Earlier this week, as it was a fine day, we went to the Nation Trust property at Shugborough. However, we didn’t visit Shugborough directly (although we had tea and a cake in the cafe afterwards!); instead we walked through the property to the Trent and Mersey canal to explore a little. We didn’t go too far as the paths were muddier than we expected. We did get as far as the junction where the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire canal joined the Trent and Mersey. Here are a few photos:
The above photo shows bridge 73 where we started our walk. Through the bridge you can see that it is adjacent to a lock.
Below is the first photo taken at the junction between the two canals. This shows a more modern bridge (no. 74) but what I like best is the signpost pointing to Wolverhampton. It reminds me of the old fashioned road signs of my childhood of which only a few remain:
This next image shows the bridge over the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Canal at the junction. As I couldn’t stand in the middle of the water, to get the full sweep of it, I had to take 3 images and stitch them together – I quite like the effect from this viewpoint:
In addition, below is a view of the bridge from the opposite side – it is Bridge 109 and is named ‘Haywood Bridge’. I like this for two reasons: 1) The signpost – this view shows all 3 pointers; as well as pointing to Wolverhampton, it shows left (north) goes to ‘The Potteries’ and right (south) ‘The Trent’ and 2) The buttresses supporting the bridge on the right hand side:
Finally we have a view from the bridge in the Wolverhampton direction complete with the boatyard on the right. Plenty of opportunities to explore when the paths are dryer:
