Long weekend in Cheshire: Day 5

Another sunny morning to wake up to, in fact the sun was so bright when I wound up the shower room blind, I had to wind it halfway back down again!  The mooring before Red Bull Aqueduct actually had one of the best views we’ve had of Mow Cop up on the hill.  With the tunnel to go through today we wanted to be off at a decent time, so got under way at about 8.15.  We crossed the aqueducts, made the sharp left to run alongside the Trent and Mersey, then the next sharp left towards the junction.

Once through it was sharp right towards the tunnel.  We suspected we had timed things right when a boat was coming the other way.  We pulled up to the tunnel waiting area behind one other boat, and the tunnel keeper told us there was one more boat to come out, then we could go in.  We had a slight nervous moment when our headlight didn’t work, but Adrian twiddled the connection in the cratch and it came on.  The other northbound boat appeared, the boat in front of us went in, and we followed a minute or two later, so there was a bit of a gap between us.

I noted last time that the changes in the headroom inside the tunnel seem more pronounced when going south than when going north, and it’s definitely true.  There are lots of places where a drop in tunnel height is marked with white paint.

It took 39 minutes to get through, which is about the same time as going north on Saturday.  There were three boats waiting at the southern portal.

These are now very familiar waters, but it’s not always been this sunny as we’ve passed Middleport Pottery.

We moored up at Festival Park, and it wasn’t even 11am.  A big re-stock was planned as we had access to the car again, so we went off and did that.  After lunch, I had an item to collect at a locker at Morrison’s, and we’d decided Adrian would go back to the laundrette to do bedding and towels that we’d struggle to find drying space for on the boat.  He dropped me at the supermarket, then noticed signs for a Revolution Laundry — these are the unmanned machines in the car park.  So he decided to use them instead.  There’s not much difference cost-wise; a plus is that the Morrison’s cafe is right there, a minus is that you are folding your laundry in a car park.  It’s all an education!  Back at the boat, I did a few jobs including swapping a 230 volt socket to match the more modern ones we changed some to a few years ago, and refreshing the blinds in the shower room and galley.  

6 miles, 0 locks.  (25 miles, 2 locks)

Long weekend in Cheshire: Day 4

The mooring above the Dane-in-Shaw Aqueduct was glorious, especially as we had it to ourselves.  This morning we could hear a very elaborate bird song, which the Merlin app told me was a blackcap.  And it was sunny again!  As we’d got all yesterday’s washing dry we put another load on before we left.  Even so, we were under way just after 9.  Just around the corner is a very wide spill weir, which would take excess water from the canal down to Shaw Brook.  The stones mean cyclists have to get off and walk.

At Congleton we went over a road on another aqueduct.

We were retracing our steps from the past couple of days, but the scenery is so good you can easily see it twice.

A property which calls itself Teapot Hall has had a For Sale sign appear since we came past on Saturday.  It has lots of religious slogans all over it, and its interior design is, shall we say, ecclectic.  It’s up for overs over £210,000 and the estate agent appears to have been on something when writing the description.

We stopped at the water point before Hall Green Lock to top up the tank, and while we did so a boat came up the lock.  We were just finishing, so we all swapped places, them going onto the water point while we went into the lock and dropped the one foot down.  We moored up a little further on, just before Red Bull Aqueduct.  After lunch, we walked along the towpath and took our rubbish and recycling down to the Red Bull Services. Which are a couple of locks further down the Trent and Mersey.  There are steps between the two canals.  We walked back up the T&M, going under the Poole Aqueduct that we’ll cross over tomorrow.

We found the Tesco nearby and did enough shopping for tonight and tomorrow morning.  We came back along the road, so we could see the Red Bull Aqueduct from below.  We’ll also be going over this one tomorrow.

It’s been really warm today, and we’re going to get the Cobb barbecue out later.  We are still just in Cheshire too, although Staffordshire is only a couple of hundred yards away.

5 miles, 1 lock.  (19 miles, 2 locks)

Long weekend in Cheshire: Day 3

More sunshine!  We set off about 9, and just as we were getting ready to go a boat came past.  It turned out he was only going a little way before stopping.  On the way into Congleton there’s the first of the Macc’s snake bridges, which take the towpath from one side to the other, without the need for taking the rope off the horse (if you happen to be being pulled by a horse).  There’s an even better one a bit further on.

