A “Perfect Timing” moment in beautiful Gnosall on the Shropshire Union Canal, 27th June 2023 (Author’s Collection)
The village of Gnosall and the even smaller hamlet of Norbury Junction are separated by just three miles of the Shropshire Union Canal and a stretch of canal I’ve walked on three occasions since last Summer. No locks, just four traditional arched canal bridges and a long stretch of canal between, to the north, Norbury Junction, and where the long ago disused Shrewsbury Canal and smaller associated waterways connected with the main line of the Shropshire Union Canal and three miles to the south, Gnosall. Beautifully picturesque, sneeze and you’ll miss her, Gnosall. This small Staffordshire village boasts a quarter of a mile of picture-book perfection on the Shropshire Union Canal separated by “The Boat Inn” and “The Navigation Inn” pubs, is quietly busy in a canal sense and has a charm all of her own.
You may well have undertaken this pictorial stroll with me once or twice before, but care to indulge just one more time on an overcast if warm Summer’s afternoon of 27th June 2023?
View from Bridge Number 35 of the Shropshire Union Canal or “Newport Road Bridge” as a pleasure boater approaches from the direction of nearby Norbury Junction.
Picture-book Perfect Gnosall!
Return view from “Newport Road Bridge” and the brief stroll to the “Boat Inn Bridge” just visible up ahead. After passing by “The Boat Inn” pub and under it’s accompanying bridge, the pleasure boater will be heading south in the direction of villages such as “High Onn” and “Little Onn” before the immediate main line stopping destination of “Wheaton Aston”, another picture perfect section of this canal covered elsewhere in my many travel articles.
A little dark but a return view of “The Navigation Inn” overlooking “Newport Road Bridge”.
The colours of life beside a canal! Part 1.
Please say hello, in left to right order, to “The Boat Inn” pub, “Arla” and Bridge Number 34 of the Shropshire Union Canal or more simply, “Boat Inn Bridge”.
Return view from “Boat Inn Bridge” with “Newport Road Bridge” just visible in the near distance.
The colours of life beside a canal! Part 2.
View from beneath “Boat Inn Bridge” (I like these views!)
“The Boat Inn”, Gnosall, on an overcast Summer’s afternoon of 27th June 2023.
The colours of life beside a canal! Part 3.
Reflections from Gnosall, 27th June 2023.
The colours of life beside a canal! Part 4.
Welcome to Norbury Junction!
View from Bridge Number 38 of the Shropshire Union Canal or simply “Norbury Bridge”, here heading north and the destination of a later article in these series of pictorial strolls, Tyrley Locks.
View from “Norbury Bridge” heading south in the direction of Gnosall.
Reflections from Norbury Junction on an overcast Summer’s afternoon of 27th June 2023.
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to visit my “UK Travel” library here or alternatively, here are my three most recently published articles from this Summer of 2023:
