Narrowboat Firecrest – Page 33 – Coddiwompling with Narrowboat Firecrest

Reaching for pastures new

With only another 5 miles to Wigan, we were almost upon pastures new for us. We had last cruised this way 10 months ago in September 2019, travelling westward intending to enjoy just one week in Liverpool. Little did we know what was to come. The day promised some sunshine, but we’ve heard that before. So we set off in a spirit of adventure. Passing the Baby Elephant, an Indian Restaurant which closed down some time ago.

It’s sad to see so many canalside venues closed down especially when we see so many people walking the Towpath.

It’s thirsty work seeing a boat through a lock

But this area is coal mining country, so although there’s lots of new development there’s also a lot of run down property. One thing that has made us ~~grimmace~~ chuckle is CRT’s love of signs, including portage notices advising canoes to be taken out of the water at swing bridges and carried through. There might be logic if the bridges were closed but so many swing bridges are permenantly open and completely inoperable. It just strikes us as a complete and utter waste of money and lack of any intelligence.

However not to spend too long being grumpy, we passed the impressive Wigan pier

We wondered what George Orwell would have made of the fancy redevelopment opposite around the wharfs, warehouses and mills.

After a stop to fill up with water we rounded the corner and there it was, the Leigh Branch. It’s still technically part of the Leeds and Liverpool canal, but for us, we’re breaking new ground and it feels good.

During this section of our journey, we passed by two historic boats, Ambush and Viktoria. Most canals have a specific style to maximise the efficiency and profit of their specific routes. Above Wigan the Liverpool Shortboats, dominated. Ambush and Viktoria were built for the H &R Ainscough Mill in Burscough, they are Liverpool Longboats to carry grain and flour. They are 60’long and 14’wide. nowadays Ambush is still a working boat delivering fuel to boaters between Burscough and Leigh. Canal Junction writes and intersting article about these boats

Fairies as far as the eye can see

We haven’t seen hills for months, so now that we have one on our doorstep I thought it time to stretch some dormant muscles. There are two significant local beauty spots with in walking distance of Appley Deep Lock, both involve a climb, Parbold Hill rewards with views for miles and we’d chosen a good day.

To the southeast we could see way beyond Wigan towards Manchester and the peak district beyond. My photo doesn’t do it justice, we could see the M6 crossing the river Douglas and the Heinz factory

To the southwest we could see the tall cranes along the Mersey docks

That’s where we have come from, Liverpool in the distance

And to the northwest Blackpool tower and a hint of the Lakeland fells behind

If you squint you can see Blackpool tower

Parbold hill has special memories for me as a child. Mum and Dad would lift me and my brother from our beds, wrap us in blankets and put us into to boot of the VWCombi at 6 am on a Saturday morning and we’d drive from our home in Crosby up to the Lake District in time to make Bacon butties in Ambleside for breakfast. Ok I know that would never be allowed to happen now, but just in case you were worried, it was more of a parcel rack than a closed in boot, and I don’t think seatbelts had been invented back in the early 70s. The combi must have chugged and splutterd to get to the top of Parbold Hill, cause we always greeted it with a fanfare.
Those carefree days must have really nurtured my inner hippy and my love of outdoor living. Half a mile down the hill is a trail that leads to the Fairy Glen. A woodland walk that follows the path of Sprodley Brook almost back down to the canal. I did search high and low for the fairies but I think they were practicing social distancing.

The path became steeper and more of a scramble, perfect for little waterfalls

I wanted to skip back to the boat filled with the joy of the day, but oh boy did we ache. 8 months in Liverpool didn’t do our fitness levels any good. Time for tea and cake back on Firecrest

Fairweather cruising

One distinct advantage of being continual cruisers is that we don’t have to cruise continually, (with the proviso that we move on every 14 days in accordance with the rules) So when it rains we stay put, but when the sun shines we make the most of it and enjoy hearing the frequently used phrase “nice day for it”. And we agree, “it’s a hard life but someone’s got to do it”
So onward we meander. Past the bridge that traverses the junction of the Rufford branch of the L&L. Our plans back in April were to have cruised this way so we could cross over the Ribble link onto the Lancaster, however with all the uncertainties we’ve decided to do it another year.

