We were so exhausted after our ditch crawl the day before, we weren’t sure we would be cruising today, but the sun was shining, the prop was clear and there was enough bacon left for more butties, so we gingerly inched forward out of our safe haven.
Leaving Bentley Park
Theres an interesting sculpture over the canal but I couldnt find any information about it. It’s a polished stainless steel triangular tube that arches over the canal and if you catch it at the right angle and sunlight, it reflects an image of whatever is underneath it. We couldnt see any functional use for it other than it being an interesting art instalation. Sadly the rest of the artwork nearby was more destructive and unappealing.
On our outward journey we had stopped to clear the prop 2 or 3 times, but today we reached the top of the Wolverhampton flight unhindered. Eric moored up to give the prop a final check before we set off down the 21.
Lock landing Wolverhampton top lock
The day was looking increasingly promising.
1 down 20 to go
Eric and I work well as a team, I set the lock and open the gates, then go immediately go and set the next lock. Eric cruises in and empties it, opens the gates and hauls the boat out and cruises straight into the next awaiting lock, whilst i go back and close the gates on the previous lock. It’s efficient and quick, i might do twice as much walking but we share the physically tiring workload.
Half way down
And with the warmth of the autumnal sunshine there were lot of people out walking.
A good way to spend a sunday afternoon
Some offered to lend a hand and every now and then someone shows a real interest. They might think we are brightening their day, but it gives us such a boost to be able to share a bit of privilage. Occasionally we like to say thankyou with an invitation to step onto the back deck.
Two happy blokes
We almost flew down the flight, in just over 3 ½hours. The Wolverhampton flight is a pretty and very pleasant flight. We would happily do it again, and our love of cruising has been restored.
Almost there
When we got to the bottom we turned right and moored on the Staffs and Worcester, at Autherley junction. Where we were joined by fellow bloggers Mick and Pip on NB Oleana.
I’d rather not be writing this post, we’re still feeling traumatised, but here goes….. On our way up the flight, we crossed a boat coming down. I asked if they knew the Wyrley and Essington canal, “we’ve just come off there, there’s a great mooring at Bently Park about half an hour from the junction.” We could have stopped at the mooring right at the top of the flight, but it’s accompained by the dulcet tones of canada geese and the emergency services sounding their sirens through a major city centre road junction. It was only 3pm so we decided to keep going. It didn’t take long for the doubts to arise.
Leaving the Main Line, joining the Wyrley and Essington Canal
Graffiti is always a dubious sign. And sure enough, a few hundred yards onto the W&E we ground to a halt and Eric had to decend down the weed hatch
Not a pretty sight
It took us 90 minutes to reach Bentley Park, which turns out to be retail/entertainment hub, with a short arm and mooring rings. We were right next to a GreenKing carvery, so we could have eaten out, but I’d had the foresight to prep a casserole in the Mr D thermal cooker and neither of us had the wherewithall to walk another few steps off the boat. Needless to say we slept well and decided to enjoy the location, taking advantage of our senior years for a cheap daytime game of 10 pin bowling, I let Eric win.
Cineworld was only showing films we hadn’t heard of, and I dont qualify for silver surfer rates yet, so we gave that a miss. We stocked up the fridge at Sainsburys and Aldi, before finally treating ourselves to dinner at Wagamama. Considering we were moored next to a pub, multiple drive thrus and a huge car park, we wondered if it would be noisy overnight but apart from someone burning rubber doing donuts at 6am it was quite peaceful and our info about it being a good mooring was spot on.
Bentley Park
Up early and refreshed after some R&R, we debated our route. Google images suggested a fair amount of greenery and suburbia between here and us rejoining the Birmingham and Fazeley canal in 27 miles. But if it were really bad we could turn off onto the Walsall canal in 7 miles and come through the centre of Birmingham instead, and besides it was only 3 miles to the next winding hole…..such a good plan….
I wonder if the name of this bridge is significant
After 3/4 mile in 2 hours, we decided enough was enough, it was only 2 more miles to the winding hole.
How many photos would you like to see of Eric descending into hell? I have run out of storage space for them all. It took us another 3 hours to reach the winding hole, and all the time we were fearful it would be too shallow for us to actually use.
