204 - Locks, Pots and Through Stoke-on-Trent
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- In this vlog we cruise south from the Harecastle Tunnel, past Westport Lake and into Stoke-on-Trent.
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Jo wrote a short book about her travels and how she met Michael.
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FAQ's
Q. Where are Michael's T-shirts from?
A. Tee Republic; www.teepublic....
Q. Why do you speed up some of the footage in your videos?
A. We don't, we film it as time-lapse footage. We do not have the battery capacity or data storage to film in real time as our cruises can last up to 7 or 8 hours. We use to the time-lapse footage to help tell the story of movement rather than showcase the scenery. We limit the amount of time-lapse shots we use in each vlog.
I'm from Stoke, crying at the flame that never goes out LOL.
I used to go to Longport by train for meetings at the Longport Visitor Centre and walked the canal to get there. The railway station has strong dutch influences but was boarded up every time I alighted. Only saving grace is that it is a listed building. Lovely video.
Stoke has never been a well-off area and has never really recovered from the loss of the potteries industry. It is very gradually picking up, but there is a long way to go. Trentham Gardens is pricey but is well worth at least one visit. It's another place with a long history. The coal mine at Trentham fed directly into the power station at Meaford (said Mehford). Great Haywood is where JRR Tolkein lived.
Ahh, didn’t realize Tolkien was from Great Haywood! M
when I started watching canal videos I finally googled it because my company has a site in stoke on trent, and it's not too far from the canal, it is next to the south end of the harcastle tunnel! unfortunately they only let me travel in the US. if I ever started a new life I could be gongoozlin on my many coffee breaks.
Nice entertainment ♡ and I really love the parts w George! ty
Love the old name, smoke on trent.
Heh. Must have been a lot of it! M
I've had a busy month or so and have gotten rather behind in watching... Going to try catching up a bit.
Don’t worry, you’ve got time... we’ve had a technical breakdown and won’t be posting again for a few more days! M
Thanks, Michael. I did see that on Facebook. Sorry to hear about your technical issues. Hopefully things will be back to normal for you guys soon!
Ah bless. George is carrying his own water bowl. 🐶💖
Gotta put him to work somehow! M
The canal through Etruria has been cleaned up considerably since the mid 70s when my friends and I played along there. At the time it was full of broken bikes and dead cats.
I’m sure some of the bikes remain, but I hope the cats are fairing better! M
My wife and I love your commentaries. Also nice to see young couple who love each other
Thank you! M
nice video.
Thanks! M
Have you read ‘The Card’ by Arnold Bennet (the novelist you mention)? I haven’t got on with his other, longer, novels, but find this one so amusing I’ve re-read it several times. Set, naturally, in the Victorian Five Towns. Basic plot...how a bit of a (mild and well meaning) rascal made good.
No, I haven’t... hopefully some day I’ll find reading a bit more relaxing again and will look it up! M
All that lovely hot weather! We set out for an adventure on Monday but since Tuesday we have been stuck as the river we are next to had been in flood with dangerous currents and the canal we have to head towards to get back is currently closed due to flooding. Oh the British summer!
It’s kind of unpredictable isn’t it? We got delayed by a flooded river the other day, then two trees down in the canal from the rain the last two days! M
It looks so much better in the sunlight! When we travelled that part of the canal in September 2017 we had constant rain and gloom. And we have come all the way from New Zealand! At least the pubs were excellent. Keep up the good work. You enable me to get my canal fix from the other side of the world.
Yeah that’s the great risk of an English canal holiday... there’s so much green and water about for a reason! ;-) M
Love the bottle kilns! Boy, the locks were busy that day! Safe cruising!
Yep, pretty busy! M
We are loving the commentary on the move ,keep it up :-)
Will do! M
At 8:32, yet another of the so many different and interesting bridge styles y'all have over the canals over there.
There’s quite true variety! M
Looked like an interesting cruise, seeing the potteries really from the way it should be seen from the cut.
It’s a good way to see them! M
Great relaxing vlog. Thanks Guys.
Thanks for watching! M
Brought back memories I used to cycle from stoke to Etruria n back .. thanks guys great vid..
Thanks for watching! M
Love the cinamatic feel of your videos lately. Very enjoyable music and the voice overs work very well to narrate the journey and provide little historical tidbits. Thanks!
Thanks! Jo’s been working like mad to make them enjoyable and we’ve been having fun with the voiceovers, so glad they’re appreciated! M
Thank you for another lovely trip. It's always relaxing and, at times, rather humorous to watch your vlogs. Take care and God Bless, Paul from Florida.
Thanks! We go for humorous all the time, but so long as we’re always relaxing! M
@@MinimalList Nail it on both this time.
You both have really healthy colours, the format you use is excellent, tell everyone what you are going to do, show everyone what you are doing, and then tell us all what you done, with all the daily incidents, plus some great historical facts, It makes viewing compulsory with an evening green tea, feet up and before catching up with the news. Ironic about the flame that never dies... if I had stayed in the UK all those years ago and not venture off to seek the worlds wonders, my BSC pension if and when its still around to be claimed, might just buy me a weekly ice-cream!.... One thing when people introduce themselves to you, they know you and much about your life on the canals, so it must be kind of strange people knowing you from the blog and you knowing little or nothing about them.
