Cheshire – Page 4 – Narrowboat Firecrest

Tossing the coin, to the left or right?

To the right, we both agreed, lets go to Chester.

Onto the main line, Shropshire union canal

So off we set, travelling northwestish, along the Shropshire Union main line. We weren’t planning to travel far on this first section, because we had heard good things about the “cheese factory” at Calverly. And we were lucky to get a mooring right next to it.

It would have been easy to miss and although there was a short stay 2 hour mooring, it was occupied. Some of the gardens backing onto the towpath, immediately before had boat names and lengths attached to their fences, yet there wasn’t any official CRT signage and not a single boat in sight. We chose an unreserved length, the owners saw us arrive and didn’t say anything so we weighed up the pros and cons and decided that the home owners were probably just trying to deter potential noise at the bottom of their gardens by laying claim to “their bit”. We’d have moved if asked. We stocked up on some Firey Dragon Cheddar and enjoyed a peaceful night there, but the cheese and cafe weren’t quite as “artisan” as I’d hoped.

Continuing our journey, we had to start working our way through double locks, but the canal is a hive of activity right now and it didn’t take us long to team up and share the load.

It didn’t take me long to spot the little round building alongside Tilstone lock. I’ve not yet been able to uncover a confirmed correct purpose of these buildings but the general opinion is that they were a boaters/lock keepers shelter. And one explanation that I like is that the boats carrying explosives for the mining were not allowed any flame on board, so their boats would be cold and dark. These little round houses had a fire so would be a place to warm up, make a hot meal. Fortunately the end of August We were more in need of a cool pint than a warm hot pot. Another unusual feature on this stretch of canal is the Beeston Iron Lock.

Most locks are lined with stone but ground structure made it unstable so this one is lined with iron, but even now it is need if constant care, the sides have bowed inwards meaning you can no longer share, for fear of getting stuck when it’s emptied. We caught up with our new friends at the Shady Oak and settled in for an afternoon in the pub and an evening enjoying the sunset.

Branching out, waters new

We love taking Firecrest onto waters new, and we had no idea what a lovely stretch we were joining.

The Middlewich branch is a 10 mile route that joins the Shropshire Union canal to the Trent and Mersey Canal. We started to look for an overnight mooring half way along but got caught by infamous “Shroppie shelf”. This is concrete ledge about a foot below the surface, which makes mooring difficult. The small tyres that we use as fenders aren’t quite big enough to stop us being bashed against the edge if (when) boats cruise past too fast. However, there’s some beautiful scenery and we managed to get in near to Stanley s bridge below Minshul lock.

One of the things that makes me happy on the canals is looking at the worn stone steps at the locks and imagining the history. How many feet have trudged up and down.

But I doubt the working boats would have had to queue like we did at Minshul Lock. When we arrived, we were number 8 waiting to ascend,

Eric, making good use of the long wait to polish the brass port holes, (we have to maintain Braidbar’s reputation )

An hour and a half later, when our turn finally arrived, we had one side of very well polished brass port holes, and there were at least 10 more boats behind us. I don’t know how many more were beyond the bridge, I couldn’t see that far. Yet very few boats waiting to descend.

Now that’s what I call queuing for a lock

I was surprised at how few boaters joined in to help working each other through. Ok I don’t expect boat number 10 to leap into action, but you would think that by the time you are 2 or 3 from the from of the queue, it would be to your advantage to help. So I wasn’t very impressed having assisted several boats myself, by the time our turn came I had to set the lock and open both gates myself. My ladylike decorum was put to one side and I yelled down for some assistance, which to be fair did come running. Many hands make light work, and its far more fun chatting and encouraging each other. Less than a mile and a half on, the following lock was at above Venitian marina, which had the benefit of 2 volockies. But even so we had had enough by then and took advantage of the pleasant visitor moorings.

And woke the following morning ready to move onto the Shroppie

Blink and you’ll miss it

Blink and you’ll miss it, The Wardle canal is shortest canal on the system. In the time it took for me to walk the whole length of this canal, Eric exited Kings Lock on the Trent and Mersey, waited for the oncoming boat to emerge from under bridge 168 at Middlewich junction, before arriving in Wardle lock, ready for me to lock up. And that was it. All 154 feet /47m of it.

Wardle canal was built in 1829 by the Trent and Mersey Canal authority in order to exercise that authority over the middlewich branch, and Shropshire union. Wardle lock is affectionately know as Maureen’s lock because a boatwoman called Maureen lived in the lock keepers cottage and took great pleasure in helping boats up and down. But we had no time to dwardle through Wardle, we were travelling at the height of holiday hire season, there were so many boats about I forgot to take a snap of her commemorative plaque.

Next stop the middlewich branch.

Leaving Wardle lock and the Wardle canal

Meanwhile in Middlewich

After a day off, we completed 4 more of the heartbreak hill locks to moor up on the wides above Kings Lock in Middlewich.

A convenient but noisy mooring as the busy A533 runs right alongside, but the neighbours were friendly, and liked to pop in for breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea dinner and supper and snacks inbetween.

And the early mornings were idylically peaceful, especially if you’re travelling by hot air balloon

What a glorious morning to take a balloon flight

Middlewich itself is a busy little place, convenient for boaters as it has supermarkets and services, and a very interesting looking Italian restaurant, that used to be a cinema.