Well it looks wide enough, but we could see it wasn’t really deep enough
Thankfully it only took us half an hour and a lot of polling to make it round the 180°, and we limped slowly back to Bentley Park. We had taken 7 hours to do 6 miles. Ironically it is actually quite a pretty canal.
but it is shallow, and as we could see from the rust markings on the armco, the water level is still about 6 inches low.
This is compounded by the amount of vegetation, silt and debris along both the towpath and offside, that make it impossible to moor. Despite it being quite a wide canal, the cruising channel down the middle was only wide enough for a single boat, so we are incredibly glad we didn’t meet anyone travelling towards us. Being an electric boat means we naturally have a very slow turning prop and we can go months without picking up any debris, just today
And unusually the water is crystal clear, meaning that not only could we see all the weed, shopping trollys, urban jellyfish etc, we could also see the fish. And the fish were huge. We saw several 2 foot long pike, huge carp, rudd and perch. Which admittedly was a bit of a treat, no wonder we also saw lots of kingfishers.
Whether or not we chickened out too soon, or was our research inadequate, the combination of the mat weed, shallowness, low water levels, detritius, general lack of maintenance overgrown vegetation and infrequent use of the canal, our adventure onto pastures new was to be a very short lived adventure.
Having had so many plans thwarted this year, we have come up with a route that will take us somewhere we haven’t been before, but not too far from where we want to end up. The plan is to go up the Wolverhampton flight…. 21 locks, onto the Wyrely and Essington Canal along the Daw End branch, down the Rushall flight, through Perry Bar, under Spagetti Junction and back onto the Birmingham and Fazeley canal through the Curdsworth locks.
Screenshot from CanalPlanAC
CanalPlanAC suggests this is 42 miles and 57 locks which will take us 8 days travelling for 3 hours per day. This gives us plenty of time and we can fit in days off for the 3R’s, rest and rain and restocking. I’ve done a bit of research, about the route, asked a few boaters, although, its a bit of a back water so not a lot of up to date info. I’m a bit apprehensive it’ll be weedy, but CRT say the water levels are OK and there’s no restrictions in place, so what’s to loose, off we go.
Day 1, up the Wolverhampton flight. We were expecting this to take us 3 and half maybe 4 hours. But as we turned the corner at Aldersley junction…
Turning onto the Birmingham Canal Network, at Aldersley Junction
We found ourselves immediately behind another boat going up the flight, what can you do, except shrug and make friends, 5 minutes earlier it could have been them following us. Of course the worst thing about following a boat is that every single lock had to be refilled, doubling our workload. But our new friends were a lovely couple and we worked as a team helping each other climb the mountain. However our enthusiasm was very nearly thwarted on lock 2 when we got stuck on the bottom and Eric had to haul the boat through.
Its a bit worrying when you cant get your boat out of a lock
Once we got through this lock things improved and we realised what a beautiful stretch of canal this is. The water is unusally clear allowing us to see the fish and the plant life
And some seasonal vegetation growing on the lock gates
We were lucky enough to run into 2 volockies, who treated me to seeing the the lock from the boat instead of the bank. In fairness to Eric, I am happy to admit I prefer working the locks than being on the boat usually.
A rare sight for me
But these guys only worked locks 1 to 15 and we only met them at lock 13. The locks on the top section of the flight are much closer together and after 4 1/2 hours we cruised under Littles Lanes Bridge into the top lock.
There is a beautiful little terrace of lock cottages at the top. I would love to have been able to peep into their lives as workers rather than cruisers.
Top lock cottages
Thankyou James Brindley for building this flight in 1772.
What happened to summer, we got thwarted by a heatwave and a drought, but it wasnt all bad.
Stanthorne Woods, Middlewich
When I left you, we were heading up to Chester, Eric had a business trip so I had a fortnight to explore that beautiful city on my own. As usual I spent half my time in the cathedral listening to heavenly music, and the other half walking around the walls. This visit I decided it was time to climb up the cathedral and do the tower tour. And as I expected the views were magnificent.
The looking towards Wales from Chester Cathedral
When Eric returned to Firecrest we set off south again. But the writing was on the walls or should I say water, or lack of it. Even in June we were finding mooring difficult because the water levels were dropping. But we had a family wedding to attend on the south coast so whilst we had a holiday in Sussex, Firecrest had a holiday in a marina.
