A
Canal Card Shopper's Guide To
The Four Counties Ring
Following
an enjoyable fortnight's cruise on the Four Counties Ring, I have here compiled
a few hints for fellow card collectors who may find themselves on the same
waters in the near future.
We started from the Canal
Cruising Co. boatyard at Stone, which despite its picturesque setting had
no yard-specific cards, alas! But it did have a lovely advertising postcard
(showing two of its craft moored at Leek Tunnel on the Caldon Canal), which
was available free of charge.
Moving south and taking water at Great Haywood Junction, it was disappointing
to find that the gift shop in the old Toll Booth sold no postcards at all.
The adjacent Anglo-Welsh hire boatyard had a large selection of the more common
tourist cards of the Trent & Mersey and Stafford & Worcester canals,
but nothing special.
Having turned onto the S&W,
we found that it was worth mooring at bridge 98 and walking the mile-and-a-half
into Stafford, a beautiful town with many lovely old buildings. The museum
shop in the amazing, half-timbered Ancient High House (which is no longer
the Tourist Information Centre, disregard Nicholson I Staff said that people
drove them barmy still demanding information and directions from them) had
for sale one pretty postcard of Stone boatyard (!) that I never saw elsewhere.
Penkridge is a definite must-stop
for boaters on this stretch of canal. It
has excellent shopping facilities within short walking distance of the visitor
moorings, and is a very pretty and friendly village as such. One of the numerous
little shops in the village, "The Pot Shop", sold a large range
of obviously home-made 'postcards' with views of the canal at Penkridge. They
were clearly produced with the aid of a computer and colour printer, of reasonably
good definition, on thin card stock, with blank backs. Not everyone may regard
these as true postcards, but I decided to buy them for their local curiosity
value.
Gailey Wharf was another
disappointment though, as the gift shop in the famous Roundhouse - which we
had thankfully been able to visit on a previous holiday - was closed at the
time we passed through. At the Viking Afloat hire boatyard opposite (no cards
available at all), a member of staff explained to us that the gift shop was
run by an elderly lady and her daughter, who took it in turns to staff it;
and that, while the old lady was very conscientious, the younger one got bored
easily and sometimes simply locked the shop and went off for a few hours whenever
she felt she couldn't be bothered to sit inside and wait for customers!
We did not stop at Autherley
Junction, but went straight through onto the Shropshire Union Canal as far
as Brewood, a pleasant village full of interesting old buildings and useful
for supplies. We discovered a small art shop that stocked a good selection
of the high-quality canal postcards published by photographer Sheila Halsall,
showing views of the Shropshire Union and Llangollen canals.
The former Dartline hire
boatyard at Norbury Junction has now been taken over by Anglo-Welsh, and though
their shop stocked a large number of canal cards, these were all just the
very common modern views by the large main publishers (as seen at Great Haywood),
nothing special.
Market Drayton was more successful,
apart from being a good place for shopping and sightseeing: at the excellent
Tourist Information Centre in town we found several cards with local views
including the canal, with an emphasis on views of the picturesque Tyrley Locks
and Wharf just south of the town.
The large canal gift shop
at Audlem Wharf, next to the "Shroppie Fly" pub, is very well known
and has innumerable cards for sale, including some specifically printed for
it. However we found that it was also well worth walking into Audlem village,
where we found some interesting cards at the local newsagents - and a delicatessen
selling the most delicious Cheshire cheese I ever tasted!
Nantwich proved to be one
of the highlights of our trip, and we could have spent longer than just a
single day there. The beautiful St. Mary's Church, the fascinating Museum
with its displays about the salt trade and the history of Cheshire cheese-making
(not forgetting canal transportation), and the lovely profusion of timber-framed
Tudor buildings were quite something. A number of shops in town sold cards,
but again the Tourist Information Centre opposite the church was the best
source.
A quarter mile north on the
canal, at Nantwich Basin where we stopped to top up with water, I popped into
the office of the so-called "Nantwich Canal Centre" and found a
surprising stock of very elderly canal postcards, dating approximately from
the 1960s-70s, languishing there sun-bleached and with curling edges. They
obviously don't turn over very many cards at this place!! Maybe worth a look
for those who may have missed them when they were younger?!
At Barbridge Junction we
turned onto the Middlewich Branch and, with the sun shining and another boat
coming up Cholmondeston Lock first, I walked across to "Kate's Canal
Shop" at Venetian Marina opposite with the intention of buying us an
ice cream while we were waiting. To my delight I found that, apart from the
usual tourist cards, they had their own exclusive postcard, showing moored
narrowboats in front of the Marina and shop, with a few lines of advertising
for both on the reverse. An unexpected and welcome find. It was a miracle
that I didn't completely forget the ice cream over it!
Back on the Trent and Mersey at Middlewich; cruising south through
uninspiring industrial parts at first which did not tempt us to stop, then
up the heavily locked rural stretch known as "Heartbreak Hill".
. . At Wheelock Flight we met a pair of hotel boats, "Caldon" and
"Ashby", going down; I quickly asked staff on the waiting half of
the pair whether they had any cards for sale, and was rewarded with a lovely
new postcard of "Caldon" and "Ashby" moored at St. Ives
on the Great Ouse, previously unknown to me -free of charge. Never miss an
opportunity to enquire for cards when you meet hotel boats on your way! So
far, every single one of those we met had cards, and often they gave them
away free as advertising items. (though I always offered to pay first, of
course.)
The "Canal Centre"
at Hassall Green Locks had a small shop that sold a few canal cards, but nothing
unusual. They did not seem very successful and had scaled down their services:
for example (and contrary to Nicholson), they did not offer pump-outs any
more - so don't rely on it in an emergency. Thank goodness our own could wait.
We enjoyed our trip through
Harecastle Tunnel, had our pump-out at Longport Wharf on the other side (no
cards there), and entered the Caldon Canal at Etruria. We were unlucky to
find Etruria Industrial Museum closed for complete refurbishment at the time
we passed through: maybe we'll catch it another time, on another cruise.
The Caldon Canal was fairly
barren of postcards. We stopped at Stockton Brook, but the village shop and
post office there had no cards for sale. Cheddleton likewise had no canal
cards, except one common Salmon card at the village post office. Cheddleton
Flint Mill immediately next to the visitor moorings - a must-visit for anyone
interested in industrial archaeology- had very few postcards available because
most of its stocks had been destroyed in recent floods when the River Churnet
burst its banks; the ones that got away were of the Mill buildings only. Incidentally,
it is well worth walking up the hill to the church of St. Edward the Confessor,
which is a little-known treasure house of the most wonderful Pre-Raphaelite
stained glass, notably by Burne-Jones and William Morris (again, not mentioned
in Nicholson); a little further up the same road is a superb tea shop.
And so back to the Trent
& Mersey, where we passed straight through Stoke-on-Trent without stopping,
but took in the Wedgwood Factory tour at Barlaston. There are convenient moorings
below bridge 103, and the tour was a fascinating experience, even though the
Wedgwood shop had no canal-related postcards and everything else in it was
breathtakingly overpriced!
And then we were suddenly
back at Stone: and that was it!
Kerstin Fletcher