Friday 25th July We set off sharply as we heard engine lock being emptied as a boat was coming down. On through two lift bridges before finding four of the five Stockton Brook locks set against us so that plan didn't work. We descended the Hazelhurst locks and stopped at the Holly Bush for lunch. Beer great - Cooked food good - salads rubbish and also in the process of changing management it would appear. The rest of the afternoon was spent continuing down through Cheddleton to the terminus at Froghall. What a wonderful canal this is. We didn't fit the tunnel profile gauge by quite a lot and so we winded and moored just before the tunnel. Being only two foot shorter than the maximum quoted length we found that winding was tight aggravated by a very poorly moored boat encroaching on the winding point but we got round in the end. During our evening constitutional we met a guy who was driving his 1950 Bedford AD lorry into the car park at the lime kilns. Chatting to him we discovered that his Grandmother used to run a local hostelry and during the big freeze at the beginning of the 20th century, she started a soup kitchen in her pub to feed the starving boaters who were frozen in and unable to work. He said they stayed loyal to her and used to visit to pay for a drink even if they didn't take one to show their gratitude to her for that act. I did a car shuffle on the Di Blasi which ended with me belting down dark country lane with what can be only described as a feeble headlight.
Graham www.jannock.org.uk
