Middleport Pottery and the Harecastle Tunnel.

 Monday 15th June 2026 in Kidsgrove.

Just north of last night's mooring are the three very deep Etruria Locks, which we tackled after breakfast. There used to be a sanitary station there; M could find no sign of it but she did get a good photograph of the statue of James Brindley.

Etruria is the junction of the  Trent & Mersey Canal and the Caldon Canal, which goes off to the left in the photo below. In the centre is an old dry dock for maintenance. Etruria is an interesting name; it was adopted by the early pottery makers because they thought it sounded Roman and therefore "classy"!

After Etruria, we stopped off at Middleport Pottery for some early lunch. There are excellent visitors' moorings here and we decide that we should come back by car one day and do the tour again as it was excellent when we did it some years ago.It was a very "hands on" type tour which made you feel very involved with all the fascinatimg processes. 

M greatly admired the lampshades in the Café. Sadly the shop which sells the products made at the pottery does not open on a Monday. Another reason to come back!

The then "Prince" Charles was very involved in the restoration of Middleport Pottery and has visited on a number of occasions. The restoration was made possible by a handsome donation from the Prince's Trust.

 

On our way to the Harecastle Tunnel, we passed this narrowboat with a familiar name and exchanged laughing greetings with the owner.
 

At Harecastle there was a wait for an hour to go through due to boats coming through the one-way tunnel in the other direction.. M took a photograph of James Brindley's original  tunnel, which was completed in 1777 after 11 years' work, an incredible achievement for its time. It was finally closed in the 20th century due to subsidence.

We set off through Thomas Telford's tunnel, which was completed in 1827 after only three years' work, a sign of the speed of developments in civil engineering in that intervening period.

40 minutes and 2,926yards later, we emerged at the northern portal. Today, M decided to stay on board rather than walking across the top. Her previous experience of walking over the top was "interesting" due to a highly inaccurate hand drawn map provided by a well meaning tunnel keeper who unfortunately didn't know east from west or north from south!

Just past the tunnel exit we passed the entrance to the Macclesfield Canal, which goes up to the Peak Forest Canal. Sadly Bosley locks, in the middle of the "Maccie", have been closed on and off for some time.

We only went through one lock at Kidsgrove before mooring up and walking back to the large Lidl next to the lock for a few bits and in search of a post box (which we eventually found in Tesco after asking some locals!).

 Today: 6 Miles, 4 Locks and 3.0 Hours.

Trip: 164 Miles, 105 Locks and 78.1 Hours.