Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Roving bridge and stoplogs at Milford
.
On the other side of the canal the large building with the long arched front is merely Tixall
Farm but the restored four-storey arched gatehouse and stables of 1580 point to something
grander. The first house was also built in 1580 by Sir Walter Aston and Mary, Queen of Scots
was kept a prisoner here for a fortnight in 1586. In 1678 another Aston was implicated in the
Titus Oates conspiracy.
Tixall Lock is the first of the dozen that lift the canal 30m to its top level at Gailey. From
the lock can be seen the largest engineering structure on the Trent Valley railway line, the
708m Shugborough Tunnel curving under Shugborough Park to follow the line of the canal.
In keeping with the locality, it has battlemented tower portals with additional towers at this
end.
There is a parting of the ways as the canal turns southwards to follow the valley of the
River Penk. The railway crosses to head for the centre of Stafford, as did the former Stafford
branch of the canal, which continued up the River Sow until it was abandoned in the 1920s.
Stafford's name comes from the Old English
staeth ford
, ford landing, when the waterway
was shallower.
Junction 13 of the M6 is just before Acton Trussell. But for the traffic noise, the village re-
tains its old charm with beehives beside the canal and the 15th century church looking down
across mown lawns to the Moat House Hotel with its bars and restaurants, which is partly
14th century timbered.
