James York

I nominate Alrewas lock on the river trent As you can see in the foreground the main channel meets the canal then another 50yards further on (just next to the lock) a smaller faster flowing channel enters. Can be a pain if the trent is in flood.

A very good place to stop is Shardlow, the atmosphere in that little place is great. I can also advise going into Barton-Under-Needwood and going into the Middle Bell, great food and again a good atmosphere. Watch out for Stenson lock as its one of the deepest on the network and can be quite fierce at times espicially when going up. If you get a heavy period of rain (i hope not) then i'd advise ringing BW and checking the state of the trent as that river can get nasty after a bit of rain. Hope you have a nice holiday!

Also a good website to use is www.waterscape.com they offer some good info for free.

The thing with rust is it looks much worse than it is. Quite a few mm of rust is equvilant to very little metal. This coupled with the relativley low oxygen levels at the lower depths means bottom plates corrode very slowly.

Yes i agree with you Gill. I can highly recommend the Middle Bell in Barton Under Needwood. Its good if you like a bit more of a modern venue. The food is very nice again modern dishes and very proffesional in there.