The Canal Tavern, Kidsgrove, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
N 53° 05.332 W 002° 14.879
30U E 550364 N 5882420
A town pub located beside the Trent and Mersey Canal, next to Lock 41(top lock).
Waymark Code: WMVWBM
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/03/2017
Views: 3
The Canal Tavern is a recently refurbished two-roomed pub next to the canal in Kidsgrove. There is a small car park to the side of the pub. There is a dart board, pool table and big screen television in the bar, while the more relaxing lounge overlooks the canal.
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The pub sign depicts a loaded barge on the canal. It is a pillory sign- one that is freestanding and in this location is situated away from the pub near the car park. The pub is located next to the canal which is probably where it derives its name.
"A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food, and in most cases, where travelers receive lodging". Wikipedia
The Canal Tavern is mentioned in the following story.
It is said that many years ago, in the early years of the canals, a young lady was travelling from Liverpool to meet her husband in London who had recently taken up work there. He had sent a guinea to her to enable her to pay for her transport, and she was carrying all the goods she owned with her in trunks.
After a long ride on a cart that was taking corn to the mill at Hardingswood, she stopped to take rest at the Canal Tavern, a lock side pub in Kidsgrove. She was trying to arrange her further passage south by road, with no offers.
Three boatmen promised her they would give her transport to London on their canal barge. The men had all been drinking, they took a pint of porter and then set off with the woman through the Harecastle Tunnel. At the mouth of the tunnel, one of the boatmen took the pony up the track to Boathorse Road, and the other two set off into the tunnel with their passenger.
The barge emerged at the other side carrying the boatmen but no woman. In the hope that she had riches in her luggage, they had murdered her and hid her body in the underground culvert to Goldenhill Colliery, known as Gilbert's Hole. She was found some days later in the tunnel, without her head.
The boatmen were tried and executed for murder, but it has been said over the years that the Kidsgrove Buggart has been heard wailing in and around the tunnel and along Boathorse Road. This is the road that runs directly above the tunnel where the tow-ponies used to walk when the barges were being legged through the tunnel. (
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