Boat Blog – Page 8 – Narrowboat Firecrest

I don’t believe it

I don’t believe it….. We finally get cruising, and ….. the memo comes through from CTR that there’s been a landslide and trees down ahead of us stopping navigation for at least 2 days. Not only that but the weather is perfect cruising weather.

We were sitting at the Fazeley Junction

Sitting at the junction, waiting to turn onto the Birmingham and Fazeley canal

Our options included staying put until we got the allclear, detouring through Aston and centre of Birmingham, or …. back tracking back to Fradley Junction, and carrying on along the Trent and Mersey then up the River Soar. Rightly or wrongly, we didn’t fancy sitting it out, or facing all the Aston locks with unknown mooring options, so we winded and back tracked.

We’ll do the Fazeley canal another time. As I’d just had another few days off the boat sorting out mum’s affairs, we were desperate to be cruising again, and my reward was seeing our first ducklings of the year.

I had an easy lock free day, and even when we turned right at Fradley the volunteers were ready and willing to help us through,

Then we got to Alrewas, such a pretty place,

Until you see this

It didn’t take us completely by surprise to see the red warning signs but we’d spoken to the lockies and we knew the river levels were falling. Much to the consternation of a holiday boater we went through the lock knowing we could moor up on the other side of the village and await our go ahead.

We walked along the towpath to see what awaited us

Sure enough, CRT came along and removed the padlocks giving us the all clear ride the rapids. Several boats were itching to go through ASAP, but we decided to wait until the morning.

I think those fields would be more suited to water buffalo than our cows

Thought for the day

Speed Boating

Speed boating, or Endurance boating, ….Well it felt like it for us. We rarely cruise for over 3 hours a day, but with so many delays both Eric and I were keen to push on. 5 or 6 hours cruising on a few days.

Back in mid December, a few days before the breach at Scholar’s Green halted our journey south, we treated ourselves to a Gold Licence intending to spend the season cruising the East Anglia waterways. 10 weeks later we finally broke free and sailed through to Kidsgrove.

10 and half weeks later I got the phone call to return home, but now 4 weeks later we’re finally on the move again. We dutifully checked our route maps and CanalPlanAC says 115 miles, 69 locks, 57 hours.. Kidsgrove to Northampton.
But no, there’s been a major landslide at Brinklow and our direct route is blocked until mid June. We’ll have to travel via Birmingham, 125 miles and 128 locks and 68 hours. That’s almost twice as many locks to do. (James if you’re reading this, be warned we’re coming via Hatton.)
But we all love locking, especially when the sun’s shining, and we’ve already done 23.

Approaching one of our 128, somewhere below Stoke

We got very lucky with the Easter Bank Holiday weather, and we had some perfect cruising weather from Stoke. Even the occassional heavy showers ended with a rainbow

No one offered to swim across to find the pot of gold

We were surprised at how quiet the canal was, despite it being the start of the hire season and a 4 day weekend,

Dead quiet, This person obviously spent too long on their mobile

Perhaps the wild swan at Weston had seen everyone off. We’ve cruised this way a couple of times and for the past few years, this territorial swan has chased us off his patch, pecking at the boat. This time we were brave enough to moor overnight in Weston and saw him attack several trespassers.

The much nicer Swan at Fradley was doing a roaring trade and has provided a photo fit for next years self print calender

Leaving the Trent and Mersey at Fradley junction, and joining the Coventry canal

What Eric hauled up from the prop wasn’t quite so pretty,

It could have been worse, only a rope fender this time

And talking of pretty

We had a rained off day, so we caught the bus into Lichfield to have a wander around. The weather didn’t make for good photos, but we did both enjoy our mooch. It’s quite a historic place, in the 7th century, Chad established his Bishopric, and it became the ecclesiastical centre of Mercia. Unfortunately the famous 3 spired cathedral was wearing scaffolding so not looking its best.

