To Stoke on Trent

From Great Haywood the canal heads north towards Stone and Stoke on Trent

Just below Stone the lock has a very small building presumably for canal workers in the past. It stands by a redundant side pound for water saving.

There was an artist with quite good paintings for sale. He lived on an old boat nearby and remembered Invicta from 1973 when he had a ride on it as a young boy. Unfortunately we have no room for any more paintings so we bade him farewell.

The Star Inn at Stone is a canal landmark. It was in Stone at the George Hotel that the first meeting took place to proposed building the Trent and Mersey canal. Josiah Wedgwood was one of the first supporters of the canal as it would serve to bring coal and clay to his factory and would make shipping the finished pots safer than on the old rutted roads of the time


The Star Inn still sports original canal bars, but when we went back there for a lunchtime drink the next day we were the only ones in the place. Still the beer was nice after a visit to the local dentist for more antibiotics for my gum which was starting to hurt once again. The doctors would help this time so I had to pay the dentist examination fee!!!



No moorings as usual were to be had in Stone so we passed through and moored above the top lock.

Passing the “new” Wedgwood Pottery factory at Barlaston. This factory was built in the 1930 to replace the original factory at Etruria which had subsided and was continually flooding.

Stoke on Trent ignores the canal and has old dilapidated building lining a lot of the canal banks.

The second lock up the Stoke flight with very little headroom under the railway bridge.

Further up the lock flight there are now new apartments built on the site of the old Tywfords pottery (sinks and toilets fame). Note the old bottle kilns have been retained as a reminder of bygone great days of industry

Etruria flint mill at lock 5 of the flight

Etruria top lock with adjacent BW yard

We came up the lock to the right of the photo.

In the centre is the old gauging lock that used to be under cover. Gauging locks were used to check the loading levels of the boats and establish the height of the gunnel above the waterline. This data was kept for reference by anyone who needed to know what the tonnage of the load was in a boat to establish the tolls due to the canal company where the boat wished to pass on their canal.

To the left is the entrance to the Caldon canal that goes to Leek and formally Uttoxeter. A very popular and pretty canal once you leave the city, we went up it a few years ago.


Through he bushes you can just make out the top of the roundhouse which was one of 2 that were part of the original Wedgewood works. Originally the factory was at canal level but over the years it sank about 15 feet below the level of the canal and caused flooding. Hence the move to the new factory at Barleston. The site is now occupied by the Stoke on Trent the Sentinel newspaper.



Middleport pottery is one of a few that still operates. The factory has been preserved with many interesting original features.

Another surviving bottle kiln at Longport.