Tixall Time

It’s easy to see why Tixall Wide is such a popular mooring spot amongst boaters.  It is what it says – wide!  And, that in itself makes it a special feature on the canal system.

The story goes that the Toff who owned Tixall Hall and the surrounding land at the time of the construction of the canal didn’t want to look out of his windows and see a grubby old canal and ‘dirty boatees’!!  So, to placate him, the Engineer in charge, James Brindley, widened the canal to make it look more like a lake.  Only the Gatehouse of the Hall still exists.

Just a short walk back along the tow path is the busy area surrounding the junction at Great Haywood.  For the visiting boater there’s a canal-side Farm shop, a canal-side cafe and Shugborough Hall where, for a fee, you can visit the mansion, a county museum, part of the working farm, the gardens, the National Trust shop and the cafeteria.  Dogs can be taken into the grounds on leads.  We’ve never gone in because we are not members of the N.T. and we think £30 for the two of us is expensive but I’m sure it’s all very interesting and constitutes a full day’s entertainment.

Leading to the Hall you cross the Trent by means of a fabulous old packhorse bridge called Essex Bridge.  Dogs and children can ‘splish-slosh’ here to their heart’s content.  Today, two horses were ridden into the water for a paddle too!

Whist moored at Tixall:-

• John has been busy re-doing some of the scumbling in our back cabin.

• “President” and it’s butty “Kildare” really did steam by!  I suspect they are on their way to the IWA Festival which is being held at Burton next weekend.

• The Hotel boats “Oak” and “Ash” moored here overnight too.  They always demand attention when they go by.

• An opportunist stowaway was looking to get on board!

Tomorrow we will be making our way to Penkridge.  Our friend, Ray, is coming to see us on Saturday and we think Penkridge will be a good place for him to meet us.