One of Lichfields other claims to fame is that it is the birthplace of Samuel Johnson, who complied the first English Dictionary

But whilst I might enjoy words, not a lot beats sunrise on your own boat.

An Experiment and a request

Eric and I love cruising, it fills us with a sense of peace, and a sense of joy as we enjoy the countryside around us. Most of the time I’m happy to share my photos, but occassionally I record a video as we travel. I’ve realised I can share these on our blog, however I’d like to know how you, the reader, receive them. We don’t have comments enabled, (we had a bad experience a few years ago). So I’m asking friends and family who have my private contact details to drop me a line with some feedback, letting me know if the quality and size etc works OK for you, and if it’s something you’d like to see more of.

Bridge 58 below the Bosley flight, Macclesfield Canal

thankyou,

A month ago

A month ago….

we had made it down the Bosley Flight, and we both rejoicing and bemoaning to be heading south… straight into the morning sun.

We meandered our way into Congleton. I met up with one of my many knitting friends scattered around the country. Gilly introduced us to fantastic little place, called the Wonky Pear, wine bar/pub/coffee stop just up from the canal off Park Lane, they don’t usually do food, other than cake, but they had a pop up evening of Thai Street food. And if we were local, we’d definitely make if our local. But we were on a mission, so set off as soon as the sun rose, we ignored the dire warning from the red sky in the morning and the frost on the ground (it was still the end of february)

looking towards the railway from the Congleton Aqueduct moorings

And we set off, but it was cold cruising, so we stopped near the Ramsdell Railings and went for a brisk walk up to Mow Cop which certainly warmed us up.

This old ruined castle is actually an 18th century folly where the gentry came for picnics. You can see for miles and it’s the intersection of the counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire. It’s also the first meeting place of the Primative Methodists, a breakaway revivialist group wanting to refocus on the socialist aims of Christianity, caring for the community, being part of the trade union movement and taking an active role in women’s emancipation. I offered my prayers of thanks for such a place and we carried on journeying south. Where we also gave thanks that the culvert breach from Mid December had finally been fixed

And onto the Hall Green Stop Lock at Scholar’s Green

Before our travels came to an abrupt stop at Kidsgrove

Cherished Memories

Having got back into the swing of posting every few days, everything changed at the beginning of the month. When the phone rings in the middle of the night, it’s rarely good news. Sadly, I had lost my mum. It was sudden, unexpected, and thankfully peaceful.

We had a very close relationship, lots of love and laughter, she loved visiting our floating home

I shall miss her forever,

Better Late than Never

We are now cruising we should have been cruising 9 weeks ago when the culvert collapsed and stopped navigation. Better late than never. The change of scenery above and below Macclesfield is quite dramatic, We’re no longer in the Peak District, and we do miss the hills, but the view is made a lot better with the promise of 4 days of sunshine on the forecast.

Looking back towards Sutton, south Macclesfield

Although looking forward, those clouds ahead seemed a bit heavy

And sure enough 2 minutes after we’d moored up, the heavens opened

And we woke to the warning red sky in the morning and a heavy frost.

But the sunshine quickly warmed us up and we were ready to go down the Bosley Flight.

12 locks over the next mile, not the longest flight but one of the prettiest, and all was going well until we got halfway down. The pound was sadly lacking in an essential element – water. We don’t know if a paddle hadnt been dropped, or it could simply have been a very leaky lock,

We reckoned it would take 3 or 4 locks worth to refill the pound. It took about 20 minutes

We managed to run through enough water to float our boat and I’d gone back to check all the paddles were down, when I heard an almighty bank on the bridge above me. Two cars had collided, thankfully there weren’t any serious injuries to the drivers, although I’m fairly sure both cars were written off.

The rest of our journey down was uneventful, until lock 12 when we got chatting to a family out for a walk, of course we roped them in to work the lock for us and as a reward, we treated our young gongozeler to a ride. (If you’re reading this, thankyou for your help)

All done in 2 hours and 5 minutes, roughly 10 minutes a lock

And Eric had his reward, better late than never, boaters breakfast for lunch.

