Design and Architecture

Our journey continued in a south-westerly direction with the A38 roaring alongside us.  The locks on this stretch of the Trent & Mersey are narrow, built for narrowboats.  Travelling upstream we enter the lock through a small pair of lock gates but exit through a bigger single gate.  

Kev steers into Tatenhill Lock

Just before Alrewas a lock takes us onto a river section and we're pleased to turn away from the A38.  Alrewas is an attractive village with old beamed and thatched houses.

Two of the old houses at Alrewas

While we were moored at Alrewas I took the opportunity to visit the National Memorial Arboretum which is a centre of remembrance.  The vast grounds contain over 250 memorials each unique in it's design.  The Armed Forces Memorial, standing on higher ground, dominates the site.  Two semi-circular stone walls surround two straight walls which are the backdrop for two bronze sculptures.  One statue is in front of double doors carved as if they are ajar with a gap cut through the stone.  On the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month a shaft of sunlight shines through the doors and illuminates a bronze laurel wreath in the centre of the Memorial. 

Bronze Sculpture in the Armed Forces Memorial, the figure on the left is standing in front of the doors.

 The stone walls are carved with the names of thousands of armed forces personnel who have lost their lives since the end of the second world war.  Walking around the quiet, well tended grounds and seeing the names of so many people who lost their lives was quite moving.   

At Fradley Junction we turned onto the Coventry Canal and for us new waters.  This pretty canal with it's neat grass towpaths and reeds growing along the canal banks follows the contours and so twists and turns on it's way south-east.   As a result progress is slow but this is a small price to pay for the lack of locks.  We moored up at Whittington where colorful back gardens lined the canal and when we walked into the village we found the verges alongside the footpath had also been planted up.

After Fazeley Junction the Coventry Canal turns north-east through Tamworth before resuming it's route to the south-east.  Our next stop was Polesworth, a small town with an impressive gatehouse dating from 1320 which was built for it's abbey.  The abbey was later demolished and the church which now stands on the site benefits from the grand entrance.  

  

Polesworth's gatehouse

Our journey from Burton on Trent to Polesworth