Bank Holiday weekend in Lymm

One of the prettiest canal villages is Lymm on the Bridgewater canal. I’m sure this house must have been photographed more times than the narrowboats that cruise past it. We were lucky to get moored in over the bank holiday weekend.

It looks good even when the sun’s not shining

The village is easy to stroll around and very picturesque, is it any wonder it regularly wins best village in bloom prizes

Lymm lower dam,

And I’d give them a prize for the best dressed Christmas tree as well. Not surprised it’s an all year round tree

Im not a great fan of yarn bombing, but this is first class installation art

As usual we debated which one of us deserved to be put into the stocks, but I reminded Eric that there’s a good butchers in Lymm and I’d bought steak for tea

The Lymm Cross and it’s stocks

We decided to walk a little further out of Lymm on this visit, heading north towards the Manchester Ship Canal. Our route took us past the Slitting Mill. This is where iron bars were cut into sheets for use making nails, one of Lymms many varied industries during the industrial revolution.

The Slitting Mill

It’s not really very interesting to look at from the footpath, but the Lymm heritage site has some interesting photos of its excavation

https://thelymmarchive.co.uk/archive/trades-and-industry/slitting-mill?

As we carried on along the footpath, sniffing and sneezing as the hay-fever took hold

Until we came to the big canal. Looking west we could just about see the Thelwall Viaduct carrying the M6 over the MSC and the river Mersey

Looking to the left you can just about see the Thelwall viaduct

The Ship canal was opened in 1895 making Manchester the third busiest port in Britain, despite being 40 miles inland. In its heyday,  the canal carried up to 18million long tons of commercial cargo, but with the increasing size of container vessels the ecconomic viability of it dropped that to less than 7 million long tons by 2009. Peel Holdings who own it have plans to reinstate its use as an atlantic gateway in a major effort to reduce road congestion. The plan is to increase the number of containers shipped from 8000 in 2010 to 100,000 in 2030. Narrowboats and leisure craft are not encouraged but can use the ship canal for a hefty fee and some stringent regulations which include a strict no mooring policy Maximum length 600′ x beam 65′. Perhaps we could hitch a ride inside one of the containers, or perhaps we should just stick to the “proper” canals

Peel holdings also own the Bridgewater canal, and are responsible for repairing the breach just beyond Lymm. We had hoped to see the temporary coffer dam and see the progress being made, but it was quite a hike and last winding hole was  just beyond Lymm, so we winded and re-moored on the 14 day mooring where Eric took advantage of the hard edge to touch up the gunwale paint. (Which hadn’t been part of the PaintShed’s remit)

Before we set off back the way we’d come

Beautiful house and beautiful boat

A few days on the Bridgewater

We’ve still got a fair bit of sorting out to do on board Firecrest after the repaint, so we decided to take a short lock free cruise onto the Bridgewater canal whilst we got on with the chores. (Except for the stop lock) We’d be able to do 12 of the 39 miles before we had to wind due to the breach. While we waited for the time slot that allowed us through the Preston Brook tunnel, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to pick a bunch of wild garlic that’s growing in abundance in the woodland along side the brooks right now. The leaves make a tasty addition to most savoury dishes, but the flowers look great too.

I love a little vase of wild flowers, but only ever pick when they are growing in abundance

Just after the tunnel is Preston Brook Wharf, where we believe Eric’s great grandfather, Willie Jones, worked as a porter.
We suspect it’s changed quite a bit since his day.

Still a hive of activity it seems

It was a fabulous day for cruising, but we had removed some of the old solar panels before the so feeling a bit frustrated that we couldn’t generate any of our own. But in true bank holiday style the sunshine decided to take a holiday too. We had a night in Stockton Heath pottering.

A very convenient mooring, with an easy stroll into the town centre

Eric’s mum worked here as a switch board operator during the war years. She had to walk over the swing bridge that spans the Manchester Ship Canal, if she got her timing wrong and it was open, it meant she was late for work. An unforgivable offence in those days- using the bridge as an excuse just didn’t wash. The bridge is still in operation today so we went for a walk over it. But we dwardled to look at the view.

