Descending the Staircase with Radiohead

“The pot is full, of secrets to be told”.

Mar 03, 2024

A moody introduction from a Radiohead, 27th February 2024 **(Author’s Collection)**

The “Staircase” set of canal locks at Grindley Brook lies approximately three miles from Whitchurch in Shropshire in central England and a handful of miles from the border with neighbouring Cheshire.

According to our friends at https://whitchurchwaterway.uk/grindley-brook/

The 4½ mile section from Tilstock Park to Grindley Brook was built by John & William Hughes and the final 10 miles, including the locks at Grindley Brook, by John Fletcher and John Simpson. This canal was opened in 1805, at the same time as Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Many early canals had staircase locks, where the top gate of one lock was the bottom gate of the next, but it was soon recognised that they wasted water and caused delays. It is therefore surprising that a staircase of three locks was built as late as 1805 in a location where it would have been quite possible to build single locks if a slightly different line had been adopted. The canal company made a wharf and erected a warehouse, as did a couple of private individuals. Grindley Brook was almost two miles from the town centre, so it was feared that transporting coal by road would add two shillings & sixpence per ton to the price. The leading local businessmen were also concerned that Grindley Brook might replace Whitchurch as the general market for the area. These considerations were a major factor in the decision to build the mile-long Whitchurch Canal Arm.

So here’s the “Staircase” at Grindley Brook and a “pictorial stroll” along the Llangollen Canal which I hope you’ll enjoy. All images captured on a Tuesday that threatened rain and although “out of season”, one hardy pleasure seeker presented me with an ever pleasing “perfect timing” moment. The use of Radiohead lyrics here will be immediately and obviously apparent and so I won’t bore you into tears of submission as to my adult lifetime of obsessional obsession for the school friends from Oxford. Music ended in 1997 with their album of pure perfection that is “OK Computer” but thankfully the boys continued making genre busting music and here in 2011 “Staircase”, a b-side to their single release of (THE INCREDIBLE!) “The Daily Mail”. Featured brilliantly in the TV show “Ozark”. I’ll link this at the bottom of the article alongside a wonderful live version of “Staircase”.