Roaming round Rugeley

You can visit a town over and over again and still find something new in it, even one like Rugeley, not the first place to spring to mind when listing noteworthy places in Staffordshire. It's main claim to fame until recently was the power station, by no means the largest in the Trent Valley, but important in its own way as a "cold start" station, that is one that doesn't need input from the National Grid to get fired up.

Only a few years ago it was the site of a mega-million flue gas desulphurisation project, including the construction of a brand new chimney stack, but it's been closed down now as part of the move away from coal firing to cleaner fuels.

Anyhow, as regular readers will recall, we almost always stop there on the way through, mooring at Bridge 66 and visiting the new Tesco and often the Wilko's nearby. Today, though, we had another reason to do so. Many years ago we bought a hair trimmer in Aylesbury and Sheila has cut my hair with it ever since. Recently though, this sturdy device has been succumbing to old age. The combs have started breaking up (and the new set we bought it soon gave up the ghost) and the nice soft grip handle has turned sticky and 'orrible. It's had to be wrapped in cling film for the last couple of outings.

Some online research discovered that Argos were selling a very similar model, also a Remington, for not much more than the last one cost and that Rugeley has a branch of Argos within walking distance of Bridge 66. So, setting off at 8.15 this morning, we found a premium mooring spot right by the bridge and set out to find it. (Leaving the binoculars at home, Jo.)

It took a bit of roaming around, but we finally spotted it tucked away next to one of the town's many car parks. I should comment that the Luftwaffe seem to have done a very piecemeal job on Rugeley so that the modern replacement buildings are shoe horned in around the surviving old shops in a higgledy-piggledy way. A bit of catalogue searching turned up the beast I'd chosen and, as the store was very quiet, we were soon in possession and on our way to Wilko's.

There we bought another of a our favourite boating items, a lidded polythene 30 litre crate for storing surplus clothes under the dinette. Previously, we've used a big sports bag for this, but that's back in the lodge doing a similar task there. The weather's not yet warm enough to wear short sleeves and the drawers aren't large enough to hold both long and short sleeved shirts at the same time.

Back at the boat we off loaded these purchases and grabbed a mug of coffee before raiding Tesco for some bits and bobs. It was now half eleven and Sheila set off steering whilst I stowed the booty. An hour's boating saw us tied on the new rings at Brindley Bank. These are proving very popular these days, so well done IWA Staffs Branch who put them in.

We've had to light the fire again but the sun has now come out and the wind is due to go round to the west by tomorrow, which should make things feel a lot milder than the last couple of days, hooray. Tomorrow, on to Tixall.

Location:Brindley Bank