And through Parbold with its lovely old mill, now transformed into James Bartholomew’s art gallery,

I even saw my very first black blackberry of the season, but as it was below knee level, it stayed put.

We settled for a few nights with a view of the hills near Appley deep lock.

And moored up with view of cow parsley

This is what we see through the round window today

Living by the canal

Once the navvies had built the canals, lots of hands were needed to maintain and work them. So rows of canal cottages were built along side the Cut for the workers and their families. This part of Lancashire, around Burscough has some very des-res cottages. I’m never sure if it’s the cottages or the gardens that appeal to me the most.

Beautiful they may be, I don’t think I could ever imagine raising a family living in a traditional boatsmans cabin on an old working boat

Of course not everyone needs a house….

And where you have canals and wharfs you also need watering holes. This Burscough Pub is the “old Packet House” and it has an interesting information board outside, (no, not the one about social distancing etc). Originally called the Bridge Inn, built in 1775 it became a staging post for passengers travelling to and from Liverpool and Wigan, who wanted to use the stage coach, (known as the Union Machine) to get between Ormskirk and Preston. Passengers travelled by Packetboats, (Union Packets) which carried small parcels as opposed to the Flyboats that carried merchandise. It cost 2/- to travel first class from Liverpool and 1/3d second class. They were allowed up to 14lbs luggage. These packet boats were over 60′ long and 9’wide and were drawn by 2 horses, one of which was ridden. They used a bugle to warn waiting passengers of their approach. Sadly we were a day too early to be allowed in.

Sadly not all canal side pubs thrive even in a good year, as we found when we moored up outside the Ring o Bells.

However the pub car park is still accessible and it made a perfect for mum to drive down from the Lakes for our first post lockdown “hug”

The Halsall Navvy

A little bit of history.
What were you doing on 5th November 1770, Col Charles Mordaunt was cutting the first turf of the Leeds and Liverpool canal. This was in Halsall, West Lancs. Somewhere, by the bridge, there’s a plaque marking the spot, but I couldn’t find it. However there is a fine stone sculpture known as the Halsall Navvie here. I doubt old Charlie did much more of the hard work, but the information board set me thinking about the Navvies who toiled along the cut.

It’s hard to imagine that these canals were all build by hard manual labour. Originally the workers were known as Cutters. But they soon became known as Navvies abbreviated from Navigator. The canal is still often referred to as the Cut.Contrary to general belief only 30% of the navies were Irish. Over 500 men were involved in building the Leeds and Liverpool canal. Local farm labourers often supplemented their income by joining the workforce until they were needed at harvest time.

The Halsall Navvy by Thomas Dagnall 2004

In 1770 it cost £5048 to build a mile of canal equivalent to around £275 000 today. Locks cost extra. And the total financial cost of the Leeds and Liverpool was £1 250 000, around £50 000 000 today.
I’ve read that an experienced navvy could shift 12 cubic yards of earth a day: that’s the same as digging a trench 3ft wide, 3ft deep and 36ft long every day. Canal boat and Tillergraph magazine have a fascinating piece giving a better insight

We’ve got a lot to be grateful for, cause I doubt Halsall looked as lovely as this 250 years ago

Lancashire living

Lancashire comes into its own along this stretch of the canal. We’re surrounded by rich open farmland full of crops, no uninspiring supermarket, but farm shops in barns selling potatoes that still smell of earth and taste so good you don’t need anything else on your plate, except perhaps a bit of butter.

Of course good crops don’t grow with out that essential element and whilst we are still grinning from ear to ear about being back in the countryside, I was reminded of another reason I’d enjoyed a long winter in Liverpool.

But being surrounded by wild flowers makes up for it.