The Many Mills of the Macc

Even though we are now heading south at a vast rate of knots, okay roughly 2 miles an hour, we still look up at the Mills with a sense of wonder. Goyt Mill in Hawk Green, Marple is the youngest of the three that stand out for me. Built originally in 1905 by the Goyt Spinning company to produce cotton fabric was a major source of employment in Marple until 1960. Nowadays it predominantly houses antique warehouses, fun to wander around reminiscing about all the junk you threw away when clearing great aunt maud’s house. There is a fascinating memoire in the Marple website worth browsing if you scroll down.

Can you imagine loading and unloading your wares here?

Once through Marple we were back to enjoying some rural tranquility

We wondered if that sunny day we had last week was summer and we’re already experiencing Autumn.

Before stopping for fuel at Baileys

Where we picked up a hitchhiker again, -remember the cat that came to say hello last month, we also popped in to say hello to James and Donna and the team at Braidbar.

Not sure this little newt was quite ready to emerge from hibernation, we pulled him up on our tyre fender, so I carefully returned him back into the bank.

Then on to the oldest surviving Mill on this route at Bollington,

Approaching Bollington and Clarence mill

Clarence Mill was built in 1834 and specialised in spinning sea island cotton, which, for those unfamiliar with the intricacies of cotton, is an extremely fine long stapled cotton variety used for making lace and muslin. It is infact supposed to be the rarest form of cotton and can make a luxurious (expensive) silk like fabric.

I missed the photo of the next Mill on our route south, the Adelphi Mill on the southern side of Bollington because I was in the galley cooking bacon butties. Aldelphi Mill began spinning cotton, it progressed to throwing silk, and finally spun man made fibres for Courtaulds until 1970s. Nowadays it houses offices for the nearby pharmaceutical company, Astrazennica

Which leads us nicely onto my third Mill, the Hovis Mill in Macclesfield itself.

This is where grain was ground to make flour. The technique used produced a distinctive flavour and any baker using this flour is able to call the bread a Hovis loaf. Milling only took place here from 1898 to 1904 because demand grew and the company moved to bigger premises at Trafford Park, Manchester. They did however keep the building. It was renamed the Publicity Works, where they made the paper wrappers to wrap the bread in. Nowadays it’s a rather nice place to live. One interesting feature is the iron ballustrade along the eaves that survived being removed and smelted down during the second world war efforts. I don’t think I’d have liked climbing up there to remove it.

There were of course other mills, and industries along the canal and rivers that dominate this area, Macclesfield was known particularly for silk production, Bollington had a thriving hand made button industry, there was coal mining and sheep farming, to name but a few which helped make it a prosperous place to live.
The Macclesfield canal society website if you want something to talk about.

South by NorthWest

With the culvert fully repaired we finally got the go ahead to travel south, and we’re facing the right direction

But of course to get off the Peak Forest Canal back onto the Macc, we had to travel north. Confused? Yes, perhaps this is what happens when you hang around too long.

And this canal really gets its grip on you

Is this art? Or does someone just have too much time on their hands?

There’s definitely some odd characters on this canal

But we were happy to finally be cruising with a purpose, and it was mild enough not to need our thick coats on. No more sitting around, watching the world go by

Just enjoying the views

And at last turning south back onto the Macc

Enjoying some old Infrastructure

There’s something very special about narrowboating in this area, we love seeing the industrial heritage of the our country. Bugsworth Basin is a prime example of how the canals were a significant structure for the communities they served. It’s now listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and the Bugsworth Heritage Trust oversees the area making it an interesting and informative place to visit.

The Peak Forest Canal was completed in 1804 to transport limestone and gritstone from the Derbyshire quarries down to the Ashton Canal where it was probably went on to help build Manchester.

