Willeymoor Lock Tavern - The Verdict

On Graham's recommendation we tried the Willeymoor Lock Tavern again on Friday evening. We popped in for a quick one while the dinner cooked in the oven and 3 pints later I managed to drag Roger out of the pub just in time before the dinner was ruined. We were the only customers in the bar but there were a couple of tables taken in the dining room and, judging by the empty plates that came past us on their way to the dishwasher, the food must be pretty good. The beer was certainly on form. Roger had the Heart of Stone from Lymestone Brewery and I had half a pint of Merlin's Dark Magic (I don't drink much these days). Despite the fact that we were the only ones in the bar we had a really good evening chatting to the 86 year old landlady, her daughter-in-law who does the cooking and the daughter-in-law's auntie who was the bar maid. They filled us in on lots of waterways gossip and the landlady entertained us with stories of the pub's history as she's been there for over 30 years. It's a shame they had so few customers but it is quite an isolated pub which relies on passing boats and the caravan park for the majority of it's clientele. It's now marked in our guide book to be a return mooring spot.

We spent the weekend in Wrenbury on the extremely muddy visitor moorings. Chico hates the mud and it was a real pain having to keep dragging him out for a wee etc. He had absolutely no intention of setting foot outdoors to go for a walk!  We had Sunday lunch in the Dusty Miller pub by the lift bridge. That too was fairly empty but had been recommended to us which is why we went in there rather than in our usual haunt of the Cotton Arms.  How I wish we hadn't bothered. We both had the roast beef dinner which sounded great on the menu "goose fat roasted potatoes, proper gravy and amazing yorkies" Nooo..... roast potatoes that were like rocks and had never seen any goose fat - even Aunt Bessie can make them better!  Gravy that was wishy washy and tasteless. In fact everything was tasteless, even the 5 assorted vegetables all tasted the same and portions were tiny for the £12 each. The 5 veg sounds good but would have fit on one tablespoon. We declined a dessert and left as soon as possible returning to the boat to fill up on cheese and biscuits.

Monday saw us leaving the Llangollen in glorious sunshine. The forecast had been for a good morning deteriorating as the day went on, so we made an early start and were underway by 9 am which is unheard of for us.  We passed Jon and Hannah at Burland as they were loading up ready for another coal run up the "gollie".

No sooner had we moored up here in Nantwich than the weather turned and it chucked it down. It's been blowing a hooley since we arrived and we had a very disturbed night last night with the wind, rain and hail. We'll be here for a few days now as it's the Nantwich Jazz and Blues Festival at weekend and I'm rather partial to a bit of the blues. We've even booked to go to a couple of gigs which should be good.

Bye for now, see you again soon.