Gnosall and a Visit from Annie.

 Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th August 2022 in Gnosall

A beautiful sunrise over Norbury Junction.

A lovely sight as another working pair of boats went past this morning, the young lady on the butty skillfully steering with the tiller in the small of her back. Look, no hands!!

As we moved up to the water point, we could see down what little remains of the Shrewsbury Canal, now used as private moorings.

R dumped the rubbish in the overflowing bins behind the sanitary station. Just then a huge Biffa lorry appeared and backed very slowly and carefully across the narrow bridge over the Shrewsbury arm. Not an easy task and we watched in fascination. He made it eventually, so at least all the bins got emptied.

Soon after, we arrived in Gnosall, where we moored up in a lovely shady spot by the popular Navigation Inn.

In case we couldn't remember where we were, there was a helpful notice to tell us where we were and to explain how to pronounce "Gnosall". The "g" is silent, unlike as in "gnu"!

Pre Beeching, Gnosall had a railway line and station, sadly now long since gone. However, the line of the track is a lovely shady footpath that leads into the village.

All the post boxes in Gnosall are decorated like this with knitted hats. The school children seem to have had a "Jubilee" competition to colour-in Her Majesty. Sadly, most of the colours had faded in the sun.

Rush Hour in Gnosall. There is a Tea Room/Café of great repute in Gnosall and, as we arrived, we found the owner locking up as she doesn't open on Monday or Tuesday. Great shame as we were looking forward to some lunch. Still, "See you tomorrow", we said.

Nothing for it but to have a quiet afternoon, followed by an early dinner sitting on the bench on the towpath next to MM. Rather bizarrely, an owl was hooting overhead in broad daylight!

On Wednesday morning, we had a visit from our dear friend Annie who happened to be in the area. She arrived with her friend Jennie. It was wonderful to see Annie and to meet Jennie. They couldn't stay very long as Annie had a train to catch back to Lydney but it was lovely to have a catch-up.

After they left, we walked back into Gnosall village to have the lunch that we were denied yesterday - only to find that "Closed Wednesday" had been added to the notice on the door since yesterday!! Foiled again! Clearly the owner hadn't liked the look of us yesterday!

Close to the Navigation Inn is a handsome old warehouse, now converted into very desirable residences. Nice to see these old buldings being given a new lease of life.

Today: 2 miles, 0 locks and 0.9 hours.

Trip: 348 miles, 222 locks and 189.3 hours.