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

Send us rain

Posted on August 15, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Canals, Clouds, Life, parched, Poem, Poetry, Rain, rivers, Showers, Water, Weather3 Comments

Send us mares tails that precede rain.

Send clouds full of water

England’s Green is fading

Brown fields abound

River levels dropping

Paddle your canoes no more

Canal boats stuck in place

High and dry on mud!

Give us a cup or two of rain

To water our parched countryside

Let the land drink

Again.

I stayed

Posted on May 17, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged boyfr3, Canals, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1941, Hubby, Illustration, Life, sacrifice, West MidlandsLeave a comment

What sacrifices have you made in life?

I was once offered a job out of this area. The problem was that it would mean moving away from my then boyfriend, later hubby. It was a reasonably decent job, well paid, illustrating the canals in the West Midlands of England. I would be part of a project to map, illustrate and record details of the massive canal network in the area. I really wanted that job… But it was too much of an upheaval. My boyfriend would not be able to come with me and I was scared to lose him. So I sacrificed the opportunity, and truly, I think it was the right decision for me. 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.

A few years ago

Posted on December 9, 2019December 11, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on watercolour, Art, Art work, Canal and rivers Trust, Canals, Design, Leaflet, Middleport pottery, Painting, Trent and mersey canalLeave a comment

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Two paintings I did for a leaflet a couple of years ago. The first was of Middleport pottery, a split image of two areas of the pottery, done to fit the images onto the page. The second, a view of the Trent and Mersey canal showing a lock that barges travel through where the water level changes. Opening the gates allows water to flow through and boats to go up and down the canal.

Acrylic paint on watercolour paper. Used by the canal and river trust on their leaflet.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Canals