Spiky nature

Gailey Reservoir - the reeds have a spiky appearance.

Big enough for a horse

Gailey Top Lock has a full two-tunnel structure near it, with the pedestrian tunnel as big as the canal tunnel - which is fairly rare.
The pedestrian tunnel (we are on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal here) can actually easily accommodate any horse drawing a boat; yet often the horse was walked over the bridge and back down to the path because the tunnel for pedestrians would be too small for it.

Watch-tower on the canal

This curious medieval-looking structure at Gailey turns out to be a watch-tower of sorts.  It's a 'roundhouse', the last of its kind on the Staffs & Worcester Canal, built originally to allow the toll-keeper to keep an eye on what was going on beneath him (or her). 
I wouldn't have thought such height or even size was necessary - but what do I know?  Maybe they dropped things from the top on to malefactors below.

The bottom layer now houses a shop selling ice-creams and souvenir canal ware.

Abandoned chimney

Chilly old autumn has definitely set in and all is damp & miserable - though it doesn't feel cold enough to be called Winter yet.
This is the (now-disused) chimney of the old pumping station at Gailey Pools reservoir. It stands all alone, fenced off and overgrown with ivy, in its abandoned isolation on the less visited side of the water.