Around Monday lunchtime this week I looked out of the window at the lovely bright Autumnal sunshine. It was casting beautiful long shadows but very bright and sunny, that was it! camera gear in the car and with a wave to Mrs H and an assurance that I would only be gone about an hour or so, I set off.
Not really sure where to go, I decided that as I had never put a picture of the South end of the Harecastle tunnel on that little historical jaunt I wrote about, so I would remedy that by getting some pictures.
The south end is where the canal re-emerges from the tunnels gloom and starts its way into the industrial heartland of North Staffordshire. The small track down to the tunnel is hard to find unless you know the area or do a Google search beforehand, the parking is non existent so I pulled over onto a grassy verge and set off down the path expecting to be gone about ten minutes.
Even from the road the surrounding fields are quite a bit higher and the steep slopping path down to the tunnel only impresses upon you the initial need to tunnel a way through this natural obstacle of the ‘Harecastle Hill’ in order to continue the canal, rather than attempt to build a series of locks which would have slowed down the through traffic considerably.
The tunnel opening is contained within its own building that serves to house the powerful extractor fans that pull the fumes out of the tunnel, while a huge sandstone wall holds back the hill behind and forms a gothic plinth for the tunnel keepers house, now a private property. To the left is the original old ‘Legging’ tunnel with just a small ribbon of bright orange water welling from its open maw, this foul looking stream is contained within a token stretch of canal that will never see a barge again and is the only remnant of its past glory.
The South end of the Harecastle Tunnel
In the foreground is the old ‘Legging’ tunnel spewing out its orange, iron oxide contaminated water. The current canal tunnel is in the background with the entrance inside the beige coloured building. The white house standing on its sandstone plinth is the old tunnel keepers house.
I chatted to the modern day keeper and asked how long before a barge came out at this end and he told me it would be around 45 minutes or so. I decided to just take some tunnel pictures then be on my way, but in the scheme of things we continued chatting and putting the world to rights, when suddenly he was off. The 45 minutes had passed quickly and a barge was emerging from the tunnel after its long journey in the darkness into brilliant Autumn sunshine.
Into the sunshine, a barge emerges from the tunnel to be greeted by the keeper.
The shadows are getting longer as the day passes.
I took my photos and my leave of the tunnel keeper and was about to return to my car when another chap who had come for a look at the tunnel started to chat about the local history. He was very well informed and we were both able to share bits of information. My own contribution was the ownership and history of most of the local farms, some of them long lost or now in some other guise such as private houses or pubs.
He started to tell me about his research into his own family history and had found a reference to a Sir Walter Raleigh in his family line and “guess what?” he asked, “I don’t know” I replied “do tell me”
“His best mate was Sir Francis Drake!” he replied.
At this point I backed away from the edge of the canal and took a firmer grasp of my stick. I hurriedly said I had to go now, as I was going to see if I could find some old cooling ponds from a long vanished iron smelter that had now reverted to natural looking lakes.
“I am going that way myself” he exclaimed, “I can point you out a few features”
It had occurred to me that maybe I could just jump into the canal and swim through the tunnel to escape him, but how would I get back to my car?
So off we set along the canal towpath and to be fair he did point out some things of interest and as long as I kept him off the subject of his family history he seemed quite harmless.
Looking towards Tunstall with the short section of the old legging tunnel canal still visible.
The old cooling ponds are now pleasant lakes and a home for a pair of Swans.
As I had walked this far I decided to continue on to a lake that was a natural beauty spot in the town of Tunstall. This town formed one of the main pottery manufacturing towns of the last century and features in the books of the author Arnold Bennett in his 'Five Towns' novels. The canal towpath runs alongside of this lake and contrary to my expectation it was very beautiful despite passing through some heavily industrialised areas.
Industrial but nice.
I took some nice Swan pictures as there were quite a few on the lake and thought about walking its circumference, but when I took a shot across the lake I realised it was getting a bit late and I still had to walk back to my car.
The Family of Swans.
A resident pair.
Getting late.
I arrived back home about 4 hours after I ‘just nipped out’ and Mrs H was getting dinner ready.
“I bet you thought that I had got lost?” I said “Why? Have you been out?” she replied, she was only joking, .............. I think?
