As part of Etruria Canals Festival, the Society orgainsed an 2-and-a-half-mile walk, exploring the origins of the Caldon Canal, the people who built it and the challenges they faced. A group of seventeen people, mostly PHS members, set off from the busy festival at 3pm on Saturday 1st June for the two and a half mile walk. The first port of call was Etruria Junction and the summit level of the Trent & Mersey Canal, looking at development in the eighteenth century, responding to the needs of the emerging pottery industry. Stopping briefly at Shirley's Bone and Flint Mill to consider the transport of the bulk materials used in making pottery, they headed down the locks on the main line to look at the anatomy of the narrow lock and to introduce pioneers like Hugh Henshall who stepped up at the time of James Brindley's death in 1772.
The walk continued through Hanley Cemetery, the Cauldon Gardens and Hanley Park to join the Caldon Canal at the milepost making the first mile from the junction. The walk returned to Etruria along the Caldon's towpath, picking up features along the way, including Planet Lock, a mysterious spill weir and the striking Bedford Street staircase locks.
Many thanks to Kendal Allen and Dawn Horton for sending in their pictures.
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We paused in Hanley Park to think about Thomas Mawson's vision and hear a recording of Billy Weston's reminiscences of the building of the Park in the 1890s. This is an extract from our Revealing Voices project, recorded by Arthur Wood in the 1960s.
We had intended to include Arthur's recording of the ceremony reopening the Caldon Canal in 1974 which took place in Cheddleton, but ran out of time, so we have included it via the link below.