A day worth celebratingAnd Eric and I got to dance at the party
On our return we reassed our cruising plans. We had planned a route that would take us onto canals we hadn’t cruised before, up the Wolverhampton flight, through Birmingham and down the Tardebigge flight, and through Droitwich towards Worcestershire and we’d return towards the east of England in the autumn after coming up the Avon. But dire warnings of the summer being worse than that of ’76 and restrictions already being impossed, we knew we had to plan to cruise to a place of safety.
The combination of the extreme heat and the uncertainties ahead of us zapped the enthusiasm for cruising. CRT’s reluctance to publish cruising restrictions, in order to protect the hire industry is understandable, but when its staring you in the face that the resevoirs are empty, it makes it very difficult for liveaboards. We knew we wanted to overwinter in the east of England, but how were we going to get there. The Atherstone flight was bound to be closed but for how long and could we get ahead of a closure. And for that matter would we find enough water on the other side. After last summer’s lockdown, we decided to cut our losses. we knew there was a safe space in Fazeley that was deep enough for Firecrest to moor at. But we had to time our arrival, such that we didnt fall foul of any of the standard mooring restrictions, and maintain a secondary plan just in case lockdown didnt happen.
Peel’s Wharf, Fazeley
We made it, this may look like an identical photo to last summer, it probably is, we were in exactly the same spot. Even the lovely people we had met last year came out to greet us. Now we just had to hold our own amd wait for CRT admit defeat. Which they did, only instead of lifting all the mooring restrictions like they’d done last year, they only lifted the 14 day restriction, meaning anyone on a 2 or 7 day visitor mooring had to respect them. And guess what, even though theres no signage this location turns out to be a 7 day mooring. We entered a discussion with CRT explaining our deep draft and they begrudging gave us permission to stay. The mooring officer checking the boats was completely understanding and gave us his permission to stay. How come such a peaceful way of life can become so stressful. But once we’d got the burocracy out of the way, we settled down to bake in the sunshine. Eric was busy working so I decided to jump ship and return home. The bricks and mortar isnt such a bad place to be, I dont get to enjoy misty mornings but I often get a fabulous sun set.
The view from the back garden
And the bird life was somewhat unexpected when I found an interloper had moved into the neighbourhood.
Meet Rio, we’re told he had escaped from the local equestrian center, although I cant imagine trying to saddle up.
And our plans to celebrate our Ruby wedding anniversary in style was someone postponed in favour of an autumnal party yet to be announced- but didnt we make a lovely couple in 1986.
Ah, young and in love, and we havent changed a bit.
Back to today, I am back on board Firecrest, and we are cruising again. We’ve escaped from Fazeley and we are going to attempt a cruising route that we’ve not done before.
Somewhere on the Staffs and Worcester
We are loving being able to cruise again. Our love of this lifestyle is not diminished.
above the Radford Bank, Stafford
The summer wasn’t a write off, we didn’t get to to do the things we set out to do, but we spent more time with friends and family. And we took the opportunity to go places by road instead of water.
True we thought we’d be going south, but the lure of a week in Chester proved too much, so we turned right at Barbridge Junction. Onto the Shroppie and headed the 15 miles north for a bit of a holiday
Turning right onto the Shroppie
We spent a night at Calverly getting to know the resident swans offspring,
before tackling the 11 heavy double locks. As this was before the recent heatwave we were playing chicken with the rain clouds and gale force winds. One minute it was beautiful blue sky, then those heavy laden cumulus clouds appeared over the horizon and in true Hollywood style we rushed towards each other and got soaked.
Will we get wet or not
But we mustn’t complain, the canals and the farmers still need the water.
Green shoots
However we got lucky with the heavy locks and buddies up with some happy holiday makers who were more than willing to share the load, so we made good progress mainly in the dry. We broke our journey with a good view of Beeston Castle through the round window.
Beeston Castle from the boat
We did attempt the obligatory treasure hunt but the ground had become so soggy that it wasn’t much fun and we assumed that the missing royal gold, Richard II is said to have tossed into the castle’s 370′ deep well must have dissolved by now. At least his reign as monarch dissolved as he was defeated in battled and Henry IV siezed power in 1399
Beeston Castle from the canal
Beeston Castle might be a lovely place to moor for the views but alas we get lousy WiFi reception there which isnt much fun when its too wet and windy to cruise. At least we got a nice sunset on our second night there.
We gritted our teeth as we cruised at tickover through the Golden Nook Farm linear moorings. There are roughly 130 boats moored along this mile and a half stretch, and unlike the endless scruffy boats that hog approaches into London, this does look like a nice friendly place to live. With a lovely view of fields over the canal.
That’ll be the Welsh hills in the distance
They even have their own bus stop, although I’ve yet to see a red double decker cruising this way.
Is this the most photographed bus stop on the canal- probably
Again we got lucky sharing locks on our final approach into Chester, and even luckier finding a spot on our favourite mooring. Under the walls at King Charles garden-Charles I that is not the III.
Despite some lovely cruising and fabulous scenery, we hadn’t really wanted to return to this part of Cheshire for a while. But when we realised our portholes were leaking last October, (almost the first heavy rain we’d had since Firecrest was repainted in the March) Nick drove out to see us and assess the problem. Between us we came to the conclusion it was to do with the lacquer Eric had used to polish the brass adhering to the sealant. The solution would be to remove the portholes and clean off the offending compounds, and reseal them. A job best done at the Paintshed, Uplands Marina. So this has been our first destination of the year.
Not a scratch on that beautiful paintwork
At this point we’d like to stress that we in no way blame poor workmanship for the problem. Nick and his team have been nothing but helpful and have our absolute confidence. Lessons were learnt by all of us, and the team patched us up beautifully in just a few hours.
Very important discussion in progress, probably about the solar panels
With our necessary maintenance seen to, it was decisions time. Plan A was to be on the Leeds and Liverpool by April, going via the Macc, through Manchester and back onto the Bridgewater before hitting the Wigan Flight. But it was now May and we’d already “enjoyed” a dryish April so what with our slow pace we were unlikely to get to Wigan before end of May. Plus I’ve got some commitments which will restrict our cruising in June. With those time constraints and the Leeds and Liverpool being a canal that invariably suffers with low water levels, our conclusion was that we’d missed the boat. We almost certainly would be able to get onto the L&L but would we be able to get off later in the year? A risk we weren’t willing to take this year. We would turn right onto the Middlewich branch and aim for the Shroppie
Goodbye T&M, hello Wardle canal, aka the Middlewich branch
I love this stretch of canal it’s quite wide, and theres some pretty moorings with good views.
Those clouds look like they’ll test the new seals …. and they did and all was good.
the locks are easy, although in previous years, I recall us being in a 10 boat queue to get up through Minshull lock
And the locals are friendly. Mr Toad’s self defence is to freeze, which although I had no intention of eating him, or kissing him for that matter, makes him easy to photograph.
Ribit ribit.
Everyone wanted to watch the world go by, the crow was happy to watch while I worked the lock
I always have to look up the difference between a crow and a rook. Crows are all black around their heads, Rooks have a band of grey feathers on their face
And the cows were triptrapping over the bridge.
Moo to you too
But the funniest bird of the day was this swan, who tailgated us for about 15 minutes. It became very obvious he was enjoying riding the wake, if Eric moved the tiller, swanny would move to the otherside where the water was more turbulent.
One happy swan
And when we cruised past Ventetian mariana, their famous big fish were basking in the warmth at the surface. They looked a bit like koi carp, probably 20 inches long and 20lbs and were enjoying being fed by someone from the cafe. We’d taken 3 days to do this 10 mile canal, and reach the Shroppie, we’d planned to go south….
Cruising through this part of Cheshire throws up some interesting comparisons. Many many years ago, before canals were invented. (About 220 million years to be exact), this part of Britain lay under salt marshes caused by the sea flooding inland. Eventually the marshes dried up and left behind beds of rock salt, which in turn the Celts and then the Romans took advantage of. Building up settlements around the natural salty springs, they could process and produce a valuable commodity. The rest they say is history(or geography or economics) . The towns of Northwich, Middlewich and Nantwich all prospered on the salt beneath them. “Wich” being the commonly associated Anglo Saxon word used as a suffix for salt towns. (Although, more correctly the suffixes, wich, wick, and wyke refer to any settlement built up around a specialised industry). Even the canals bear the legacy of the salt mines, not only benefiting from a highly profitable route, but suffering from ground disturbance creating flashes. Most flashes are now stand alone lagoons but some have breached the canal bank causing tempting wide areas to explore…. but woe betide any foolish boater straying too far, for here be dragons lurking in the shallows. Best admired from the well dredged main channel.
