Summer Holiday 2017 Day#3

Bridge 55 near Handsacre to Bridge 85 Lower Burston Bridge After a relatively peaceful night we set off earlier than the last two days - 9am. As we were approaching the Armitage Shanks factory a dog walker on the towpath was paying a lot of attention to something floating in the canal, it turned out to be a whole lorry wheel and tyre so we pulled over and helped him get it our of the canal onto the bank. He was planning on moving it away but it was too heavy so we left it in the hedge. We continued on to Rugeley where Brenda went shopping whilst I stayed aboard to do a couple of jobs and a bit of polishing. Because the Open Livewriter program is now failing to open on the laptop I decided to carry out a Windoze update to see if that would fix the problem. Five hours later it had finally finished and Livewriter still refused to work.

Unusually for this stretch of the Trent and Mersey we experienced no queues at either Colwich or Heyford locks.

We then stayed on the T&M at Haywood Junction and passed through Hoo Mill lock having to just wait for one boat to descend as we arrived. For the second day running we had a butterfly to photograph - this one landed on Jannock's roof to sunbathe.

At Hixon I noticed some 'naked' air raid shelters in a field beside the canal that had all the soil removed from over them and were now used as animal shelters. Knowing that these usually indicate a location of military importance, but not seeing any other evidence of any buildings or similar in the area, I looked up Hixon on t'interweb thingy and found out about RAF Hixon ( see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Hixon )which was on the other side of the canal. Therefore these shelters had been placed away from the airfield with only a canal bridge as a route for servicemen (& women) needing to use them.

After supper we took a constitutional and went in search of the village of Burston. I say village but it's more of a duckpond than a village. With two seriously smart houses, a couple of newish builds and a flock of cottages it's a gem. It took us a lap of the village pond to find the church but the pub up by the main road, The Greyhound, is easier to find. As well as real ales they also had Ruby Tuesday Cider (with Raspberry juice) which is highly recommended. The food looked good as well but we had eaten on-board. So, a perfect mealtime stop, moor near bridge 85 and walk up the lane and toward 'The Hall'. The village clock is located on the front of the cottages.