With the Froghall end of the Caldon canal closed we took the narrow, twisting, and overgrown Leek branch of the canal. We were rewarded with views of some lovely waterside houses and gardens…

… and pretty woodland making navigation difficult.

The Leek branch seems to specialize in sharp turns just as you are approaching narrow bridges, so in a couple of cases we did not so much glide through the bridge as clunk through.

Sadly the canal no longer goes all the way to Leek. The end was filled in and a ghastly industrial estate was built over it, so to get to town we had to trudge past the industrial estate on a footpath that used to be a railway line. Still, it was worth the half an hour walk. Leek has a pleasant central shopping district with some interesting looking shops.

The Natwest Bank is particularly decorative.

The public benches are full of local symbolism.

…The head of the seat arms depict a cock, with red crop and crest. On the seat arms themselves are abstract shapes suggestive of tree forms, painted dark green. Below the seats at each end is a Staffordshire knot supporting two setting suns. The bottom of the seat legs are cut in the form of an ogee arch window, with trefoil cut outs on each side, both recalling Gothic church architecture.
The elements in the seat design are taken from the district’s coat of arms. A cockerel appears on the crest of the coat of arms, and a Staffordshire knot and two suns on the shield. The two suns refer to the local phenomenon of a double sunset, visible from St Edward’s churchyard on 21 June each year, when the sun appears to set twice.
— https://www.pmsa.org.uk/pmsa-database/7382/

The twice setting sun is because the path of the sun in the sky as seen from the churchyard grazes the edge of a steep hill around the time of the summer solstice, ducking behind the hill and then out again. It’s possible that the church was build on the site of an older pagan temple that was placed there because of this extremely rare phenomenon.

The most fun building in town is the Nicholson Institute.

This was a gift to the town from a Victorian philanthropist, the eponymous Mr Nicholson. The most endearing thing are the tympana (I had to look it up) above the windows illustrating things that were considered important by the Arts and Crafts Movement.

You’ll notice that physics and chemistry have to share a panel, but weaving, dying, and needlework get one each. Needlework features heavily in the museum collection in the building as well. There are some wonderful samples of Victorian embroidery.

We are still in the potteries, so they have some fun ceramics, too.

Here’s that last one upside down.

There is also a library in the building, and a gallery featuring exhibitions of contemporary art. My favorite from the current exhibit was a 3D version of the last supper made entirely of cardboard and masking tape.

It’s called Gentlemen there is something I have to tell you…