Looking west, you can see more swing bridges over the big canal

Continuing our journey our nice little canal took us under the M6,

It doesn’t look that impressive from our side, but the noise from the motorway certainly was.

To the honey pot village of Lymm

Think we got the last of the nicest mooring

We treated ourselves to a pint at Lymms microbrewery and sat chatting to an old guy who was a boater and had the misfortune to be moored close to the breach when it happened. Oh boy did it sound scary. Again so lucky it happened overnight, and no one was cruising. He told us we wouldn’t be able to get close enough to see the breach now as it was all cordoned off. Amazingly he was also on the canal when the previous breach happened 50 years ago, in almost exactly the same spot. Then he remembers how all the local boaters became part of the volunteer team that helped provide the manpower to fix it. He was given a commemorative brass plaque to mark the event. This time Peel holdings (who own the Bridgewater) will be managing to repairs, and in their latest statement, they are estimating the canal will reopen for navigation in December 2026

https://bridgewatercanal.co.uk/latest-news/bridgewater-canal-breach-update-april-2025

Bluebells and garlic

Once more unto the breach dear friends

On New Year’s Eve we had sat planning our cruising route for the upcoming year, “let’s go north along the Bridgewater and do the Leeds and Liverpool West to East….”
Well that plan sprung a leak didnt it. A great big one, when on New Year’s Day the Bridgewater sustained a catastrophic breach at Little Bollington. It wasn’t rocket science to know this wasn’t going to be fixed in a few weeks, more likely a few years.

Taken from the IWA website

Fellow continuous cruisers and prolific Vloggers, Taylors Aboard, had the misfortune to be moored close enough to be directly affected by this breach. They provided some excellent drone footage of what they woke up to on New Year’s day, and the ensuing aftermath documenting it in real time. It was a horrific experience and we can only thank God that no one was actually injured or worse killed that day.

Plan B, we’ll go via the Macclesfield, through Manchester and bypass the breach, until, guess what….on April fools day, just above the Bosley locks, the Macclesfield breached as well. Not quite so catastrophic as the Bridgewater, and will probably only take a few monts to repair. But somewhat more frustrating as CRT had been aware of the potential problem and had executed a temporary repair back in November.  I’m not going to cast blame because it’s not straightforward, but we can’t help but wonder why “they” let this happen.

The 2025 Macclesfield breach (photo from Manchester evening news)

We’re still not totally sure what Plan C is, but as we left Uplands Marina, we decided to turn left and take a few days heading towards Lymm, about as far as we can get before the breach. Despite it coming up to Easter Weekend, the canal was quiet, which is a good thing as the Barnton tunnel is one way and relies upon boaters not entering if someone else has got there first. And with awkward angles entering the tunnel that’s not easy. Luckily, the oncoming boat travelling south realised just in time and didn’t hit us while we were inside.

Unfortunately we weren’t quite so lucky  when we passed through bridge 211. I’d hopped off so I could take another photo of our lovely shiny boat,

Forgive me, it’ll be a while before I stop posting gratuitous photos of Firecrest

When we saw another boat coming towards us,

Umm, that looks like a tight squeeze

Although Eric steered to the side, it was shallow, he grounded and couldn’t move,

No it’s not a contact sport….

And yes we sustained our first scratch. Oh well it had to happen sometime, just wish it hadn’t been on day one. And to be fair, it was accidental, not malicious.
We moored up for the night at the site of the 2012 Dutton Breach. And while I enjoyed the lovely evening view, Eric got the touch up paint out and got rid of the scratch.

Looking down towards the River Weaver and the rail viaduct


And we saw our first ducklings of the year.

Whatever’s happened to Firecrest

Whatever’s happened to Firecrest

2024 was a difficult year. We got stuck on the wrong side of the Macclesfield breach, (the 2023 one at Scholar’s Green)

Well and truly stuck as the snow fell and the canal frozen over,

then just as we got moving again mum died unexpectedly, there were more breaches blockages, flooding and landslides hindering our plans to spend the summer on the mid levels around East Anglia,

Only 3 months later than planned but we finally arrived on the Northampton Arm ready to take East Anglia by storm

and when we finally got to Northampton, the powers that be were playing politics about dredging around Salters Lode lock – which meant that we couldn’t get to Cambridge anyway. So a change of plan took us across country through Warwickshire

Leaving Stratford upon Avon for our first river cruise of the year

and into Gloucestershire to get to Sharpness.

