Another very pleasant day's cruise.We left our mooring at 9:35 and ascended the 4 Meaford locks without any real difficulty. The 3rd lock about which we were warned yesterday was a bit slow due a blockage in one of the culverts used to fill the lock. Then past the Wedgwood pottery, through Trentham Lock and into Stoke on Trent.
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| Entering Stoke Top Lock |
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| A simple Mason's mark |
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| and something more ornate |
The journey into Stoke doesnt provide the most attractive stretch of canal on the system so we didnt linger. After an hour or so we were ascending the 5 deep Stoke locks in the centre of the city which lift the canal by 50ft to its highest point of around 500ft above sea level. It is possible to see a few mason's marks carved into the stone blocks in the lock walls. Each mason used his own personal mark. So they may just mean "I made this" or perhaps they identified the work for piecework payments.
By 14:15 we had reached the top at Etruria where the Caldon Canal joins the Trent&Mersey and moored just on the Caldon for the night.
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