fbb is forced to confess that, if you had asked him where the River Churnet was, he would have had to phone a friend.
Up on the A53 north east of Leek (Staffordshire) is an intriguing "road house" ...
Up on the A53 north east of Leek (Staffordshire) is an intriguing "road house" ...
... called The Winking Man. About 100 yards away and just off a side road, is this inauspicious ditch.
This and some other equally inauspicious ditches will come together to form the River Churnet. After feeding the Tittesworth Reservoir ...
... the river loops round Leek and begins its lengthy journey south and eastwards via the Dove and the Trent to end in the Humber Estuary. Its less attractive claim to fame is that is was once the most polluted river in England.
Note the station, once a substantial area of rail activity ...
... and, to its left, the terminus of the previous heavy haul infrastructure, namely the Cauldon Canal.
The station is now occupied by a branch of Morrisons and the canal by a B & M store.
The purity and dissolved geological salts of the waters of the Churnet made it ideal for making dye. Leek had a number of dye works ...
... which contributed mightily to the town's prosperity and to the river's pollution.
The river, its eponymous valley, the railway and the canal all flowed together until river (canalised) joined the Dove at a village called Combridge, just south of Rocester.
The railway was constructed by a constituent company of the "Knotty", the North Staffordshire Railway, which took its nickname from the "Staffordshire Knot", symbol of the county and used as a logo by the railway company.
The knot ...
... is on the coal bunker; and, of course, features on the County's flag.
As the line meandered southwards ...
... there were other industries to be served. At Froghall today there is the last remnant of a copper works ...
A short distance from the line at Oakamoor was Moneystone Sand Quarry which dispatched its product via a conveyor to a loading silo on a separate siding beside the "main" line.
The quarries now house a solar farm of considerable proportions ...
... but close observation reveals the route of the conveyor as a straight line through the trees.
For many years, the quarry provided valuable freight business for the Churnet Valley line.
But there was a VERY unusual link to this curvaceous bit of railway infrastructure which we will explore when we look at passenger traffic tomorrow.
Martijn Is Still Excited ...
... maybe about NEbus?
And A Puzzle Picture
Who had a "watch" like this?
Answer tomorrow
Next Alton Towers blog : Friday 14th August
No comments:
Post a Comment