From Great Haywood and the junction with the Staffs & Worcs Canal, the canal travels north through pleasant countryside, passing the charming village of Weston upon Trent and on to Stone, a town closely connected with canals. Here, the town centre is just a few minutes walk from the canal and offers an interesting choice of shopping and refreshments.
North of Stone, the canal runs close to the Wedgwood factory and the enters Stoke-on-Trent, a city created in 1910 from the union of Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall. Much of the pottery industry has now disappeared but you will still see bottle kilns, warehouses and deserted factories echoing the craft that made Stoke famous.
Festival Park in Etruria was the site of a garden festival in 1986 on what was formerly the Shelton Steel Works, the canal ran through the middle of the works as shown in the photographs.
Shortly afterwards, we reach the Harecastle Tunnel, constructed in 1827 by Thomas Telford to replace an earlier tunnel by James Brindley. The tunnel is 2897 yards long and is only wide enough for one boat. Convoys of up to eight boats navigate the tunnel at any one time and you should follow instructions from the tunnel-keeper.
Just past the tunnel is Hardings Wood Junction with the Macclesfield Canal and the boater is then faced with “Heartbreak Hill” – a sequence of 32 locks that take the canal towards the Cheshire plain, past Hassall Green and Wheelock and on to Middlewich. This is a useful spot to stock up on provisions or to take some refreshment and just past Kings Lock is the branch of the Shropshire Union to take you to the main line at Barbridge.
North of Middlewich, a long lock-free section meanders once again through pretty countryside around Northwich and on to Anderton where the recently re-opened Anderton Boat Lift provides access to the River Weaver and the canal continues towards Dutton and the Preston Brook Tunnel after which the waterway becomes the Bridgewater Canal |