Croxton Flash
As we get to the outskirts of Northwich, we come across the Tata chemical plant at Lostock. This imposing industrial site straddles the canal with a jungle of steaming hissing pipe work and forbidding structures.
Not a place to linger
Over the past few years, we have watched the progress of new building work, which is looking almost complete. Only to discover that this colossal building with a colour scheme copied from Firecrest’s roof, is nothing to do with salt but is actually the new Lostock Sustainable Energy Plant. Their website is an easy read with some interesting facts.
Lostock Sustainable Energy Plant
Basically, it’s a waste inceration facility, that utilities modern advances and technology to capture and reduce pollutants and generate enough electricity (About 69.9mw) for a town twice the size of Northwich, at the same time as reducing landfill by 600,000 tonnes every year. We are fans of this sort of joined up thinking, but oh boy the fans they have on site look mighty powerful. I bet they’re noisy when they’re running.
Despite our love of the tranquil green countryside, there’s always something strangely compelling about cruising through an industrial site. The public don’t generally get to see it so closely from the main roads.
Part of me would love to take a guided tour around the complex to see what happens inside, but whilst it may not be top secret, I guess it’s not built for easy public access. Especially if the only way to reach the top is to scale the walls in a harness, as we spotted this person doing.
Opposite the Tata site, is the Lostock Brine purification plant.
And further down the canal, the bagged salt awaiting transport. All we need now is some vinegar, fish and chips.
Then we reach the Lion Salt works, where we were able to explore inside.
The Lion Salt Works Museum
This fascinating museum follows the history of salt in the area, from the earliest geology, through celtic and roman artifacts, 17th century salt mining until this victorian site was built for brine extraction. https://lionsaltworks.westcheshiremuseums.co.uk/ Whereas the modern processing site seemed to be dominated by pipework, the victorians relied upon hard physical labour, but little has changed. Salt is still produced by evaporating the water away to leave the salt behind.
At the Lion Salt works the brine was pumped out of the ground into huge pans, housed in sheds. The precise temperature the water was heated to and the time it was heated for affected the quality and size of the salt crystals. It must have been physically exhausting work. I wonder if those men looked at the steam engines and pumps with the same fascination we do today.
Of course all that underground disturbance lead to some catastrophic above ground disturbances as well. In 1907 there was a major collapse. CRT and Peel Holdings take note, it took a whole 2 weeks to repair and get boats moving again.
“…Shall we hang around at Anderton or shall we nip up to Lymm for a few days?” Bit of a no brainer really. The canal is relatively quiet, probably due to the Bridgewater Breach blocking navigation so unless you’re happy to wind and retrace your steps, what’s the point of travelling this way…. because in spring it’s alive with new growth and full of potential.
Especially in the sunshine
Entering Preston Brook tunnel
Even the storm clouds lend sense of anticipation
Although I wont deny I wasn’t relieved to see a clear sunrise
We ran the gauntlet of a fishing competition. Sorry guys
We waved and tooted our horn for the kiddies crossing the bridge
And we discovered narrowboats arent the only floating home, although im not sure a floating nest is the safest abode for your chicks
And when it comes to transporting your animals and your business, this mobile florist had set up her stall in Lymm, her pet pooch even had its own sunshade
Lymm ticks all the boxes for us to declare it a holiday destination
Centred around the 17th century stone cross, the village itself was a hive of activity. Originally agriculture was the predominant occupation, but a Slitting Mill also produced iron nails for the wider community. The arrival of the canal in the 1750’s again increased the prosperity of the growing town. And during the industrial revolution trade became focused on cloth, with the production of fustian, a fabric similar to corduroy. I’ve written about Lymm in several previous posts if you want to know more.
But like us the Victorians recognised its charms and escaped here to stroll through the leafy woodland around the dam
While we were walking around Lymm dam, we saw our first cygnets of the year.
And coots on the canal
And of course as we were in holiday mood, we got to dine out. Someone was celebrating her birthday and the waiter got to hear about it, so my dessert arrived in style. There are several nice restaurants in Lymm, this time we chose Elmas, who make the nicest Tiramisu I’ve had in a while
But alas, we had to get back to the Paintshed so we couldnt linger longer at Lymm, back through more lovely leafy bridges
Under magnificent trees,
And past curious cows
back for one last mooring on this particularly pretty stretch of the Trent and Mersey Canal, before we get our necessary jobs done.
