Having lived in Cardiff during the last days of steam, these little engines are very familiar to me since they even carried me to school.

GWR 0-6-0 pannier tank 7714 on the Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster

The engine on duty to pull our train was 7714. It looked smart in its British Railways black livery, but I was particularly struck by the shiny brass plate on its frame. The plate indicated that the loco was built in 1930 by Kerr, Stuart & Co Ltd., of Stoke-on-Trent. This rang bells with me since I knew that Tom Rolt had been apprentice at Kerr Stuart and his uncle Kyrle Willans was chief development engineer. Willans was at that time also the owner of Cressy the boat Rolt was later to own and make famous in his book Narrow Boat. 

Makers plate

The next stage was to check the chronology to see if 7714 was being built when Rolt was working for Kerr Stuart. A quick check of Rolt's autobiography Landscape with Machines revealed that he was indeed working at the Stoke factory in 1930. Rolt reports that "twenty-five new six-coupled pannier tanks were being built for the Great Western Railway" and points out that the paint shop were not happy with the specification in the contract set by GWR and that it caused "head-shaking".

So there we have it - a preserved locomotive built in the Kerr Stuart factory (California Works) whilst Tom Rolt was serving his apprenticeship. I am sure given Rolt's connections with both railway preservation and canals, he would have been pleased.

GWR 2-8-0 locomotive 2857 crossing the Victoria Bridge over the River Severn near Arley

(courtesy Mike Corbett)

What a shame the River Severn is not navigable up this way. However, it is still possible to navigate under the Severn Valley Railway on the Staffs & Worcestershire Canal near Kidderminster where the railway crosses via the Falling Sands viaduct.

Falling Sands Viaduct 

(courtesy Severn Valley Railway)

Wolesley Bridge and Ingestre

Yesterday we left Tixall Wide in the morning and reversed onto the water point at Great Haywood Junction. Sounds simple, of course, but it was "fun". It was even more "fun" when the hotel boat pair, Duke & Duchess, negotiated the turn into the Staffs & Worcester as another boat exited the junction to turn south. Lots of opportunities for gongoozling entertainment.

After watering, we moored up and visited the Shugborough Hall again, this time to see the Patrick Litchfield Nudes exhibition. It isn't a large exhibition but it was well worth the visit if only to see the iconic portrait of Marsha Hunt. There are some startling and wonderfully composed images from the sixties and the complete 1993 Unipart Calender.

Waiting at Colwich Lock

We moved off south after lunch and joined a queue of boats that had formed at Great Haywood Lock. There were around five, most of them from the Lymm Cruising Club on the Bridgewater Canal. At the Colwich, the next lock south, the queue was only three boats. Eventually we moored up for the night at Wolseley Bridge and had dinner in the Wolseley Arms.

This morning saw us travelling south towards Rugeley to turn in the winding hole near Bridge 68, shades of last year. The weather was better than yesterday with no rain.There was only a short queue for Colwich Lock and no queues at the other locks going north. We stopped for a late lunch, and the day, near Shirleywich where there is a 48 h mooring complete with interpretation board and bench.

Albert and T&M Interpretation Board

Late in the afternoon we took a stroll up the lane to Ingestre. Well worth the visit, this little village, the former seat of the Earls of Shrewsbury, boasts an amazing stables complex, a large hall which is now a residential arts centre and the only Christopher Wren Church outside London.

Ingestre Stables

Ingerstre Hall

St Mary the Virgin, Ingestre

The church is quite amazing having been restored in 2004. It has Burne-Jones stain glass made in the William Morris factory and is full of monuments to the Chetwynd-Talbot family who owned the estate until 1960.

Magnificent Burne-Jones stain glass

Interior of Ingestre Parish Church

The wood interior is in Flanders Oak and the restored plaster work is very intricate.

Dead tree near Ingestre

The valley of the Trent is wide and flat along here and the river meanders. Just south of us is a stretch called the swans neck - very picturesque. Tomorrow we head for Aston and then home.

Shugborough and our Significant Day

So we are moored up on Tixall Wide, and therefore we must visit the Shugborough Estate, but why is today significant? Forty five years ago today we were married in Solihull Parish Church. 

A day of just relaxing and enjoying ourselves was called for. As Maggie put it "today we are doing retirement".

Our Anniversary Selfie

We visited the Shugborough Estate. Although the house and farm were closed, it being a Tuesday, we enjoyed the gardens, the tea room (for lunch), and the National Trust Shop. This was followed by a stroll around Great Haywood visiting Haywood Cliffs  and a visit to the Lockhouse Tea Rooms for afternoon tea.

A mighty Spanish chestnut

Fresh new yellow growth on the Yew trees contrasting with the lavender

A bee forages on lavender

Rare breeds on the island

Cornflowers with marigolds

Chinese Pavilion

Haywood Cliffs and Caves

A lovely day! 

Tixall

We left Aston Marina on Sunday afternoon and went but a short distance south to Burston for the night. The weather was warm and sunny.

Today, Monday, we continued on our slow journey south (otherwise known as pootling) and stopped at our favourite mooring spot at Tixwall Wide. Although it started sunny it poured down as we got to Weston lock (not forecast!) and rained for about an hour.