We’re sometimes asked if not having a permenant base makes canal life lonely, but not at all. It’s amazing what a small world it is, during our few days at Downholland we discovered our neighbour and I had attended the same secondary school, albeit just a few years before me, but never the less we traded names of friends and acquaintances we had in common, and it turned out he had also owned a Braidbar boat for some year.

So it was a lovely surprise to find our next mooring spot would also become a social occasion-OK, we did know John and Martina on Burnt Oak was cruising in this area so not a total surprise.

It didnt take long for Martina and I to grab our fold up chairs, find our fibre and start spinning together

Martina is setting up a small business and has a roving traders licence to sell hand dyed yarn and fibre. The first week of a pandemic isn’t the ideal time to launch a new venture, but Jubilee Fibres will be making an appearance at events along the Towpath in the future, but I was lucky to restock my own stash with some lovely kingfisher blue. Martina explained to me why she chose the name and logo Jubilee Fibres. The word Jubilee comes from the Hebrew, to celebrate. And Hebrew celebrations often included the blowing of a rams horn, which looks very similar to a canal bridge. Some great combination of symbolism.

The Joy of being back on the canal

The metropolitan borough of Sefton might not hold the most beautiful section of canal, but after being cooped up for 8 months we smiled at CRTs latest advertising banner.

We woke to a family of goslings cutting across the calm reflection at Litherland, but knowing the forecast was predicted to hit the 30’s we didn’t hang around. And off we set, cruising freely again. Although we weren’t sure if the geese were seeing us off.

And the herons were providing a guard of honour

It was a joy to see such a variety of wildlife again

Perhaps some was a little stranger than we expected.

And we’re not sure that exercise suits everyone

One of the events to be cancelled during Lockdown was the Aintree Grand National. I wonder how many of those race goers have any idea what the turn at Canal Corner looks like on the outside of the fence.

There are too many trees for us to see the course properly

So we carried on our way. We had been worried that the canal would have become a dumping ground with the council tips closed. To some extent we were right, but although there were a number of big plastic items bobbing around, we only had to stop once to remove the urban jelly fish from the prop. We hadn’t expected our journey to be stopped by a carpet of waterlillies

We continued our journey though Maghull and into Lancashire, I’d had to open 7 swing bridges on today’s journey.

But I was well rewarded with views of fields with yellow rape and red poppies

And dog daisies growing along the bank.

Oh the sheer joy of being back on the canal, Anyone would think we hadn’t enjoyed Liverpool, which is wrong, we had made the most of a completely different lifestyle, it had been like being on a good holiday, but we were glad to be back home. One thing remained the constant. Our evening sunset.

Moving on, Breaking free and setting sail

At long last we’re able to cruise again.
Back in March when the country realised the need to protect ourselves from the looming pandemic, we mulled over how we felt, were we safer or more at risk in a big city like Liverpool. There were pros and cons but on balance we decided safer. With a tall harbour wall protecting the handful of boaters from the general public and a fully serviced pontoon, we only needed to emerge when we chose, the food shops were an easy walk so we considered ourselves very lucky, when CRT made the decision to lock us in. Shortly after, the whole canal system was shut down with only essential travel permitted. Even the towpaths became off limits as well meaning passers by stopped to talk to moored boaters. We knuckled down for an unknown future, even fearing a second winter in Liverpool. I reinstated my nursing registration and volunteered to work at the Nightingale Northwest in Manchester, but thankfully the NHS coped and I wasn’t needed.
Unsure of when we would be allowed to cruise, we lost our first companions in mid May, when they arranged to have their boat craned out and transported by road to where they needed to be.

Cruising to the marina ready to be cranes out

At the end of May, 3 more of our friends made a bid for freedom even though the rules still remained not to use locks.

Another 2 followed the week after, we weren’t looking forward to cruising through all that weed and other debris thrown into the canal, whilst council tips remained off limits.