At Congleton Wharf there’s an old mill building which is now flats, with more built alongside.

Further on there’s a riot of bridges, with a rail bridge, an old road bridge, and a very tall concrete road bridge.

We stopped for our normal water and washing machine combo at Buglawton.  The water point is on the offside, and neither of us had any recollection of it.  Once the tank was full we carried on to the winding hole between bridges 64 and 63; CRT signs there point out that it’s the last winding hole before the locks, which means it’s the last one before the canal is closed.  We turned around, disturbing a large clutch of ducklings — nine of them we reckon.

This area also has good views of the hill called The Cloud.

We retraced our steps to a spot we’d picked out on our way through, on a high embankment with views in both directions.

We can see and hear the trains on a viaduct over the same valley, but mostly it’s just birdsong.  Later, we went for a walk down from the aqueduct over the former railway line, which is now the Biddulph Valley Way footpath.

We then went into the Dane-in-Shaw Pasture, from where you get a much better idea of the scale of the railway viaduct.

It’s a really lovely open space, used by a lot of people out with their dogs, and there’s a bridge over the Shaw Brook, which flows into the River Dane.

I couldn’t get a decent view of the aqueduct over the brook though, and we could just see the handrails of our boat up above.

8 miles, 0 locks.  (14 miles, 1 lock)

Long weekend in Cheshire: Day 2

A really beautiful Sunday morning, and to remind ourselves what day of the week it was we had eggs for breakfast, scrambled on a Staffordshire oatcakes!  We headed off along a footpath over the fields, and looking back got a great view of Briar Rose on the moorings, with Mow Cop castle up on top of the hill beyond.

We were heading for the National Trust property, Little Moreton Hall.  We were both convinced it opened at 10, but when we got there we found it was actually 10.30 so we had more than 15 minutes to wait.  It meant that when we did get in, there were very few people about.

The whole place is wonky, because of the way the timber frame has moved over the years.  Lots of the rooms upstairs have undulating floors (one drops by as much as 1 in 8) which look much more dramatic in real life than they do in photos.  There’s a fireplace which looks at an angle but is actually level — it’s just that the rest of the room around it is on the skew.

We had tea and rather disappointing lemon drizzle cake at the cafe, and had a look round the gardens.  The ducks that live in the moat are almost tame, and come and sit under the tables remanding crumbs.

Back at the boat we had lunch and then did exciting things including my tax return (Adrian did his yesterday).  Later, as I still needed steps, I walked along the canal northwards, passing a couple of fields of highland cattle.

I took a footpath by Bridge 81 across some fields of sheep, chickens, and horses, and returned to what I expected to be the next bridge.  It turned out to be the Watery Lane Aqueduct.  I also saw the Heritage Marina day boat being towed back to base.

It’s been a very nice relaxed day.

0 miles, 0 locks.  (6 miles, 1 lock)

Annual Report

Fourteen years of ownership of Briar Rose completed, and of course this year has been a bit different because we are now living on board, as of four weeks ago.  That would certainly explain why the number of nights spent aboard is higher than it has been in the last few years.

During the year we have travelled on the following waterways:

• Caldon Canal
• Coventry Canal
• Grand Union Leicester Line
• Grand Union Main
• Macclesfield Canal
• North Oxford Canal
• South Oxford Canal
• Thames
• Trent and Mersey Canal

The list doesn’t actually look that long, but that’s because our September trip was the South Oxford and a Thames, rather than all the bits of pieces of the BCN, for example, that we sometimes do.  And the Mac only sneaked onto the list at the last available opportunity yesterday!

Long weekend in Cheshire: Day 1

We were up and about promptly this morning, on a unusually murky and chilly day.  We’d been joined at Westport Lake during yesterday late afternoon by two other boats, and one of them, a shared ownership boat, set off just before we did at about ten past 8.  We headed for Harecastle Tunnel, and moored behind them on the waiting area.