Mooring at Tixall Wide

Our neighbours lined up to greet us

In the afternoon we visited the Canal Farm Shop and then walked through the village and along the "off side" of the canal through the woods that lie between the canal and the railway. The woods are mature and a mixture of oak, redwood, beech, and alder. Owned by the National Trust, there are a lot of fallen trees, on which we discovered a lot of splendid fungi.

Great Haywood junction from across the fields

Shugborough Estate from across the Trent & Mersey

Tree based fungi at Great Haywood

Tonight it blew up and the water on The Wide was distinctly choppy.

A windy sunset on Tixall Wide

Stourbridge

We don't often try selfies - here is our attempt from the lock side at Swindon - Staffordshire. Emily, our daughter, lived for some time at the Wiltshire town of the same name - well that's our excuse for the picture.

A selfie!

On Sunday October 5th we left Compton and made our way towards Stourton Junction and the start of the "Back of the Map" - the Stourbridge Canal. The weather was bright and really pleasant. 

Going down Bratch Locks

It was quiet on the canal and the volunteer lock keeper at the Bratch was very helpful. We only had to wait for one  boat to come up the flight.

As we approached Stourton, Janet & Mike Kinnings called us and suggested they help up first four locks on the Stourbridge Canal - the start of the BCN. We gratefully accepted and moored up in the countryside after a long day.

Bridgnorth

Our boating friends Janet & Mike Kinnings live close to Compton.  They came to Albert on Saturday morning (October 4^th), and along with Sandy the lurcher, we had day out in Bridgnorth. 

River Severn at Bridgnorth

It is a favourite day trip spot for the Kinnings. They thought we would enjoy it and that I would particularly like the cliff railway.  They were right.

Wonderful sign writing

The weather was fine and walking around the town on the banks of the Severn was a delight.

The two sections of the town, high and low, are connected by a series of paths and a cable driven funicular railway. The trip up the railway was a must. This piece of vintage engineering provides great views over the river and across low town.

Bridgenorth Cliff Railway

The town has many Telford related features including a church, St. Mary Magdalene, reminding me that Telford was initially an architect. The other, older and more historic church, St Leonards, is no longer used for worship but as a community centre. It was a collegiate church and the area around it is reminiscent of a cathedral close.  

Presumably Telford was at Bridgenorth for only a year?

Bridgnorth Castle Keep - civil war damage

After a good lunch and a long walk around the town we went back to Albert. Maggie and I ate at the Oldfellows Hall. It was very busy and we got the last available table. The food was good and service spot on.

Compton

On Friday October 3rd we only had two locks to operate, one at Gailey and one at our destination, Compton so we had a relatively easy day. Our plan was to meet up at the weekend with our friends the Kinnings who live near Wolverhampton.

Gailey Round House

We don’t often pass along the Penkridge to Autherley section of the Staffs & Worcester Canal and I had forgotten how rural and pleasant it is.

Hatherton Junction Calf Heath

Pendeford Narrows - no oncoming boats - luckily

Autherley Junction

We moored up for lunch just past Autherley Junction in sunshine. Our quiet lunch was somewhat interrupted by a scooter with a boy and girl on board (of course not wearing crash helmets) riding along the towpath at high speed. We have seen mini scooters on towpaths before but this scooter was dangerous, particularly since a school party on a “fun run” passed by some minutes earlier. I tried photographing the bikers – but to no avail.

Scooter on the towpath - no licence plate

We saw another kingfisher near Tettenhall and yet another at Compton as we moored up. The next boat, Pensax was running its Gardner engine. I had a very interesting chat to its owner, Don Grey, whose background in boating was long and varied. It included owning a Bollinder and converting a BCN working boat. His details on how to reverse a Bollinder were particularly fascinating. I also liked his story of going from Wigan to Leeds on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal over a weekend!

Although at lunchtime I had good internet coverage, again on Friday evening, I couldn’t make a post – hey ho.

Fig tree in allotments, Compton

The 48 hr moorings at Compton are very handy for local shops. In the evening we took the opportunity to stock up on groceries and had some fish & chips from the local chippie. The queue was long and their portions very generous.

Gailey

Thursday morning at Tixall Wide was gloomy and there was mist over the water, however the weather improved as the day progressed.

Misty at Tixall Wide

We stopped at Midland Chandlers for supplies (oil) and lunch. The staff were busy stacking shelves for their “bumper” sale on Friday. Another narrow boat Albert arrived and moored up behind us they were planning to buy a cooker. We had a good discussion about boat names and how to restore some of their paintwork which had been varnished and was now unfortunately crazed masking some fine signwriting.

Staffs & Worcester Turnover Bridge near Milford

Deptmore Lock

Interesting vegetation at Acton Trussell

Penkridge was busy. We paused for water and Maggie walked into the town for supplies and reported what a good stopping off point it was.

Penkridge Lock

We saw a kingfisher along the noisy stretch by the M6. It got quite close and at one point it flew right over the cabin roof. Although I had my camera to hand there was no chance of getting a good shot.

Sunset at Brick Kiln Lock

We moored up just below Gailey Lock and I carried out an engine oil change. The sunset made our view of the lock spectacular. I was going to make a post that evening but unfortunately I couldn’t get a good enough mobile internet signal.