Yet another bright blue sky greeted us as we awoke and then set off at our usual time.
Soon we passed a small farm with a eclectic mixture of animals -more alpacas - as well as this poser!
We continued for a little further until we saw in the distance a church tower. Not sure where it was, this caused us to look at the map and realise that we were approaching the village of Polesworth, a place that hitherto we have always passed by. However, just after passing under the last of the bridges into the village we saw a good visitor mooring and so we pulled in and opted to walk into the village.
At a number of locations around the village there are stones which have attached to them inscriptions relating to the history of the place. This one recalls that until the middle of the 20C, coal mining was a very important part of the local economy and that miners made up much of the population.
The village borders on the River Anker with the road bridge across - the village had expanded substantially on the opposite side of the river.
It turns out that Polesworth was an important historical place - this building was once Nethersole School, founded in 1638 by Sir Francis Nethersole although this front part was re-built in 1818. The school closed in 1970 and quite recently has been converted into apartments.
The village once boasted a large abbey and nunnery but fell, as so many did, to Henry VIII's dissolution and land grab. The gatehouse, however, remains. For a long time the abbey kept it as luxury rooms for offering hospitality to wealthy visitors (who might then donate money to the abbey!) It was returned to this purpose in 2010 when it was converted into two holiday apartments.
The present parish church was formed from a part of the earlier abbey church, much of which was demolished. The gravestones around the outside paint the usual picture of people who either lived to a considerable age or who died very young - alas there were far more of the latter than we are accustomed to today. This one, from 1946, came just before the rapid improvements in facilities for childbirth and the reduction in perinatal mortality.
Inside, the church is very spacious and the windows, on a day like today, let in lots of light.
One unusual feature is a modern icon entitled The Raising of Jairus Daughter. It was commissioned from a Romanian painter Tatiana Nichita after a visit to the abbey in 2004.
The vicarage is adjacent to the church and was rebuilt in 1870 incorporating parts of an older building on the site. The nearest part is now the Refectory which is regularly opened to welcome visitors and we had a cup of coffee there. Several short videos have been made to explain the history of the abbey and the gatehouse, using local people as the characters. Someone kindly turned on the display so that we could watch some of them. Christine recognised at least one of the ladies in a group sitting at the next table. She commented and they were highly delighted and very amused to watch themselves - it seems that they have not really looked at them recently!
We then walked back to the boat a slightly different route. This plaque lists a number of well known historical figures from the village, including Inigo Jones and John Donne. There is a local belief that William Shakespeare attended the village school.
Two other interesting facts we found later: although the place still refers to itself as a village, its population is nearly 8500, more a market town. Although it still retains its station, it only has a single Parliamentary Train each day (see) to avoid a formal closure process.
We set off and passed through some rather pretty countryside - almost impossible to realise that huge coal mines once dominated the landscape.
At Alvecote there is a large distribution centre for cpl, well known around many marinas, chandleries and other places that supply boats with their fuel. We could see a pair of working boats moored alongside and assumed, from a distance, that they were loading up bags to take on their travels but as we passed we realised that they were unloading onto the wharfside. This web page gives some interesting detail.
After a break for lunch we continued through the outskirts of Tamworth until we arrived at the two Glascote Locks which we came through quite speedily -other boats happened to arrive at just the right time!
The canal then passes on an aqueduct over the River Tame. This is the largest tributary of the River Trent which it joins at Alrewas.
At Fazeley we turned left onto the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal. Immediately after passing under Watling Street bridge we spotted on the right a large building - was it once a church or did it have an industrial past? It was originally a Methodist Church and an interesting recollection can be found here.
Shortly afterwards we passed a recognisable boat: nb Jubilee, whose blog is on our watch list and we met briefly on the Middle Level earlier in the summer.
We would not have repeated a picture of the cute Drayton Footbridge but we have not seen the associated swing bridge in use before. A couple of cyclists closed it just after we passed through - presumably the bicycles cannot readily be taken up the steps of the footbridge. At least it seemed to move quite smoothly.
We pulled in just outside Fazeley Mill Marina so that we could check out our booking for tomorrow - we plan to leave the boat here for a couple of weeks whilst we return home but we had had a little difficulty contacting them originally and only had a voicemail message to say that it was OK.
There was still a little of the sunny afternoon left and where we had pulled in was overshadowed by trees - and no possibility of tv. So we decided to continue down the Birmingham and Fazeley to the next winding hole at the bottom of the Curdworth Locks.
We returned half way back to the marina and opted for an overnight mooring alongside RSPB's Middleton Nature Reserve. After tying up, Christine took a walk around the lakes which are formed from a string of former gravel pits along the Tame Valley.
.7 Mikes - 2 Locks
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