Weeks holiday on the shroppie

[saltyseadog]

Will be starting our weeks holiday on the 27th July departing from Market Drayton- thinking of doing the four counties - not sure which way to go - clockwise/anticlockwise - unfortunately, I have a terrible crew (not the most energetic) - my wife & my youngest daughter, so I am not sure if I will be taking too much on, trying to do the trip in one week.

 

 

Gordon Brown wants us to be more patriotic, and anyway I am proud to be British, so we will be flying the following flags - Red Ensign, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish & errr English off the stern of the boat. Give us a wave if you see us!

 

 

Salty.

[Machpoint005]

we will be flying the following flags

 

Nnnnno-ooo-ooo-OOO-OOO-OOO!

 

Edited for speeeeeling

Edited July 17, 2007 by Machpoint005

[ncpierce]

Hi,

 

We did the Four Counties in the wet last week of June and went Clockwise, this got the "hard work" done first! If you want suggested stopping points for a clockwise run give me a shout. It will be tough, 10hour days every day!!! We did it with me, Mum and Dad and my Nan as a non-participating, tea making, passenfer!

[saltyseadog]

Hi,

 

We did the Four Counties in the wet last week of June and went Clockwise, this got the "hard work" done first! If you want suggested stopping points for a clockwise run give me a shout. It will be tough, 10hour days every day!!! We did it with me, Mum and Dad and my Nan as a non-participating, tea making, passenfer!

 

Thanks, that would be a great help!

[ncpierce]

OK

 

Start - Market Drayton - Bridge 63 Betton Bridge

Sat Night - nr Audlem Bottom Lock - Bridge 73 Kemps Bridge

Sun Lunch - Nantwich Junction - Bridge 92

Sun Night - Middlewich Branch between Bridges 23 and 24

Mon Lunch - Trent & Mersey Hassall Green Top Lock (57)

Mon Night - above Red Bull Lock 45

Tues Lunch - Ring Road Southern Footbridge Stoke

Tues Night - Burlaston - Plume of Feathers Bridge (nr Wedgewood Pottery)

Wed Lunch - Sandon Lock (25)

Wed Night - Staffs & Worc above Deptmore Lock (42)

Thurs Lunch - Gailey Visitors Mooring

Thurs Night - Shroppie Canal - Giffords Cross Bridge 11

Friday Lunch - Norbury Junction

Friday Night - Berisford Road Aqueduct

 

Hope it helps

 

Nigel

[twoputtyrats]

OK

 

Start - Market Drayton - Bridge 63 Betton Bridge

Sat Night - nr Audlem Bottom Lock - Bridge 73 Kemps Bridge

Sun Lunch - Nantwich Junction - Bridge 92

Sun Night - Middlewich Branch between Bridges 23 and 24

Mon Lunch - Trent & Mersey Hassall Green Top Lock (57)

Mon Night - above Red Bull Lock 45

Tues Lunch - Ring Road Southern Footbridge Stoke

Tues Night - Burlaston - Plume of Feathers Bridge (nr Wedgewood Pottery)

Wed Lunch - Sandon Lock (25)

Wed Night - Staffs & Worc above Deptmore Lock (42)

Thurs Lunch - Gailey Visitors Mooring

Thurs Night - Shroppie Canal - Giffords Cross Bridge 11

Friday Lunch - Norbury Junction

Friday Night - Berisford Road Aqueduct

 

Hope it helps

 

Nigel

 

I'd see if you could adjust some of those places to make some good pubs in the eveining..

 

Audlem - you have the shroppie fly just before lock 13 on the flight (3 from the bottom).

Sunday Night - if you can make middlewich and get up through kings lock (bridge 167) wander back into middlewich and the navigation inn on the left hand side of the main road is very good.

Monday Night - Bistro 57 at the Hassal Green locks or a bit further (just before bridge 146) on if you can make the romping donkey - well worth a visit.

Have no duggestions for Tuesday/Weds nights...

 

Thursday night - make Brewood (bridge 13-14) - and the Admiral Rodney in the town.

Friday night - depends on what time you need to be back but if you can make it back to Market Drayton the Talbot Inn is well worth visiting but this is a **long** run.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Simes.

Edited July 18, 2007 by twoputtyrats

[Philip]

Have a good trip, it's always a nice run down this canal and you can save the nice lock free stretch until last doing it this way.