Thwarted only 10 minutes after setting off

By now we were getting weekly phone calls from the CRT office as the guidance was updated. The final 3 boats agreed to go our on June 17th. We weren’t too pleased to get a call on the 16th asking us to stay put another week, but we dutifully complied. And at 8am on 24th June 2020 with huge smiles on our faces, we finally all set off.

Sun’s shining, life jackets on and ready to go

The Green boat, as we affectionately called it cause their name isn’t painted on the side went first

We were next

One of the advantages of travelling in convoy is receiving photos of Firecrest in fantastic places

Getting ready to go through Mann Island Lock

Thankfully the weed had been dispersed as we cruised under the watchful eyes of the Liver birds

The reward for waiting an extra week, was that lock keepers were back from furlough, so even though we had enough crew between us we only had to get off the boat to record the day

You’d imagine we’d run out of conversation after 8 months, but no

Sid has been looking after this stretch since it’s creation nearly 20 years ago and in recognition, the narrow channel between West Waterloo Dock and Trafalgar Dock is known as Sid’s Ditch. We had the honour of being accompanied by Sid as he hitched a lift on Bluebell’s bow.

The volunteers were out in force, all happy ~~to do the hard work~~ to help us through the Stanley flight

We weren’t quite ready to say goodbye to our friends as we all moored up for the night at Litherland. And I was rewarded with another evening sunset

We all slept well that night.

With many thanks to Andy, Angie, Avril, Becka, Darren, David, Freya, James, Kitti, Little Darren, Mark, Paul, Reuben, Sharon, Sid, Stuart, Tam, the bin men, the checkout assistants, the CRT team the Dock security, the volunteers, and our families and anyone whose name I have missed off by mistake. Thankyou for helping us through Lockdown, stay safe x.

Hanging around

As I’ve already said, there’s just so much to see in Liverpool, 8 months isn’t nearly long enough. I took full advantage of my daily outdoor exercise to explore. So here are a few of the people I met hanging around, watching the world go by . Obviously there’s the 4 lads from Liverpool strutting their stuff on the Pierhead. And if you’ve got the Beatles, you’ve also got to have “our Cilla” on Matthews Street.

where there’s always someone hanging around keeping the buskers in tune.

There are Beatles monuments everywhere, And several more representing their individual achievements The John Lennon Peace Monument which was part of a global peace campaign shows a world wrapped up in music and peace doves, just imagine….

Not all the sculptures are so modern with these wooden gargoyles keeping an eye on us in Dale Street

This is what happens if you hang around pubs too much

But I can give these guys a miss, the Lambananas. 125 of them appeared since 2008. As part of the European City of Culture, the 5m high original Superlambanana ( which has now been removed) was created to represent both the import and export of Sheep and bananas through Liverpool Docks and to highlight genetic manipulation. A lot of the 125 were sold off but there are 8 still scattered around the Pierhead

The Pierhead is quite a walk through history, remembering the rock stars

The workers, including the horses that hauled the cargo around the docks

The regal,

And the innovative, this sculpture celebrates liverpudlian Jeremiah Horrock’s, astronomical discoveries, he was the first person to calculate the transit of Venus accurately, not bad for the early 17th century

The departing, commemorates emigrants leaving to start new lives in America, (I wonder if we will be worthy of a monument, narrowboaters finally allowed to leave liverpool)

The departed, Liverpool bares the pain of loosing many at sea, this particular monument remembers the engine room crew of the Titanic, many came from Liverpool.

The hero’s. Captain Frank Walker, who was the most successful anti submarine warfare commander serving in both WW1 and WWII

And the fallen, although these three monuments aren’t objects of beauty, they mark a communal place of rememberance , they hold plaques honouring the servicemen and women from various countries and services connected with Liverpool, who lost their lives at sea in times of conflict

The Tate Modern North has it’s home in the Royal Albert Dock, and there are installations outside as well as in. The art works certainly fall into the sculpture rather than monument category and I shall leave to ponder their significance.

