Singing about the cut (canal).

Posted on October 9, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Blank verse, Boats, Canal boats, Canals, Ceramics, Cuts, Life, Middleport pottery, Poem, Poetry, WaterLeave a comment

We sang about the boats and pots

Of horses pulling barges.

Before the cuts were built and dug.

The plates broke on the carts

A third of pottery destroyed

Because of mud and ruts

For a hundred years the canals enjoyed

The busy work of transport

Then motorways and rail roads were built

And ware shifted to “faster” ways.

The cuts were clogged with water weeds

The towpaths overgrown.

Until the leisure cruisers came

And cleaned the weeds away.

Now British waterways they rule

And you can moor your boat

Anglers dip their rods in water

And catch all sorts of course fish.

The canals are better than before

No shopping trolleys in them.

A resource for walkers, boaters, folk,

To enjoy and rest and play.

Middleport

Posted on October 6, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged barrels, Boats, Bottle ovens, Canals, Cauldon canal, Chair, Choir, eras, Memories, Middleport pottery, Seat, Singing, Trent and mersey canalLeave a comment

This weekend I went to Middleport pottery to sing with a choir to accompany a play called “Boats, Barrels and Bottle ovens”.

We sang seven songs. From different years over the time when the Trent and Mersey canal and the Caldon canal that is an offshoot of it were built by Josiah Wedgwood and James Brindley. Each era was represented by the cast acting out scenes, first by the side of the Dane, a working narrow boat, then inside a bottle oven to represent the Harecastle tunnel in Kidsgrove. A scene at a boat club in the 1960’s where they discussed reopening the cauldron canal that was full of rubbish and weeds at that time and finally we sang in a scene from the 1980s and then up to date.

I’m not fit or well and this was challenging with freezing cold, wet and windy weather, uneven cobbles and slippery surfaces. I can only thank the people who placed chairs for me so I could sit down in safety when I needed to. Without them I could never have done it. X

Barges at Etruria

Posted on July 27, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Barges, Boats, Canals, Castles, Etruria Industrial museum, History, Life, Roses, This weekend2 Comments

Etruria Industrial museum is steaming it’s engine again I think this weekend.

Wet weather is still in the forecast, but we might go up and see what’s happening. It’s good to see historic things like these old barges. It’s amazing how they can stay strong when effectively they are half in and half out of the water. Every few years mu friend used to put his barge in dry dock to recaulk the gaps between it’s wooden planks. You can get steel hulled barges, and I think they last longer?

There is a whole art of decorating barges, look up roses and castles if you are interested. They are traditional designs that are often painted on barges together with spectacular lettering for their names and the companies they belonged to such as Fellows Moreton.

The canal system in Britain has been greatly improved by volunteers that help keep them going. This after years of neglect until the 1960’s and 1970’s when groups of people got together to restore them. We have a lot to thank them for X.

Canal boats

Posted on February 12, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Boats, Canal, Painting, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Traditional, Trent and mersey canal, Walk, Westport lake2 Comments

On our walk today round Westport Lake we incorporated a bit of the Trent and Mersey canal. We saw a few canal barges as we walked along the towpath. It made me think of a song we sing at choir which goes ‘fifteen miles on the Erie canal’. Most of the boats were painted dull blues and greys but there was a more traditionally painted cafe boat in primarily green and red but with yellow and white details too. It made me smile to see it.

Wanting the sea…

Posted on November 13, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Boats, Journey, Memories, Sea, Sky, Thinking, Watercolour sketch, wishesLeave a comment

I need the seaside, it’s been a couple of months since we went and I really miss it. I want to see the big blue sky. The blue or grey waves. Stormy, misty or sunny. I don’t care.

I like being beside the sea like it says in the old song, I’m not really bothered about being on it. I don’t like the motion of the ocean.. Up and down, around and down. Waves, breaking over the boat.

Yes, I need to go on a trip along the coast, taking in the scenery. Looking at the boats, feeling the breeze.

Locks

Posted on January 10, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Barges, Boats, Canal, canal lock, Dappled shade, Etruria, Memories, TreesLeave a comment

Lock at Etruria, steps up to the road and over a bridge at the top. When the snow is thick I actually think its easier to walk in than when it’s like this. Slushy and slippery. But snow doesn’t last that long these days. Last year was as hot as 2016, which was the hottest year on record in the UK.

It would be good to take a long walk along the canal in the summer. Under dappled shade from the trees. Watching canal barges and boats putter past with their gaudily painted castles, and roses painted red, gold and green.

Memories

Posted on October 27, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged August, Boats, Memory, Miniature railway, Narrow gauge, Rudyard lake, Staffordshire moorlands, Summer, Sunshine, Travel, WeatherLeave a comment

August at Rudyard lake, DSC_2199_optimized

Heat, sunlight, memories of warmth. Memories of the lake and the little narrow gauge (miniature?) railway that runs along side it. I think it’s 18 inch gauge.

The lake surface was very smooth apart from ripples caused by a few rowing boats. We had sandwiches and ice creams at the cafe and caught the train there and back to see how far it was (one of my Dad’s phrases).

I miss the sunlight and the warmth. It’s only two months ago and it’s literally freezing outside tonight. We had frost this morning…. Let me go back into my memories, time travel, back, to summer.

Canal festival at Etruria.

Posted on June 1, 2019June 1, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Barges, Boats, Bubbles, Canal, Etruria canal festival, Fun, Life, MusicLeave a comment

From bubbles and paradise gardens to bubbles and canal boats. Etruria festival whuch started today and continues tomorrow was abuzz with fun and frolics. There were human fruit machines and storytellers, lions and bonzai. The place was having fun.

You can go and see the flint mill in steam, buy candyfloss and look at the Sculpted Steel blacksmith. I’ve taken photos but not too many. Just enough to give an idea. Good to see Etruria artists and their stall. I’m a member but things have been a bit busy lately.

Anyway it’s on again tomorrow.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Boats