We started this week still on the Penkridge moorings and stayed until after some wet and windy weather went through then, on Monday moved just over a half mile to the other end of Penkridge where we settled down until more wet weather had gone through but by Tuesday morning the forecast had changed from a “don’t move” day to a “move” day. We travelled 3 miles and moored in a fabulously isolated section of canal with no other boats in sight and after dark you could look through a full 360º and not see a single light so calm and peaceful.
The weather was still reasonable on Wednesday so we moved on, a whole 2 miles to Radford Bank visitor moorings. We stopped here to enable us to get a bus into Stafford and to, perhaps enjoy the delights of The Radford Bank pub on whose moorings we had stopped. We looked at The Radford Bank menu on line and decided that the offerings were not for us. While on our trip to Stafford we lunched instead at a restaurant named The Soup Kitchen a three hundred year old restaurant with, believe it or not, 300 seats. It sounds a huge but there are in many different rooms making eating there a surprisingly cosy affair.
In the heart of Stafford Town Centre, are some wonderful sites, such as The Ancient High House – the biggest timber-framed townhouse in England. It was constructed in 1595. The house has a traditional and magnificent layout that will takes you back in time. Several rooms show the history of Staffordshire. There is also the room where King Charles lived during the Civil War, while on the top floor is housed The Staffordshire Yeomanry museum. All this and free entry.
The weather was not bad on Friday morning so we moved again, just under 3 miles, mooring up just beyond Tixall Bridge so that we could visit the small village of Milford, a childhood favourite place for Dave to visit, the Wimpy bar he remembered was still there, it was opened in 1954, but the ice cream parlour (the real reason we walked into the village) was gone.
We moved along way this week – not! Just 8.1/2 miles
