Harecastle

Another view of the southern portal of Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal in Staffordshire.

In the background on the left you can see the portal to Brindley's original 1777 tunnel, which is no longer navigable.

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Middlewich

Middlewich is a busy location on the Trent and Mersey Canal. The Middlewich Branch from the Shropshire Union Canal arrives in the town from the west, so a visit to Middlewich forms part of many people's routes. There are two hire boat bases here and the town is a popular stop for boaters.

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Trent Lock

The River Trent at Trent Lock is a peaceful location on a sunny day, although the area can become exciting when the river is in flood.

This spot is a complicated waterway junction, with the River Trent leading upstream to the right towards Sawley and the Trent and Mersey Canal and ahead towards the weir marked by the red barrels. To the right of the weir, the white sign marks the entrance to the River Soar, leading to Leicester and the Grand Union Canal. To the left, in the foreground, the weir is bypassed by the Cranfleet Cut leading downstream towards Nottingham. Out of sight to the left is Trent Lock, which lets boats access the Erewash Canal.

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Heartbreak Hill

Lock 65 seen from Lock 66 of the Trent and Mersey Canal just east of Wheelock in Cheshire. These locks form part of the lock flight known as "Heartbreak Hill".

Lock 66 is the bottom lock (or rather, pair of locks) of the flight. The "Heartbreak Hill" locks were doubled to relieve congestion on the canal, although some of the duplicate locks are no longer used and a few are filled in.

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Harecastle

The southern portal of Harecastle Tunnel, on the Trent and Mersey Canal near Kidsgrove, Staffordshire. Built by Telford in 1827, this is the second of the two tunnels. The first is no longer navigable. In the 1950s, a fan house was built over the southern portal to extract engibe fumes from the tunnel, as there are no ventilation shafts.
The tunnel is said to be haunted by the Kidsgrove Boggart or "Kit Crewbucket".
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Etruria

Alongside the Trent and Mersey Canal, between the second and third locks up the Stoke flight, stand these pottery kilns.

The two bottle kilns were built in 1887 for Thomas Twyford's Cliff Vale Pottery, Etruria. The listed kilns have been preserved while most of the disused pottery site has been cleared. Only the two kilns and the buildings fronting Shelton New Road survive.

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Harecastle

The northern end of Harecastle Tunnel, Kidsgrove, Staffordshire.

On the right, the entrance to Brindley's original 1777 tunnel can be seen. This original tunnel is disused and is blocked by rock falls.

The present tunnel, designed by Telford, was opened in 1827. It originally had a towpath running through, but has now been removed. It is 2675 metres long - around one and two third miles.

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Meaford

Meaford House Lock, the middle of three locks at Meaford, on the Trent and Mersey Canal in Staffordshire. Meaford is just over a mile north of the canal town of Stone. The bridge is a turnover bridge, where the towpath changed sides without the need for the horses towing the boats to be detached from the towing lines.

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Etruria

Looking towards the top lock on the Trent and Mersey at Etruria in the Potteries. Beyond the top lock is the canal's summit pound which continues through Harecastle Tunnel. Just above the lock is the junction with the Caldon Canal.

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Colwich

Colwich Lock is on the Trent and Mersey Canal in Staffordshire about 1.5 miles south of Great Haywood Junction. It can be a bottleneck at busy times, with queues forming.

The West Coast Main Line railway passes nearby, with the branch to Stafford and Crewe crossing the canal just beyond the lock.

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Hall Green

The first photo in this series is of Hall Green Stop Lock.

This shallow lock is historically the junction between the Macclesfield Canal (this side) and the Trent and Mersey beyond. There is a difference in level of just a few inches between the two canals.

When the lock was first built it had four sets of gates, with each canal company having its own lock to guard against loss of water on either canal. The Hall Green branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal is a short spur from Hardings Wood Junction, Kidsgrove, to meet the Macclesfield Canal here at Hall Green. The Macclesfield was built in 1831 and was one of the last narrow canals to be built in Britain.

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