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

White bridge

Posted on April 6, 2022April 6, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Canal, Cauldon canal, Ducks, early spring, Etruria Industrial museum, Etruria locks, Trent and mersey canalLeave a comment

I drew the horizon a few days ago walking over this bridge but I decided to show it from the side too. This is on the opposite side of the canal from the Industrial Museum at Etruria. Facing away from Hanley in Stoke on Trent. Taken on a sunny but breezy day. The ducks were out enjoying the sunshine. This coming weekend it will be having a steaming weekend. I will try and find out the details.

Brindley again

Posted on January 25, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on paper, Brindley, Canal and rivers Trust, Cauldon canal, Leaflet, Life, Navigation, Trent and mersey canalLeave a comment

In 2016, nine years after the Leopard murals, I was asked to do a series of illustrations for a leaflet about the Trent and Mersey canal and the Cauldon canal. This is of James Brindley taking measurements for the canal navigation. The image was painted in acrylics on water colour paper and was one of several paintings including Middleport pottery and the Kidsgrove canal tunnel. The leaflet was published. I don’t know if they did more than one set.

Goose fight

Posted on March 22, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Canal, Cauldon canal, Fun, Geese, Goose, Humour, Layout app, Mirrored, Trent and mersey canalLeave a comment

Goose fight at the OK canal..

Looking at each other, staring each other out, which will be quickest to peck? Ramming speed… In the canal, under the eaves of the old pottery.

By mirroring the image of the goose I hoped to create a humorous image, and the title just jumped into my mind….

Posted on February 25, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, Canal, Cauldon canal, Etruria, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Trent and mersey canal, WalkingLeave a comment

Walked to Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent and back today. 25th day of the #100daywalkingchallenge. A quarter of the way… If I was walking in a straight line I think I’d be in Birmingham… My daily mileage is going up from about 3 miles a day to 4. Getting very tired!

Canal frozen

Posted on February 12, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, Canal, Cauldon canal, Cold, Etruria, Freezing, Frozen, Industrial heritage, Life, Photos, Trent and mersey canal2 Comments

Well not all of it, where the water was running through the locks there was less or no ice, but some sections were solid with ice about an inch thick. This was in Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, by the Etruria Industrial Museum. At least it was sunny and out of the easterly wind.

A thaw is due, but then wet weather too. Oh well at least I’ll be able to save on my heating bills!

Which way?

Posted on December 1, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cauldon canal, Etruria, Industrial museum, Life, Museum, Pathway, Stoke-on-Trent, Trent and mersey canal, WalkingLeave a comment

A slightly confusing sign if you don’t know where the museum is. Turns out both footpaths lead to the same place, just by different routes. I don’t suppose it matters, but I think they should at least put an arrow on it for one way or the other. This is at the Etruria Industrial Museum, at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

Not a swimming pool

Posted on November 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cauldon canal, Etruria, Etruria Industrial museum, History, Lock, Lock forty, Photo, Picture, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Trent and mersey canal, View, WarehouseLeave a comment

Through the door of the warehouse looking out over lock forty of the Trent and Mersey canal. Steps lead up from the depths of the deep lock, picked out in white paint amidst the concrete sides of the canal. Behind me on the other side of the warehouse the Cauldon canal flows. It is higher up than the Trent and Mersey canal until lock forty raises it to the same level. The warehouse is slightly damp inside which may be to do with its position between the two arms of the canal. I like ‘views through’ things, like views into windows and through foliage.

Funny……?

Posted on August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bird, Blogging, Canal rescue, Cauldon canal, Etruria, Feral pigeon, Life, Pigeon, Pigeon joke, Safe, WetLeave a comment

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Apologies, I stole this from Facebook. It amused me so much I had to share… My friend rescued a baby pigeon from the canal a few months ago. It had apparently fallen in. She took it home and dried it and gave it somewhere warm and dark to recover. Then she had to find out what to feed it on, (pigeons feed their squabs something called pigeon milk before they go onto solids). It grew and she called it Keith.

If flew round the kitchen to start with, then was let outside, it stayed close by and in a rabbit hutch for a few days until it had grown up. Finally it flew away.

Take care and keep safe Keith. Coo…

Terraces by the canal

Posted on August 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Canal, Cauldon canal, Etruria view, Hot day, Houses, Life, Morning out, Terraced houses, Travel, Trent and merseyLeave a comment

The sun beating down on Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent today. Terraced houses lined up near the canal. This is the Cauldon canal that heads towards Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands where it eventually joins with the river Churnet. The houses are lower down than the canal so there is a big retaining wall made of stone that prevents the water escaping from it. You can see the wall as it lifts up into a bridge over the canal on the left hand side. The street slopes away down towards the Trent and Mersey canal which is joined to the Cauldon canal by a series of locks. The Trent and Mersey is in the valley and runs close to the Trent River (which is really only a small river running through the city). The Trent eventually runs to the sea at Hull after passing east through Nottingham I think.

So these terraces are connected by water to many places. You might see them if you ever travel the canals.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Cauldon canal