This one grew on me, especially with a winter sunset to light it up

Although I think the buildings themselves are testaments to an era gone but not forgotten as the Royal Albert Dock is a grade 1 listed heritage site,

and there are strategically placed artifacts and abandoned industrial and maritime debris scattered around to marvel at.

I was a little saddened not to see any figurative monument directly outside the maritime museum, (which houses the museum of slavery,) remembering the transatlantic slave trade, that clouded Liverpool’s 18th century. But across the Strand is a magnificent horse sculpture called The Great Escape, the horse made out of rope, which unravels in a bid for freedom, it is meant to represent man’s effort to free himself from slavery. It’s a bit off the beaten track, (unless you’re walking to the Tesco express for icecream)

The monuments in the city centre continued to be thought provoking though for many reasons
Eleanor Rigby sits all alone on Stanley Street

Whilst one of Lewis’ stands proud over his department store. (which is sadly now closed, along side George Henry Lee’s and TJHughes about to follow suit-for those of you who remember the big old stores)

Liverpool is a mighty and grand city which liked to erect monuments to the great and the good of the victorian era. Although they are the ones I tend to hurry past without recognition, I’ve had the time to read up more about these people and the service they gave to our country.

Many just followed questionable orders out of loyalty and obligation, while others sacrificed much and build a city of extremes. Extreme poverty and wealth success and destruction, nothing can be taken at face value, there is always more than one side to the story. But throughout I get an immense sense of humanity.

As the Bombed out Church, St Luke’s, is preserved to remind us. The sculpture reminds us of the British and German soldiers, who were allowed to stop fighting on Christmas day so they could play football during WW1

As does one of the most beloved liverpudlian of all.

And you can’t beat a bit of well meaning graffiti

Even if there’s always a Liver bird watching over you

This replica stands over the canal in the Museum of Liverpool

But we knew it was coming to a end and it was time to pack up our suitcases and move on

The Sunrises and Sunsets, and life goes on

One of my favourite things about our Liverpool staycation has been watching the sunsets, I could nip out of the boat and be facing West over looking the Mersey in 2 minutes. I’d head to where Billy Fury was taking the pose

and usually there’d be a small group of us anticipating the end of the day. It created a sense of shared faith as we all reflected on our strange circumstances

During the winter we would get the occasional splash of pink lightning up Salthouse Dock

And if I walked to the far side of the dock I could look back towards Firecrest and the stunning backdrop. It was unusual to see the water as mirror still as this in an evening, much more common in the morning

Looking north towards Firecrests mooring

Of course during the winter waking up early enough to catch the sunrise wasn’t too difficult and I didn’t even need to leave Firecrest to see views like this most January mornings.

Looking south, from the boat early in the morning.

Although some mornings were so shrouded in mist that we couldn’t see anything in front of us.

But it was always lovely to return to Firecrest after an afternoons winter shopping when everything was lit up

The first Sunday in December saw the annual Santa dash, I couldn’t count how many, but they raised a lot of money before setting off for Lapland to pick up the toys. I’m glad it was such a lovely day for them.

And it never failed to amaze me how dramatically the Liver buildings changed colour at dusk with the lovely reflection over Canning Dock

And despite all my evening walks I was surprised that I only picked up this view looking at the Liver building through the Albert Dock this week.

Possibly because I liked walking past the tall ships anchored in Canning Dock, which they have recently moved into the Albert dock. This is the Kathleen and May, back in April

One of the things I’ve missed during lockdown is spring in the countryside, no green fields full of frolicking lambs. But I know that when we start cruising again I’ll miss my evening strolls to see what colour the sky has turned, burning embers

Looking across the Mersey to Wallasey town hall

Or soothing duvet

It would always feel hopeful, the way ahead lit up

That there will always be someone looking out for us

On Easter day in Suffolk the local churches would gather for a sunrise service by the river, in Liverpool that wasn’t possible, but I did see sunrise over the cathedral which helped me feel connected with my family and friends when we were all keeping apart.