The tunnel keeper came over and said there was a boat coming south, and once they were through we’d be able to go in.  It was just before 9 when the southbound boat appeared and the boat in front of us could enter.  We followed a couple of minutes later.

Once we were inside, the doors clanged shut behind us and the fans roared into life — and although a bit of mist appeared, it was nothing like as much as it has been in the past.  The middle section of the tunnel is quite low, so I had to step down onto the engine board to steer.  Some concentration is needed to keep in the middle.  After quite a while, I noticed we had another boat behind us, but a long way back.  It took about 40 minutes to get through, then we emerged blinking into the light, waving at the tunnel keeper in his little office.

As we went under the railway bridge, an East Midlands Regional train was going over; the guard had his head out of the window and said hello to Adrian.  I wasn’t really fast enough with the photo.

The boat ahead was starting on the Cheshire Locks, but we made the left hand turn at Hardings Wood Junction, onto the Macclesfield Canal.  It’s closed at Bosley Locks at the moment because of a breach at the top of the locks, but we’re not going that far.  A CRT update that came out yesterday suggested the canal should reopen by 20 June, which would be ideal for us, as we’ll be back from the Crick Boat Show by then.

After the junction there’s a sharp right hand turn, then about half a mile of straight, then another sharp right, where the canal crosses the Trent and Mersey which is heading down locks below.  Over the wall, I could just see a boat in one of the locks.

It’s a long time since we were last here, 2013 in fact, so it’s perhaps not surprising that we didn’t remember much.  We soon reached Hall Green Lock, rise just 1ft.  This is where the Macc really starts, because the bit we’d just travelled was actually built by the Trent and Mersey.  Each canal had a lock here, which is why there’s a long narrow leading up to the lock, and each had a lock cottage.  The Macc one is currently for sale, £260,000 and in need of restoration.

We passed Heritage Marina and then Ramsdell Hall.  When the canal was built, the owners wanted a view so railings were put along the canal instead of a hedge.

We pulled up on the moorings by the railings, just before Bridge 86, much to the apparent annoyance of a couple of ducks.  There was a boat in the middle, but we’re right on the end, with the best view through the railings.

Lunch was Staffordshire oatcakes with mushrooms and cheese, then we went for a walk.  We went along to the next bridge, then up the road and under the West Coast Mainline, up the hill a bit more and through a bluebell wood.

We came out onto a road which took us down to the gates of Ramsdell Hall, then walked past the road entrance of the marina where we called in for an ice cream, before returning along the canal.  Other achievements today include using a needle to get a small mountain of fluff out of the charging port of my phone; the cable now clicks into place again instead of falling out all the time.

6 miles, 1 lock.

Caldon Cruise: Day 9

Yet another bright sunny morning.  We were away about 9am, and made our way through Milton and towards Stoke-on-Trent.  Many of the bridges are on bends, making them tricky to approach and impossible to see if anything is coming.  This is heading for Bridge 14.

I went and pressed the buttons at Ivy House Lift Bridge, holding up three cars and a pick-up truck in the process.  We waved at a group of school children out for a walk in Hanley Park.  When we got to Planet Lock, Adrian set the lock and then went to the shop across the road to see if he could buy a bottle of milk.  However, the only option they had was four pints of full fat — so he left it.  Meanwhile, a cyclist had offered to close the gate while I went and did the paddles, but then found there was such a big collection of branches in the water he couldn’t actually get the gate closed.  I fished them out with the boat hook, by which time Adrian was bc, empty handed.  The final locks on the canal were the Bedford Street staircase pair.

At the junction, we rejoined the Trent and Mersey, and headed north.  At the Steelite factory, they normally seem to be chucking away loads of rejects when we pass.  Today, all was quiet, even the car park — so maybe they don’t work on a Friday.  Anyway, the skip was already full.

We moored up at Westport Lake, on our own.  After lunch, we walked to the next bridge, crossed it, and went up the hill to the main road, where there’s an Aldi, which had semi-skimmed in reasonable sizes.  There’s also a Screwfix up there and a variety of other shops.  It’s only a short walk, so well worth knowing about.  Later we walked round the lake again, and found ourselves in front of the ice cream van, so it would have been rude not to.

8 miles, 3 locks.  (41 miles, 34 locks)