 

I agree with those pubs mentioned above, although I take exception with the Shroppie Fly. The food is alright but expensive and not really worth what you pay for. The staff were also quite unfriendly the last time we went in (earlier this year), compared to the Bridge Inn next door - there's always a warm welcome there and it's full of character (the Bridge). Whenever I've been in the Bridge in recent years we get a very good meal, some good options on the menu and it's a fair bit cheaper than the Shroppie Fly - also you're likely to get a good drink in the Bridge! The Shroppie is ok but it's the setting and the layout that make it vastly overrated. I recommend the Bridge Inn which is slightly hidden but it's basically up the bank next to Bridge 78 (just below lock 12).

 

There are good moorings in the pound between locks 11 and 12, you can also moor above lock 13 (still very close to the pubs), but a warning if you do moor there, it can get very rowdy there in the early hours especially at weekends.

[saltyseadog]

Have a good trip, it's always a nice run down this canal and you can save the nice lock free stretch until last doing it this way.

 

I agree with those pubs mentioned above, although I take exception with the Shroppie Fly. The food is alright but expensive and not really worth what you pay for. The staff were also quite unfriendly the last time we went in (earlier this year), compared to the Bridge Inn next door - there's always a warm welcome there and it's full of character (the Bridge). Whenever I've been in the Bridge in recent years we get a very good meal, some good options on the menu and it's a fair bit cheaper than the Shroppie Fly - also you're likely to get a good drink in the Bridge! The Shroppie is ok but it's the setting and the layout that make it vastly overrated. I recommend the Bridge Inn which is slightly hidden but it's basically up the bank next to Bridge 78 (just below lock 12).

 

There are good moorings in the pound between locks 11 and 12, you can also moor above lock 13 (still very close to the pubs), but a warning if you do moor there, it can get very rowdy there in the early hours especially at weekends.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the info , Philip, twoputty rats & nc pierce - it's appreciated !

 

 

Peter (Taffy)(Salty)

[Jim]

Gordon Brown wants us to be more patriotic, and anyway I am proud to be British, so we will be flying the following flags - Red Ensign, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish & errr English off the stern of the boat. Give us a wave if you see us!

Salty.

 

Make sure you leave time to stop at Tyrley Top Lock then to "admire" the anti-EU display put up by a canalside resident. Personally I find it embarrassing - particularly in a location where it will inevitably be seen by visitors from the mainland - but it sounds as if you might enjoy it!

[anhar]

... I am proud to be British, so we will be flying the following flags - Red Ensign, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish & errr English off the stern of the boat. Give us a wave if you see us!

Salty.

Why are you proud to be British? It is not an achievement on your part, merely a chance of birth over which you had no choice. You should only really be proud of something you have actually done or been instrumental in expediting, not a mere chance event. Immigrants may be proud to be British because they have achieved the feat of coming here, they chose it, but those born here had no choice.

 

This has nothing to do with whether you like living here or not, presumably you do from your comments. Fine. But to be proud to be British is to condemn foreign lands as somehow automatically inferior. I didn't think such attitudes existed much any more, it was something I heard a lot in my youth hundreds of years ago.

 

regards

Steve

Edited July 19, 2007 by anhar

[John Orentas]

Like Steve, I have a strong dislike of national emblemism, whether it be flags, black shirts or anything else. When someone flies a flag, a union jack in Northern Ireland or a plastic union jack sticker on a Rochdale taxi, the message is very clear. Not an expression of union but one of separation and when someone says they are proud to be British they mean they are proud not to be foreign.

 

That is not splitting hairs, the experiences of European history over the last couple of generations should have taught us something and we should be very wary of those people who talk about which cricket team to support and plant the idea of 'grinning pickaninies*'. *(spelling)

[Nic]

So not flying the

Shropshire flag

,

Staffordshire flag

,

cheshire

or

West Midlands

 

flags then?

[saltyseadog]

Gordon Brown wants us to be more patriotic, and anyway I am proud to be British, so we will be flying the following flags - Red Ensign, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish & errr English off the stern of the boat. Give us a wave if you see us!

Salty.

Make sure you leave time to stop at Tyrley Top Lock then to "admire" the anti-EU display put up by a canalside resident. Personally I find it embarrassing - particularly in a location where it will inevitably be seen by visitors from the mainland - but it sounds as if you might enjoy it!

 

 

Past Tyrley Top Lock last thursday afternoon - the resident has a union & an english flag flying off the balcony of his/her premises with a board displaying the colours of the EEC flag & the word "NO" on it.

Embarrassing - certainly not! I was expecting to see some graffiti sprayed on a wall - instead I found a well presented display.

Nothing anti-foreigner in his statement - just anti EEC.