Could this possibly be the best time of the year to cruise? I think so, but ask me again in the summer or autumn. And why? Because wild flowers are at their best in late spring, and Bluebells are simply the best.
but just look up close at a dandelion, it’s surely a Chelsea gold medal
Even when they have gone to seed
And you can’t forget the forget me knots
Or the loveliest natural landscaping along the towpath when the flowers come together with a bit of sunshine.
Sometimes the fresh spring smell outbeats any commercial laundry “enhancement”, but sometimes its more suited to the kitchen when you cruise through swathes of wild garlic. Of course I picked some to make wild garlic pesto, which was delicious with some fresh pasta.
I even came across a cultivated garlic, which didn’t smell until you rubbed the leaves
Not all bluebells are blue,
Not sure how you snuck in there
Daisy daisy give me your answer, do.
Another cultivar that was growing alongside the towpath
And I believe this very pink flower is red campion
One thing I love about the late spring flowers, is the quantity that they grow in. As we cruised past Marbury woods, (just before you get to Anderton) you get a tantalising glimpse of a blue carpet.
So while Eric was filling up at the water point, I walked back and strolled through the woods. My photos just don’t do the bluebells justice.
But you dont always have to get off the boat to see fields of gold, even if this isn’t a wild flower meadow
I saw the buttercup meadows at the Anderton nature park
And the cowslips en masse
And what would be spring without the lovely lime green leaves on the oak trees
And the Hawthorn blossom that runs from white to pink
Of course I’ve barely scratched the surface with the just how many flowers we’ve seen. What some people call weeds, I count as blessings from heaven. And while its easy to marvel at the big magnificent things around us, there is so much beauty and wonder in the little all around us.
We have a bit of time on our hands as we wait until Nick can fit us in to have the port holes fixed so we have been mooching around Middlewich for longer than usual. It’s not high on the tourist attraction list, usually a place we pass through without exploring. Although King’s Lock chippy is an essential port of call. It does one of the best plates of fish and chips on the cut.
Are we getting old? Even sharing a portion of chips seems too much these days.
The mooring at Booth Lane is nice and wide, has rings and has full sun all day, so you could say almost perfect, but the downside is the road noise. It’s relentless and pervasive, so we unchained the boat and set off through Kings Lock
Down King’s Lock going past the Middlewich branch
And moved to the other side of town, where it’s also wide, has rings and (when its not cloudy) is in full sun. And despite being closer to walk to the supermarket than Booth Lane, has a rural tranquility, definitely perfect.
Just beyond Harbutts winding hole
Eric settled down to work whilst I settled down to do a bit of exploring. Middlewich is a town that is built upon salt, being the middle of the three wich towns, the other two being Northwich and Nantwich. With wich being the suffix meaning salt town. Of course the Roaming Romans took advantage of this gold mine and the confluence of several rivers to build themselves a settlement here. Being an explorer myself, I saw the reference to the Roman fort on my OS map so I followed the foot path over the canal bridge, and through a pretty wooded area
Now where does this lead
into Harbutts field to see for myself.
Thats a nice field
Just in case I’d missed something I walked around the other side to check out the view from the west
Full of dandelions
And to be sure from the south
Could that be a roman road
OK I confess I may have got the north south east west orientations out of order but you get the impression. At least there were info boards to help me see what I was looking at.
And this is board 7 so there must be more…
As we cruised through the town I’d seen a standing stone just off the canal near the Andersen hire boat yard, so I thought I’d investigate Middlewich’s prehistoric culture.
Alas there was no info board, or dedication plaque, so I’m non the wiser as to how and why this Monolith appeared. With a Scandinavian name like Andersen, I wonder if the vikings also came to take advantage of the salt pans, and the carving on the rock face really is a longboat not a modern narrowboat. However undeterred I wandered back to the boat via the High Street and discovered a good butchers, which we will return to on our next visit. Middlewich really isn’t a tourist attraction, but its home to around 15000 people, and although somewhat run down in areas, is a very useful stopping place for boaters like us, just not for a whole week.