It can be a little odd, but generally it’s quite nice. When we meet longer term viewers it can be funny because it’s not so much a “hey, I’ve seen your face” but more of a “we know all about you”... so they remember things about our trip both of us have forgotten! But it’s quite fun to know that people have followed along and have really enjoyed the videos! Can’t imagine how weird it gets for people with way more subscribers though... at least we’re sort of able to keep up with comments and keep a dialogue going! Cheers! M
It was nice to meet you at the Harecastle Tunnel mooring that morning. We were the first of 4 boats to come through. We have some good photos of you two and George, and me and Stephen. We've also got a lot of photos of Michae'ls face when he was setting up the camera on my phone! You passed us at Stoke Top Lock - and I can be seen on our boat at 8.58 minutes.
I can’t believe you phone took so many photos of my face! I couldn’t stop smiling at it! M
"The place where the leek was invented." Big chuckle. Love your videos. All the best, Allan
Had to be invented somewhere! May as well be the place that’s it’s namesake! M
I like these industrial landscapes as much as the rural ones. Always interesting to see the relics of early industry. I believe this area was particularly glad of the coming of the canal, because it meant their pottery and china could be transported reliably with very few breakages from canalside wharf to the customer's warehouses in faraway cities and docks for shipping all over the world. Previously it had been by long distance horse and wagon along bumpy roads which could be unreliable in bad weather. After the advent of the railways the Potteries still continued to use canal barges for a long time, as speed was less important than smooth delivery. Perhaps you mentioned this a while back?
Believe we did a ways back when we were heading north past some other potteries. We talk about it some more in today’s video! M
there are cardboard models of bottle kilns, Metcalfe Models I think ,if youre interested, about £5 I think.
there are also models of locks and canal boats too :D
Ooh, I’ll have to take a look! M
Enjoyable vlog... Tha ks for sharing
Thanks! M
Wow Michael, it took balls to say that!
my nick of the woods
We have been looking forward to this trip. Narrowboat Potteries has the history of Stoke painted on the outside. You could have saved yourselves a trip :)
Hah, well we’ll have to find you and see it! M
Another lovely episode thanks. So Jo does some driving, is it a coincidence we get to see some nice cascading water in slo-mo in the locks? 😉 - 5⭐'s
She does drive, more often when my foot’s not bothering me. And yes, it’s cause I like to shoot slow mo, the cascade wasn’t her driving! M
Been a fan for some time and like the direction you are going with your travelogue style. Is it possible to do some short tour shots of the places you mention. Like the 'bottle kiln' and what it is. I know, but there are many who might not. I like the history of a place. Can you expand for us? If not, fine, I love the vlogs and your travels. Thanks.
Most of the bottle kilns are on private property and we didn’t really visit them so much as pass them. When we do visit places we try and get some shots of our touristing, but because we have to watch our budget pretty carefully we don’t go to most places where there’s a few. M
@@MinimalList Bottle Kilns are a Stoke-on-Trent feature, where earthenware (ceramic pottery like plates, cups etc) were 'fired' to turn them from clay to ceramics.
China Clay is not local it comes from Cornwall and Malaysia, THE Latter makes most of the pottery now, all of poor quality. A good visit is the Emma Bridgewater Factory on the caldon canal.
We stopped by Emma Bridgewater in the rain on our way past a few days ago... need to try and make a longer stop on the way back, as only Jo got a visit! M
Golly gosh - how that area (the five towns) has improved since our last visit xx years ago. A sadness as the sign on a wahrehouse "Jones and Shufflebotham" has gone (has some significance for SWMBO). You can't win them all...
Now I’m curious about the significance! M
When we passed Westport Lake last year there was a major police search going on. A kid (or some kids?) had disappeared in the lake, under which there are old mine or quarry workings, so it is a dangerous place to swim. There were TV cameras and journalists and crowds of people watching what was going on. On a more pleasing note, I highly recommend a visit to Middleport Pottery. It is a fascinating museum. Sadly the factory wasn't working when we there as they were on their annual shutdown.
The child died sado!
Tragic story, the poor boy and his family. And just last month apparently there was another drowning, an accident where an older man fell in. Seems it’s a place with quite a history of accidental drowning. M
Just saw my boat in your video! :D we were at longport boat yard but will be leaving next week.
Hah, glad your boat got into the clip! We’ll be passing Longport again in a couple of days! M
@@MinimalList we are currently on the slip way as we will be leaving at the weekend to begin cruising :) so wave if you see us :)
I’m afraid we were there Wednesday, just past noon. We stopped in for diesel, but didn’t see anyone about except for the woman behind the counter who filled us up. Sorry we missed you. M
Your cutting room floor must be knee-deep in bloopers by now :)
Heh, pretty much... if this were the days of film there’d be no more room on the boat! M
Went past the Shelton Steel works in the late seventies, a centre for really heavy industrial steel making ...... The heavy dirty dangerous jobs are all gone now ..... Is the place better for it?
