Volunteers from the London branch of the Waterway Recovery Group visited the Uttoxeter Canal in June 2025, spending a weekend staying at Great Wood Hall in Tean, while working on the canal in the vicinity of Bridge 70.
On 17th May 2025 a group of waterway friends gathered around the beautifully flourishing triangular planter just off the network of paths near the lock at Froghall. We were there to unveil a plaque to Nigel Jackson, a long-time boater and resident of Ipstones, who sadly died last year. The donations from his funeral were given to Caldon & Uttoxeter Canals Trust for this project. We worked with Canal & River Trust volunteers to design, build, fill and plant the planter, which is made out of old canal stop planks.
On Wednesday 23rd July CUCT volunteers spent the afternoon at Froghall to celebrate 20 years since the reopening of the first lock and basin of the Uttoxeter Canal.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of a visit to the Staffordshire Moorlands by the poet, W H Auden. As a young man of 18, he visited the Caldon Canal and wrote this little-known poem called "The Canal, Froghall".
Froghall itself, in 1925, would have been a hive of activity, although it was in the last few years of the Uttoxeter Canal basin and lock still being in operation with boats being loaded with limestone brought down on the tramways from Caldon Low.
On Monday 17 June 2024. An illustrated talk was held by the Caldon & Uttoxeter Canals Trust at Foxlowe Arts Centre, in Leek, “50 Years on from the reopening of the Caldon Canal, an evening of archive images, and the future: Etruria, Leek, Rudyard, Froghall, Uttoxeter.”
Around 140 members of the public attended the event and were treated to a selection of historic photos, many of which had never been publicly shown before.