Looking our over the Severn Estuary from our mooring at Sharpness,

That was an exciting new location for us and we’re very glad we did it. The remainder of the year saw us travelling up the Severn,

Enjoying wide open space, but with limited mooring on the Severn

and the Shropshire union for the autumn.

Autumn on the shroppie

to reach Chester in November.

Moored in Chester under the wall at King Charles garden

We were booked in to have Firecrest repainted at the Paint Shed (Uplands Marina, near the Anderton Boat lift) in March so we knew we wanted to overwinter close enough to negotiate any potential closures planned or otherwise, so we booked ourselves into the marina from January. Just in time to get frozen in

Frozen in at Uplands Marina, January ’25

I left Eric tinkering on the boat whilst I went home for some family time. After all the emotional upheavals we faced in 2024 I was drained. But after a minor delay in starting the repaint we have all emerged shiny and energised to start afresh. Of course in true narrowboating tradition our plans to cruise the Leeds and Liverpool canal west to east have been thwarted, first by the catastrophic breach on the Bridgewater canal over NewYear, and then by the breach two weeks ago on the Macc, our plan B route. Yes we could go across to the River Trent and go north that way, we may still opt to do that . There’s still a lot of family stuff going on which we need to prioritise but for now we are celebrating being back out on the cut listening to the rain on our shiny new paint work, what colours did we choose.

The Worcester Waddle

Back in August our journey north continued upstream on the River Severn. We enjoyed an overnight stop on the pontoon at Upton, a very pretty little town, built up to take advantage of river trade, and the fact that one of the few bridges that spanned the river for many miles.

Upton upon Severn

That river trade is still in evidence as we realised when a heavily laden barge thundered past us. These are the 350 tonne Cemex aggregate barges that plough up and down steam all day, to both a processing plant and then onto the ready mix cement plant near Gloucester

Aggregate extraction, river transport is still the most efficient and greenest option.


We gave them a wide berth if we saw one approaching, and we carried on cruising up to Worcester.

Diglis bridge, Worcester


We had planned to leave the river and moor in town, but, surprise surprise there was a problem with one of the locks, so we bagged another 48 hour pontoon mooring. And with a view of the cathedral it was a good decision.


We have friends who live in Worcester, so it was nice to be invited into a home for a cuppa and cake for a change. We made a few more friends in Worcester during our 2 days, as 80 penguins were also exploring the city as part of a fund raising initiative for the local hospice.
https://waddleofworcester.co.uk/

the Worcester Waddle


I think I saw about 20 of them on my waddle around town. They were auctioned off in October and raised £330,000. They were all fun to look at and even more fun was seeing the smiles on the faces of the children enjoying them

Especially for the big kids



As boaters we still get excited seeing kingfishers along the cut, but they’re notoriously hard to spot. And sadly this is one i didnt spot.

A nice peaceful mooring at Lower Lode, on the Severn


Going upstream on the Severn

Beautiful though it may be,  the 30 miles cruising upstream on the Severn to Worcester is too far for us to do in a day. Our Gloucester Dock Lockie recommended mooring at the Lower Lode Inn just before Tewksbury. It’s nice and peaceful and the food’s good …..

Not sure where the sun had gone, but otherwise it was perfect

And he was right, a whole pontoon to ourselves, with a pretty willowherb garden and a whacky sculpture on the flood post, (is it really possible for the river levels to rise that high?- the answer is yes) so we moored up and went for an obligatory pint to check if we needed a reservation for dinner. I even took my knitting. (If you look closely at the header photo, you’ll see a spinning wheel in the upstairs window of the pub)


But the bar maid said….  “if you want a table grab it now to stake your claim and order your food before 5:30….” sure enough, half an hour later we were over run, motor bikes and bikers in all shapes and sizes

I’m not going to attempt to describe the bikes, I’ll just share some photos. I admit to knowing very little about bikes, but the atmosphere was amazing,  (although I’m not sure that’s how I’d describe the noise)

It was one of the Cotswold bikers weekly meets and it wouldn’t surprise me if there were over 500 bikes.

