Bangers and Fly

This week we have done … Audlem to Coole Pilate on the Shroppie


Weather report same as last week again, again ! - cloud, drizzle, rain and some sun

Umm - only 2 miles and 2 locks this week ! We overstayed a bit at Audlem until the BW Lady came and told us it was time to move on ---- so we did yesterday BUT we don’t want to get to Nantwich until Thursday as I have to get a train back to Nottingham for a family wedding on Friday and Nantwich is the only railway station for some way. Coole Pilate is a lovely mooring place - in the middle of nowhere but the Shropshire Union Canal people have put in loads of picnic tables and metal stands for barbeques. Big field on other side with quite a lot of calves so making very acceptable moving picture when I am washing up !

Had a few visits to the Shroppie Fly pub (canalside at Audlem Locks) while in Audlem - the Timothy Taylor Landlord beer was so nice and who knows when we will meet him again! Audlem is quite a nice little village with a small Co-op (which was always queuing at checkouts when I went in); butcher, bakery, drycleaning shop (kind of a bit queer that!) and specialist bicycle shop. A fab fish ‘n’ chips (which, so sad, we hear is closing down this month) ; kebab place (hooray says Dai … yuck says me); post office, chemist and a couple of café/tearooms. Also 2 other pubs besides Shroppie Fly - one of which is a bit sort of trendy and the other we never looked in.

Oh, and Audlem Mill - a converted mill canalside now doing boatie bits and bods plus upstairs - mecca land for me! Loads of needlecrafty things - spent a bit on the old credit card there !

Another find there was George’s  http://www.georges-pork-poultry.co.uk/ ---- an enterprising young man who has rented out an old small hut by the bottom lock (lock 15) and sells his own grown porky things like bacon, gammon and 16 types of sausage, own freerange eggs and whatever veggies he can get his hands on! We sampled the eggs, bacon and gammon and his pork/black pudding sausage are yummie yum …… now you can see why we overstayed a bit ------ sausages, needlecrafts and the Shroppie Fly !!!

Brief history of the Shroppie Fly taken from their website shroppie fly



The building has a history that goes back to the construction of the Shropshire Union Canal itself. It was originally constructed as a canal warehouse and performed that function until its closure in 1970.  Not long after this, the building was purchased privately and underwent an extensive conversion exercise. By 1974 the old warehouse had been transformed into a pub and the ‘Shroppie Fly’ was born.  The name originates from a type of canal boat. ‘Fly’ boats were the express crafts of the waterways, running around the clock delivering the most important as well as perishable goods. The ‘Shroppie Fly’ boat represented the finest example of wooden narrow boat construction with ‘Shroppie Fly’ boatmen being the elite in their field.  The centre piece of the pub is the bar which is incorporated in an original ‘Shroppie Fly’ boat salvaged from the Shropshire Union canal near Birmingham

 Since last blog we have done … 2 miles and 2 locks
This makes total since Setting Off ….. 597 miles and 657 locks.