I’m sure the place is safer and cleaner for it, but yeah it seems it’s taken a long time for a lot of England to recover from the loss of so many primary industries. In the long run it’s probably best for everyone downwind that they’re gone, but it takes generations to find a new driver, I’m sure. M
That was interesting I like the inserted voice overs you have started doing...but what was the blue thingy that seemed to be on George's collar..is it a ball detector...a float when he goes in the canal....an emergency snack....a horn to warn cyclists he is approaching ,,,,,,,,?
Heh, it’s a collapsible dog water bowl... he carries it on hotter days! M
The Potteries are also known as the Five Towns. Not to be confused with the Seven (err, Six) Kingdoms.
Yup... funny that there are Six Towns in the Five Towns though! M
@@MinimalList SoT is often (incorrectly) known as the 'five towns' because famous local author Arnold Bennett thought that 'five' sounded better than 'six' when he gave a collective name to the area covered in his novels.
The people of Fenton - the town he missed out - are not pleased about this !
I’m sure they’re not! M
Stoke-on-Trent, also known as Broke-n-Bent.
So, how is George's tennis ball census these days? Those shady moorings do look inviting. Hey, there's a name for the canal-side inn you will start when you retire from continuous cruising, _The Shady Moorings_ :D
And I had to consciously and deliberately NOT type Georgie since Georgie cat is in my way on this desk at the moment.
The tennis balls aren’t doing so hot, they’re being displaced by the Chuckit balls, which are better for his teefs. It’s a good name, but I was thinking “The Spaniel’s Bollocks”. M
Screwfix and Lidls... who could ask for more... except maybe ice cream shops
I've just realised that your title date is the travel day not the release day...
Yep... it’s to help remind us how behind we are! M
@@MinimalList Being behind by such a short time is no issue... "Art takes time"... (I used to say halfway though an edit!).
After time taken watching You Tube's 1980's TV shows, clips from Woodsock and 2 decades of The Graham Norton Show, anything so well made and only a couple of weeks old is "live". :-) Make sure you 3 ENJOY yourselves... and get up the Caldon before the weather changes.
Excellent video, as usual guys. I have a question, most likely directed to Jo, altho I suppose you might know the answer too Michael. The tall plant on the top of your boat - the one with the white flowers - what is it? Seems a unusual plant for a boat garden.
Very tall spindly things with little tiny white flowers? Tomato plants, which grew kind of bizarrely up and never fruited and have now died after being whacked into too many bridges! M
@@MinimalList Thanks Michael. Sexist of me to think you wouldn't have the answer.🤭
Missed this episode, welcome to sunny Stoke, you passed the Caldon canal, like looking for the holy grail and motoring on past ? Stoke had a bad reputation from some boaters but no blogger ever had an issue, just volunteers helping you on your way. Only negative is that Stoke council should allow volunteers to man the Etruria etc Museum and attractions 365 days a year. Yes its industrial, and yes the Council has not had the intelligence for the re-gentrification bug !! Proud of Stoke and ashamed by Stoke council , wastes money on its own Castle and Rail links that will never happen. Why are Stoke residents so passive and apathetic ??? 6 towns ...add Stoke. Staffordshire countryside so beautiful. Caldon Canal.
We went down the Caldon in later episodes. M
Have you tried the pastel de nata from Lidl yet?
No, they always seem to be out! But I’ll keep an eye out again! M
Aah the lovely George being social with another narrow boat 🐕. Why have you got a lump hammer on the back of the ⛵ is it in case the locals turn nasty ?😀
Heh, no it’s for mooring pins, when they become necessary. Though it’d probably work on the locals as well, in a pinch. M
@@MinimalList 👍 mystery solved 😀
I went for my driver physical , 270+ , sugar in my pee , fail . My sister lent me " The Plant Paradox " and I've listened to the keto guy . I'm now 235 with a bullet and much more comfortable , Let me count the ways .
Just be aware that, like all restrictive diets, most people that lose a lot of weight via keto diets gain it back again eventually. Weight loss diets make terrible weight maintenance diets. M
There was SIX towns but Bennett didn't like one of them, so excluded it from his novels.
I read that he preferred the sound of The Five Towns to The Six Towns... so maybe he didn’t have anything specifically against Fenton! M
@@MinimalListThat is interesting. I would. Fenton was a dump when I lived in Talke. Although in his day it was nice. Did you get to try any oatcakes?
Was that a lido you went past if so do you know what it's called?
Ooh, learned a new word! Do you meant the water slides? That’s Waterworld, and they do have an outdoor pool. M
How many miles does Jo walk in a normal week, any idea?
No idea, but on a busier week a good marathon, I’d say. M
God's binoculars had me laughing... At least he wasn't checking his testicles!
Honestly does it sound terrible if I say at least 20% of my enjoyment of your videos comes from the bloopers?
Who says he wasn’t? ;-) M
God only knows... :-P
moose nuggets are used to make earrings. hmmmmmmmmmm
Oh my. Well, I mean I can think of worse... M
Really nice shady mooring.
Best kind in the heat! M