B2B Day 69 Boscobel to Penkridge

For an OS map of today's walk (10.83 miles; 17.43 km; 216 ft total ascent), click here.

Last night I had a hard time getting to sleep because my throat swelled up and felt sore. I could see that there were some cat hairs on my shirt from the bedding, and I am allergic to cats. I took one of Ken's antihistamines that we brought for his hay fever, and I managed to fall asleep. 

Today we would say goodbye to Shropshire on leaving the Boscobel area and hello to Staffordshire as we headed generally northeast to our destination, Penkridge. In some ways it was a fairly "workaday walk" but Ken was looking forward to some canal walking since we had so enjoyed the Kennet & Avon canal in 2019. We left the Airbnb fairly early and walked to the Oakley Arms (where we had dinner last night) for breakfast because it was on our way. We had a good breakfast, and it was a much more positive experience for me because I could actually eat and enjoy it!

From there we walked a couple miles into Brewood, where we went to a Spar and got a sandwich, crisps, and a drink for our lunch. We sat on a bench in the village and Ken drank the Coke. I used the public facilities, which were clean and attractive—not what is typically found.

We then hiked a few miles on our first of three canals of this trip: a stretch of the Shropshire Union canal. We particularly enjoyed the early part near Brewood, where there were lots of boats moored or moving on the canal as well as lots of people out for their daily walk along the towpath.

On the Shropshire Union canal

We talked with a man named Graham who lived in Brewood (which he pronounced "Brood") in a 1740 timbered house. He walked that part of the canal every day, and told us about this section being built by Thomas Telford along a straight line, which was his innovative method of canal building. Rather than curve around the contours of the landscape like his canal engineering predecessor James Brindley, Telford ran his canals on a straight line—both in terms of direction and elevation—sending the canal along causeways or through cuttings along the most direct route possible.

We came off the canal path and walked to Lapley, hoping to visit the church. The church was locked, but we sat on a nice bench outside and ate our lunch and the last of the wine gums and a few of the "fruit pips" we bought from Blists Hill Victorian Town. Lapley was a nice village with a good community feel, with people chatting on the village green as we passed by.

Because of the recent rain, low-use of some of the paths, and a slightly more direct route, we decided to walk quiet country lanes to Penkridge for the rest of the day. It was peaceful and pretty, though the road walking did wear on the feet. Just when we were getting tired after our long tramp on tarmac, we were pleasantly surprised to find the Swan at Whiston, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, not only operating but open. We had thought it might have been one of the pubs that was on our old OS map, but had closed as so many have over the last fifteen years. But here it was at 2:30 in the afternoon doing a booming trade. 

The Swan Inn: solace for sore feet

We went to the "bar" side because we just wanted to order some lemonade. The man ahead of me in the queue took forever to order. He must have been ordering for a whole table of people: five different drinks all needing to be individually concocted, a bottle of wine, food from the kitchen . . . but finally I was able to order a pint and a half-pint of lemonade for Ken and I to relax. 

After that rest, our destination was only about two miles away at the Littleton Arms in Penkridge, a large, bustling village. We entered Penkridge, turned right and saw the hotel. But as tired as we were, when Ken saw lawn bowling at a club almost "next door" to our hotel, he had to stop and watch a bit. It was fun and brought back Ken's good memories of trying out lawn bowling once in Vancouver in the mid-1990s.

Our room at the Littleton Arms

We had dinner at the Littleton Arms, and it was very good. Ken had an outstanding chicken burger with excellent chips. After some initial confusion as to what room we were to receive, the one we got was good, though we needed to wait for the live music to end (it was a Saturday night) before we could fall asleep.