The Boating Adventures of Sonning Bear

To London and Beyond a Boating Bears Adventure: Part 1

At the time of writing, we bears are in the middle of a super boating adventure, which makes it tricky to write Knobsticks articles. But here is the first part for you.

Our adventure began with Grizzly and Polar taking our narrowboat, Uplander II, through the Harecastle Tunnel to Longport Boatyard, where the hull was going to be cleaned and blacked. Hanley Bear volunteered to go too, so he could look after Grizzly while they were going through the Harecastle Tunnel.

With Hanley's help, Grizzly steered "Uppie" through the tunnel in record time and soon they were moored safely at the boatyard.

A few days later, Uppie's hull was repainted and we were ready to set off on our journey. Four of us Bears were going with our human guardians on a very long trip, all the way to London for a boat festival called Canalway Cavalcade, which is held at Little Venice near Paddington over the May Day weekend.

The Boating Adventures of Sonning Bear

We were going to start our journey at quite a brisk pace, so we could travel part of the way with another boat, but Hanley Bear insisted on going to the Good Friday game at Stoke City, as he would be missing the end of the season. We moored near the stadium and Polar took him to the match, but Stoke lost.

The next morning, we got off to an early start and cruised right through Stone, down to Great Haywood and on to the outskirts of Rugeley, mooring near the aqueduct over the River Trent.

spaced well apart from each other, so Polar and Grizzly could take it in turn to steer the boat.

At Great Haywood, a floating market was taking place, with lots of trading boats including the Oatcake Boat, which had travelled down through the evening after the football game. We couldn't stop to look around, because we were on a long journey, but maybe another year we will make a special visit.

We had hot-cross buns for Easter the next morning, and cruised from Rugeley to Fradley Junction, and then onto the Coventry Canal. Huddlesford sat on the roof for this part of the journey, as we were approaching a very special place.

When it wasn't too breezy, we took it in turn to sit on the roof in Polar's painted watering can (which leaks, luckily, so it isn't full of water!).

The Boating Adventures of Sonning Bear

A little way down this canal we came to Huddlesford Junction which is, of course, where we found Huddlesford Bear! It’s also where the Lichfield Canal used to join the Coventry - and will again, when Huddlesford's friends at the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust have completed their project.

moored for the night after going through two locks at Tamworth and, because we had been good bears, Polar gave us an Easter egg to share. It was full of chocolate buttons! We gave our human guardians the egg to eat, and we ate the buttons.

Huddlesford gave us all hugs when he remembered what a sad and muddy bear he was when we found him and what a lucky bear he had been to be rescued. Then we all went for Sunday Lunch at the pub with Polar and Grizzly.

The next day we had many more locks to work up, at the town of Atherstone in Warwickshire. Hanley Bear was grumpy about leaving Staffordshire and kept saying that the scenery was not as nice here, but eventually he settled down.

When we got to Fazeley Junction, we didn't take the turning for Birmingham, but went north-east with the Coventry Canal. This was exciting, as none of us bears had been that way before. We

Atherstone has quite a pretty flight of locks, with primroses in the banks beside them, although our human guardians got rather soggy working through them in the heavy April showers. But there was a long section with no locks after that, so

The Boating Adventures of Sonning Bear

after lunch we cruised on through Warwickshire, eventually mooring near Hawkesbury Junction.

It was my turn to sit in the watering can the following morning, and I stayed there even when we went through a short tunnel at Newbold on the outskirts of Rugby.

After another long, lock-free section, we then had our last locks before Braunston to work through at Hilmorton. There are a great team of volunteers here who we follow on Twitter, so I made sure I was on the roof in the watering can to wave to them, at least at the first lock. But then Grizzly decided the rain was too heavy and my fur would get too wet if I stayed out, so I went back into the boat to warm up.

All of us stayed inside the rest of the afternoon as Polar and Grizzly steered us along the last part of the journey to meet our friends at Braunston and we made it!

We still had a long journey ahead of us, but I will tell you all about that in future editions of Knobsticks.

Photos: Sarah Honeysett

Answer to Anne Chetwyn’s Teaser (see page 2)

IWA Move and Corporate Members

IWA Head Office’s new address is:

The Inland Waterways Association

Unit 16B

Chiltern Court

Asheridge Road Industrial Estate

Asheridge Road

CHESHAM

HP5 2PX

They have also asked us to encourage members to support companies who are corporate members of IWA. In our area the list is :

Andersen Boats, Middlewich www.andersenboats.com

Burslem Port Trust www.burslemport.org.uk

Caldon & Uttoxeter Canals Trust www.cuct.org.uk

Canal Cruising Co Ltd, Stone www.canalcruising.co.uk

Carefree Cruising (Boatshare) Limited, Middlewich www.carefreecruising.com

Robert Wynn and Sons Ltd, Eccleshall www.robertwynnandsons.co

Stoke-On-Trent Boat Building Co Ltd www.stokeboats.co.uk

Stoke-On-Trent Boat Club, Endon www.stokeboatclub.co.uk

The Commercial Boat Operators Association, Eccleshall email: d.lowe@cboa.org.uk

The Shelby Narrowboat Company Ltd, Sandbach email: tsncltd@gmail.com

North Staffordshire & South Cheshire contacts

President: Chris Skelhorne

Vice President Roger Savage roger.st21@gmail.com

Chair Alison Smedley MBE 01538 385388 alison.smedley@waterways.org.uk

Newsletter Editor

Roger Evans 01606 834471 newsletter.nssc@waterways.org.uk 10 Long Lane, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0BL

Planning VACANT Contact Alison Smedley

Treasurer

Alan Chetwyn 01782 279277

(No Email)

Secretary

VACANT

Contact Alison Smedley

Sales Officer

VACANT Contact Alison Smedley

Social Secretary

Sarah Honeysett 01782 772295 socialsec.nssc@waterways.org.uk

Publicity Officer

Sarah Honeysett 01782 772295 publicity.nssc@waterways.org.uk

Web and Social Media Officer:

VACANT

Contact Alison Smedley

Membership Officer Mary Smith membership.nssc@waterways.org.uk

Navigation Officer

Jon Honeysett 01782 772295 navigation.nssc@waterways.org.uk

Burslem Port Work Party

Dave Broome 07974 966253 dave.broome45@gmail.com

Caldon + Uttoxeter Work Parties

Alison Smedley 01538 385388 alison.smedley@waterways.org.uk

Cheshire Locks Work Party

John Lawson 07940 878923 john.lawson@waterways.org.uk

Other committee members: Julie Arnold

West Midlands Region Chairman

Helen Whitehouse 01543 491161 westmidlands@waterways.org.uk

The Branch committee meets at 7:30 p.m. on the 2nd Tuesday of March, June, September & December at Stoke Boat Club, Endon Wharf, Post Lane, Endon, Stoke-on-Trent, ST9 9DU. All Branch members are invited to attend.

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Inland Waterways Association, the West Midlands Region, or our Branch. They are, however, published as being of interest to our members and readers. © The Inland Waterways Association - Registered as a charity no. 212342 www.waterways.org.uk/staffscheshire

Summer 2023 Page 23