Day 83 - leaving Stoke, home town of Stanley Matthews.

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6 locks, 392 in total.







Having been on less popular canals for a couple of weeks, we really enjoyed the interaction with other boaters at the locks today; we swapped stories of the Kennet & Avon with a boater who'd left there a few years ago, which reminded me that I hadn't mentioned that we've met 2 other boats and boaters from the K & A that we've known a few years – About Time at Marple and Gongoozler at Cheddleston, so we're all a long way from home this year.







We left Stoke behind us comparatively quickly as we were never near the centre of the city. There were a few grotty sections but then a more rural setting. We're moored just before Barlaston, where the canal goes through the Wedgwood estate. They moved much of their pottery business to a new factory here in 1939 after Etruria started to suffer from subsidence. The new pottery kilns are electric; there is also a large administration block on site and a workers' canteen that doubled as a theatre for the workers. Housing was built primarily for their workforce; a 2-bed house cost 12/6 per week to rent (62½p) and a 4-bed cost 16/6 (80½p). The Wedgwoods stipulated how large gardens should be, how much ground was to be left as open space, that the new school playing fields could be part of this open space, etc. A lake was constructed, shallow at one end for boating and swimming, deeper at the other for fishing. It wasn't a complete model village in the style of Bournville or Saltaire but it was certainly inspired by philanthropy.







I visited the pottery but was unable to find anything to explain the special techniques used – no books, plenty of pictures of machinery but only superficial information. It was an interesting visit nonetheless but I didn't really like much of the fine porcelain on show and at those prices you would have to be sure that you could live with it for a long time. The new pottery must have seemed like paradise for the workers who moved there from the smoke and grime of Stoke – even today the whole area is open, neat and spacious, a pleasure to be there.







Our mooring is also open and the canal wide; martins are swooping over meadow and water for insects and there are rabbits in the meadow too. The train runs fairly close but doesn't impinge. On our (very old) guide they have marked a sewage works close by but we haven't noticed any aroma over and above the intermittent pig smell!

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Photos

Extra gears on this paddle mechanism.
The locks out of Stoke on the Trent & Mersey were really deep, the mechanisms stiff and the gates heavy - but it was still god fun.

The concrete tunnel.....
....all the roads were at a higher level and we felt quite hemmed in.

A modern and reasonably photogenic factory...
...lots of extractor fans but no clue as to its purpose.

Another fierce top gate paddle.
It's fun to open it fully when you're just filling an empty lock - not to be recommended if your boat is in there.

They had their own water....
... but the canal was better.

Josiah Wedgwood
In the central square of the new factory.

Tonight's mooring.
I just love this photo - just for a few minutes there was no movement on the water, as these perfect reflections prove.