We chatted to several people and we were taken on a tour looking at different wheels and chassis and to admire the shiny chrome and leathers


And in the morning, peace was restored

there was only one bike  left.

And yes the curry was very tasty.

To the Ships Graveyard and Back

The Gloucester and Sharpness canal was completed in 1827 in order to provide a safer transit than the dangerous tidal Severn estuary. Although only 16.5 miles long it was once the deepest and broadest canal in the world. It was a major route for goods being brought in from overseas, there was an oil tanker delivering to Gloucester and in 1937 two submarines also made the journey inland. Commercial traffic more or less ceased by the mid 1980s but the largest inland hotel boat in UK, the Edward Elgar still uses it regularly.

Just a bit bigger than Firecrest

It’s a fascinating waterway for us with lots of unfamiliar boats making it home

Dutch Barges, Pirate Galleons, Yachts and little launches

lot of the journey south you can look to the west and see the river running close to the canal, and the Welsh hills in the distance.

Glimpsing the big River


The proximity of the river and canal proved to be a constant source of worry, as any breach would have rendered the canal unusable. At Purton, there was little more than the width of the towpath between the two during a high spring tide. When the river bank collapsed in 1909 a plan was devised to create a tidal erosion barrier
Between 1909 and 1965, ships and boats that had reached their sell by date were “hulked”  by towing them up to Sharpness then releasing them to be carried up the bank to Purton at high tide. They were then holed and left to fill up naturally with silt, much in the same way that stone groins protect coastal beaches.

Only visible at low tide

A total of 86 known vessels were hulked, including Severn Trows, Kennet Canal Barges, Schooners and some WWII ferrocement barges. 

Tread carefully cause you don’t know what’s lurking in that grass

Nowadays, the “Purton Hulks” would be preserved as historic boats as there are so few of them left.  Burocracy stands in the way of doing so now, as they are neither covered by the “Preservation of Wrecks” act because they aren’t on the sea bed and they aren’t classed as “Ancient Monuments” because they aren’t on land. Although since 1999 an enthusiastic team of Friends has been doing what they can to record what they can and the tales these ships can tell.  Our favourite story, was the Katherine Ellen a schooner that was impounded for gun running to Ireland in the 1920s. But the most impressive to look at now are the ferrocement barges

Hard to imagine a boat made of concrete

It really was a surreal and quite emotional sight seeing all these boats at what is the largest Ships Graveyard in Britain. It’s not the safest place to walk, around because there are metal ribs and sink holes camouflaged by the grass, but nothing that common sense and respect can’t handle.

A poignant image that such a splendid boat will rot away to nothing in time.


Sad though it is that most of them are now lost, they have served their purpose and the canal is safe. For most narrowboaters, Sharpness is the end of the line. You can walk along to the disused lock and stand in awe as the tide swirls around.

Now that’s a lockies cottage with a view

And there is a tidal basin and dock yard which provides access onto the river. Some intrepid travellers, engage a pilot to take their narrowboat out onto the estuary and down to Bristol, like our friend Jo did this summer, but not for us. The currents and tides can be legendary at certain times of the year when surfers ride the Severn Bore. We were quite disappointed not to have arrived when the tide was more dramatic. But even so the size of the estuary is awesome, you can just about see the severn bridges in the distance.

Looking to the south with the Severn Bridges in the distance
Looking inland


We spent a week, there and back on the Gloucester and Sharpness canal. It was a novel change, the channel is deep and wide so highly efficient on fuel, the variety of boats is interesting and the mooring is rural and peaceful. There’s no locks to pass through and all the swing bridges are operated for you. It’s not somewhere we will rush back to because it’s so far off the main system, but we’d strongly recommend it as a short trip.

Just stick to the canal if you want calm water

Gloucester

It’s always a mix of emotions arriving somewhere new. An exciting adventure, somewhere new to explore, would we find Dr Fosters puddle….