Looking towards Manchester, about 15 miles west of Bugsworth

It was hoped that the canal would go further into the peak district but alas building the necessary locks wasn’t economically viable. A terminus was created at Bugsworth which, when it was built, it was Britains largest inland port. (Aparently, Eric and I can’t agree what defines an “inland” port) Equally impressive was the 14 miles of gravity and horse powered Tramway system that was built to bring the stone down from the quarries. You can still walk the tramway, but it was too wet and muddy for us this week. Not only was the basin a storage and transhipment port, it was the hub of a thriving village where the lime was processed in huge kilns.

The Middle arm is considered the prime mooring spot, and although it was originally all under cover, the stone sheds have long since been dismantled and repurposed and all that’s left is the short arm, a bit of wall with 2 arches and a base of concrete- where an enterprising local build a pigsty. The working life of Bugsworth Basin remained until the 1920s,

Our favourite moorings spot, Mr Sattersfield branch,

Nowadays it’s not trade that keeps the canals viable, but as with all waterways, natural or man-made, they need a constant supply of water. And whilst we might be getting a generous contribution from the heavens this week, direct rainfall isn’t sufficient without careful management. You’ll usually find a reservoir near the head of most canals with pumping stations along the route. Combes reservoir in the High Peaks was built to feed the Peak Forest canal, but it wasn’t sufficient and in 1838 the Victorians completed Toddbrook reservoir at Whaley Bridge. As with most reservoirs, Toddbrook suffered its fair share of leaks over the years but in August 2019, after a particularly wet summer, part of the modern concrete slipway collapsed. It was feared the whole structure would give way with catastrophic consequences. 1500 residents of Whaley Bridge, Furness Vale and New Mills were evacuated whilst Chinook helicopters dropped 400 tones of aggregate to help prevent a disaster. CRT has been working on the repair ever since, with some interesting modernisation, shown here.

The project is supposed to be completed this year, so we took a walk up to see what was going on. Most of the dam is still fenced off from the general public so we weren’t able to get up close, but we chatted to a few of workmen and peer through the site gates. They aren’t so convinced the work will be finished this year. Neither are we.

There’s plenty of information online about the dam but I found this short little case study interesting.

Thankfully the effect of the of our current structural failure – the culvert collapse which had closed navigation on the Macclesfield has been repaired and reopened. We’re pointing in the right direction and ready to start cruising.

Mooching the Macc and Peak

The past 2 months have been somewhat frustrating. Having the culvert collapse somewhere around Scholar’s Green just a few days before we about to cruise past, somewhat put a halt to our plans. Instead of spending the New Year in Stone, we were stuck on the Macc and our first cruise of 2024 was made heading north not south as planned.

Heading out of Bollington, past Clarence Mill,

New Year’s day 2024, going north past Clarence Mill

Stopping for fuel at Baileys trading post,

And whilst Eric tried to stiffle his cat allergy sneezes, our new friend tried to work out how to get off Firecrest to return to their own ship

Not knowing how long the breach was going to take to repair we settled down to await the delivery of more updates from CRT

Hearing that the next update wouldn’t be until end of January, we packed up and went home to see the family for a belated Christmas

We had to cut short our visit home because the forecast changed drastically and temperatures plummeted,

And the next day the snow arrived

One of the good things about a big freeze, is that Ice makes for some fascinating patterns

And the ground is solid so going for walks is a treat, not a muddy quagmire.

We thawed out eventually and made it up to Marple

Looking towards the junction onto the Peak Forest

We were getting quite annoyed now, updates from CRT telling us what they were doing to fix the breach, but nothing about how long they expected the work to take. Should we turn around here or go onto the Peak forest Canal. We emailed CRT and got quite an apologetic reply acknowledging their oversight in not giving a predicted completion – it should be done by END of March… oh my goodness, that would be over 3 months to fill the hole. At least we could pace our meanderings, Whaley Bridge, here we come.

Looking back towards New Mills from Furness Vale

Through the lifts bridges

Past the swizzles factory,

We walked from Furness Vale back into New Mills, admiring the amazing skill of the people who built the bridges

and finally we cruised into Bugsworth Basin