A Foggy Trip to Market Drayton

It was misty, moisty morning and the fog didn’t lift at all until late afternoon, so our trip up the canal from Audlem to Market Drayton was atmospheric and chilly. We went through two sets of locks; the Audlem locks consist of fifteen seperate locks, followed not long afterwards by the five Adderley locks, so we got plenty of practice and warmed up walking between locks and then setting and operating the locks. All this needed lots of winding up and down of the paddles that let the water in and out, as well as manhandling the enormous wooden gates open and closed at either end. So even though the day was cold, we were not.
These are used to wind the paddles in the gates up and down to control the flow of water in and out of the locks. You bring your own handle, or windlass, that goes on the exposed spindle.
When the paddles are fully open the water rushes in quite quickly. 

Near one of the locks was this crab apple tree that looked as though it decided to drop all it’s apples at the same time. At first I thought the yellow on the ground was fallen leaves until I had a closer look.

Further along the way, right in the middle of nowhere in particular, there was a cake stall set up on the side of the canal beside a house,  with lots of homemade cakes, Devonshire teas complete with warm scones, jam & clotted cream in little pots, pies, pasties, and ice creams. No-one was there to collect the money, just an honesty box or a website where you could pay with PayPal.

 I bought a delicious lemon curd ice cream and everyone else chose the Devonshire tea, as well as other cakes and a pastie for Peter’s lunch. It seemed a great little business, and quite busy considering where it was. 

You never know what you will find along the way, and it’s these quirky things that make it all so interesting. This tiny brick hut, complete with chimney,  is only about 10ft long and narrow,  and would have been used by a lengthsman, who looked after a length of canal. Just enough room to sleep near a fire and store his tools overnight. 


Comments

  1. Jackie BOctober 15, 2025 at 2:21 AM

    I loved the cake stall and it looks like you really enjoyed them, you are certainly getting to see beautiful countryside, what a coincidence meeting the chap that had been to Bathurst we spent Sunday watching the race. Keep on building up those muscles operating the locks and keep on having a great time, love to you all

    ReplyDelete
  2. Europe Trip 2025October 15, 2025 at 4:03 PM

    Thanks Jackie ☺️

    ReplyDelete

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