Arriving in Gloucester dock, looking towards the canal


We’d just completed a journey down the tidal section of the River Severn, albeit a very tame tide but still a big river for our little canal boat.  We were faced with this huge space, surrounded by 18th century warehouses and a choice of mooring.

Looking back towards the lock entrance


But we’d heard that Gloucester had some extra magic awaiting Firecrest – electric points. So our first goal was to recharge our batteries. It’s never a given that the shore power advertised by CRT will be available and in working order, or for that matter that we would be able to access one of the several payment methods used along the cut. And Gloucester was no exception- you need a prepaid card, which are sold at the museum, which is closed on a Sunday, the day we arrived. Luckily we had one squirreled away from a trip up the Trent in 2018. Once we’d hooked up, between the big boys, we set off to explore.

Yes, we’re down there somewhere, getting on and off the boat was somewhat undignified, but it entertained the passers by.

The dock  complex has undergone extensive gentrification since it became superfluous to requirements for the transhipment of goods.

This sculture is known as the candle.

The warehouses that once held corn from Ireland  salt from Worcestershire and timber from Canada have been restored and now hold a mixture of vibrant restaurants and rather nice apartments.

We wondered if the seagulls outnumber the people


That look wonderful at night



One of the smaller docks has become a residential marina


And there’s still areas for commercial dockyard enterprises with dry docks and mooring for historic boats

It reminded us of Liverpool’s Albert Dock complex and ironically the warehouses were used to film the Liverpool based Onedin Line tv series.


Mooring in the dock is free for the first 48 hours and although we enquired about staying longer, no one seemed to know who we could pay or how much an extra night would be. It seems a shame that so few boats were moored there.

We explored the town centre, but with a few exceptions,

There’s a growing number of rainbow crossings although they aren’t without controversy



It all felt a bit modern and soulless although the cathedral complex was stunning.

Gloucester cathedral


It didn’t surprise us to recognise it as part of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts


Luckily we didn’t see any Basilisks, but the giant seagulls strutting their stuff next to out boat were a bit scary.

Well that puts it all in perspective



We would have liked a few more days here cause I’m sure there’s a lot more to see than just the modern city centre. But next stop the Gloucester and Sharpness canal.

Tewkesbury to Gloucester

As we’d reached the last day of our 14 night ANT licence, we only had one night in Tewkesbury. Of course I made straight for the Abbey to enjoy one of my favourite sculptures in the country. It’s called Touching Souls and depicts 4 children sitting in a circle with their feet touching. Their soles and their souls reaching out. It was created as a copy its Romanian artist Mico Kauffman, who sculpted the original for the United Methodist Church in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.
The entire high street and town centre is interesting to walk down, with a merry mix of independent shops in olde world buildings which encourage you to look beyond the modern day window displays. And even after we first stopped here in 2017, I still rate the Gloucester Old Spot sausage, from Halfords butchers the best, and we’ve done a lot of research. I also like this gate to the garden of the Tudor House Hotel on the high street.

Where antiquity walks hand in hand with time and still retains its dignity, there is peace.


Whilst I was out exploring (and buying sausage for tea) Eric was prepping the boat ready for our trip down the big River Severn

We didn’t think our mud weights would cut it if we got into trouble on the Severn


We left the Avon at its confluence with the River Severn,

Scary and exciting adventure ahead


and as the river is now subject to a tidal flow, from now on all the locks are manned. Not only is the river big, but so are the locks.

Albert is a proper sea worthy barge, who was planning to continue onto the Severn Estuary


The scale of our surroundings certainly reminded us what a small cog we are in the grand scheme of things

You could build a marina inside Upper Lode Lock


We say this over and over again, we love the variety of waterways that we can cruise on, from some rather grotty backwaters of neglected canals, to picturesque rivers like the Avon and onto super highways like the Severn.

Poor Firecrest, we usually travel about 2.8 miles an hour today we reached 6, and could have gone faster


Going with the flow helped our journey time down to Gloucester. We made the 13 miles to Gloucester dock in about 4 hours.

A nice manageable sized lock to see us into the Historic Gloucester dock


Now, where shall we moor….

An exciting day

Glad we don’t meet these big boys on the canals