 

Saltyseadog

[37418]

Will be starting our weeks holiday on the 27th July departing from Market Drayton- thinking of doing the four counties - not sure which way to go - clockwise/anticlockwise - unfortunately, I have a terrible crew (not the most energetic) - my wife & my youngest daughter, so I am not sure if I will be taking too much on, trying to do the trip in one week.

 

 

Gordon Brown wants us to be more patriotic, and anyway I am proud to be British, so we will be flying the following flags - Red Ensign, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish & errr English off the stern of the boat. Give us a wave if you see us!

Salty.

 

Salty,

 

My hubby and I are planning to do the shroppie anti clockwise, from Penkridge, last week in September. How did your trip go and are there any others out there who could tell me is it do-able with just 2? (4 yrs hired, 40 yr old, enthusiastic and don't tend to hang around) 37418

[I want my own narrowboat]

Salty,

 

My hubby and I are planning to do the shroppie anti clockwise, from Penkridge, last week in September. How did your trip go and are there any others out there who could tell me is it do-able with just 2? (4 yrs hired, 40 yr old, enthusiastic and don't tend to hang around) 37418

 

I assume you mean the 4 Counties ring. We have completed the 4 Counties ring twice, the first time we did it in a week (clockwise) with no detours and setting off each morning at a reasonable time. It was summer so the canals were busy, but the sun set later, say 8/9pm so you could get those few extra hours in allowing the odd dinnertime stop at a pub (Anchor recommended!). We did it with just enough time to spare.

 

The second time was a 2 week affair and we decided to travel anti-clockwise. We had loads of time spare, a detour along the Caldon canal and back (recommended also!) and took our time. It was much more enjoyable as we were not rushing to get back to the hire base. We had more time to enjoy the experience, visit different villages to explore local shops/butchers/bakers etc (instead of filling up at the nearest Tesco/Asda etc), sight-seeing and mooring earlier (instead of getting that last tight mooring spot - you know the one - next to the guy who needs to charge up his batteries because he hasn't moved anywhere, so needs to run his engine in neutral till 10pm!)

 

You mentioned that you were 40, 4 years hire experience and a crew of 2 - Our first attempt (1 week) was myself (38), my very pregnant wife (36) and a 7 year old female navigator with attitude!

 

The second attempt (2 weeks) was myself (40'th birthday treat!), my wife (38), a very experienced 9 year old female navigator with lock skills and more attitude!, and a 2 year old who loved the whole experience.

 

Go for it! you will manage just fine as long as you plan your days cruising times - earlier starts, finishes and less stops - it gets darker earlier in September, so you will loose your evening cruising time. We have done the Llangollen (1 week), Rochdale (1 week), 4 Counties (1 week), 4 Counties (2 weeks) and this year did the Cheshire Ring and a trip up to Chester and back (2 weeks - 1st 2 weeks in June, it was glorious weather!).

 

Happy times - we try to do a canal holiday every 2 years - but as I am self employed, and my biggest client has just decided to go bankrupt on me for a lot of money, it may be a while before we can do another one. Fingers crossed eh!

 

Hope that helps - the Clement family from Harrogate in Yorkshire - jealous as hell! - enjoy

[37418]

Thanks for the advice ! - we have used the same hire co, from Penkridge, Stafford the last 3 times, and have gone 3 different routes so far, including the Caldon and 1/2 the Macclesfield, and over toward Nottingham on the Trent & Mersey - all out and back trips, so doing a circular route will be different, although a portion of the 4 counties we've done before (Harecastle tunnel to Penkridge).

 

Do you tend to stick to the same hire company, or mix and match? We will need ideas for our next trip, so would appreciate some feed back on good reliable firms - we live in Preston, Lancs, and fancy experiencing some further away routes, before we hopefully can save up enough money for our own boat (like you, family business, doing ok, but need more bonus money to afford it)

 

Beckie (37418)

PS - I hope you get the opportunity to go on another trip soon

[I want my own narrowboat]

Do you tend to stick to the same hire company, or mix and match?

 

Beckie (37418)

PS - I hope you get the opportunity to go on another trip soon

 

Thanks Beckie, so do I, it's already planned!

 

We are going to try the Leicester Ring as they will all be new canals to us, probably starting from the Black Prince base at Festival Park in Stoke.

 

It will just take a long time to save up as we are tied to the kids holidays now - add £200 to the weekly price - but we WILL do it, we're hooked!

 

Regarding same hire companies, we choose a different one each time - Llangollen (Andersen boats), Rochdale (Shire Cruisers),

4 Counties (Middlewich boats), 4 Counties (Black Prince) and Cheshire ring (Alvechurch).

 

The only time I will do boating on the same boat will be when it's MY boat.