Historically, the Roman’s valued it for its salt pan, (as most towns ending in a “wich” have a salt based heritage.) And it is the middle of the 3 Cheshire salt towns of Northwich, Middlewich and Nantwich. Nowadays its busy canal junction is the main attraction. We sat out the weekend’s heavy rain and set off on Monday morning, Kings Lock being the last in our descent of Heartbreak Hill.

A lot more locks, descending Heartbreak Hill

11 months ago, (September 2020) we huffed and puffed our way up Heartbreak Hill, which is the affectionate nickname for the 31 locks on the Trent and Mersey canal between Middlewich junction and Kidsgrove.

It’s only a 12 mile stretch, the enthusiastic hire boaters can do it in a day and still call it a holiday. We took three days. Since then we travelled down to Northamptonshire, where we overwintered and locked down around Market Harborough whilst we had our hull zinced and blacked, then made our way back up north via Leicester, the start of the Trent and Mersey, with a pleasant detour onto the Caldon, up the Macclesfield, to Whaley Bridge on the Peak Forest and back down onto the Trent and Mersey. Which is approximately 360 miles and 240 locks and according to ACC canal planner can be done in 26 days……

Screenshot of our travels from ACcanal planner

This time we are descending the flight, and not having a deadline, have taken our time. We started at Kidsgrove by refilling the larder at the newly opened and very convenient canal side Lidl.

Although for the first mile we thought we could feast upon tomato soup directly from the canal, perhaps not, who knows what other contaminants are lurking in that iron stained water.

Traffic seemed quite heavy on our first day, and we were lucky enough to benefit from some convenient crossovers.

Practicing for Strictly, dancing between locks

We felt quite sorry for the enthusiastic hire boaters, negotiating the queues and etiquette of these locks on a very damp day. Although it was mainly mild drizzle, I got caught out in proper rain shower whilst Eric sheltered below a bridge waiting for me to set the next lock.

We had had enough after 3 miles and moored up in Rode Heath. Our next day was drier, but this time Eric was suffering from wind…..

So after 2 miles we tied up at Hassal Green and enjoyed a pleasant evening accompanied by the constant hum of the nearby M6.

It might make for a noisy pair of locks but once we were under the bridge the noise quickly settled and we were back in the countryside.

The section to the next obvious mooring (for fickle snails like ourselves) actually feels like the end of the flight, despite there being another 5 to go. Wheelock bottom lock, lock 66 is the last/first of the twinned locks.

Over the past 3 days we might not be heart broken, but we had broken the backbone and had completed 26 locks over 7 miles. That called for a treat, aka a fish and chip supper under a pretty sunset.

I had wanted to walk into Sandbach, but the footpath was so overgrown I gave up as not being entirely safe with the wet ground. Instead I walked south to the Wheelock farm shop and stocked up on some local produce, and a Cheshire farm ice cream.

Moving on from the Macc

The last few miles of the Macclesfield Canal take us through Congleton. We used to get tantalising glimpses of the town when we drove up to visit Firecrest in build, but we’ve never actually walked around this little town. The signage from the canal was also intriguing.

We moored to the north of the town near Stanley’s bridge and walked the mile and a half into the centre.

Despite some old timber framed buildings and an attractive town garden, the day was damp and miserable and I wasn’t inspired to spend long exploring. I suspect the town has suffered economically.

But this isn’t a new thing, in 1620 the town was struggling to attract visitors to it’s bear baiting contests. As legend has it, when the town couldn’t find the money to buy a bigger more aggressive beast, they used the funds raised to buy a town bible to buy a bear instead to keep the bear baiting entertainment going. Thankfully they have more respect for their animals nowadays.

We continued cruising south, under the last of the gorgeous snake bridges so familiar on the Macclesfield Canal. These ingeniously simple designs allows the old horse drawn barges to continue seamlessly when the Towpath changed sides because the horses didn’t need to be unclipped and refastened.

And one last lock to be tackled at Hall Green. This was originally the end of the Macclesfield Canal, as the mile long Hall Green Branch was built by the Trent and Mersey Canal company in order for them to charge tolls and to retain the water flowing down the Macclesfield Canal. Originally it had two chambers that enabled either side to be the higher or lower level. Many stop locks have been removed from the system, but due to the draft of the Harecastle tunnel and the shallow depth of the Macc the 12 inch drop at Hall Green is one of the nicer locks to work.

With only a mile to go, we crossed the aqueduct and looked down onto the rusty Trent and Mersey, under bridge 97,

and onto the Trent and Mersey Canal

Lots of locks, the Bosley flight

Shortly after leaving Macclesfield we cruised south across Gurnett Aqueduct, looking over you can see the house where James Brindley had served his apprenticeship (and Bryons Lane is a pretty circular walk around to Sutton with a well stocked village shop and tea room worth noting )

But we weren’t stopping, the clouds were grey and heavy and we wanted to reach the top of the Bosley Flight before they offloaded, which luckily we did, and they did. Thankfully we woke to reasonable sunshine and set off down the flight.

The flight is 12 rural locks, nicely spaced out over a mile, so it usually is a pleasant experience even if it’s hard work. All but the last three were set against us.

And we exited number 12 just 2 hours later.

There’s plenty of mooring at the bottom on the embankment that overlooks the River Dane Valley and the magnificent rail viaduct to the east.

And the local lamdmark “The Cloud” to the south, this is the peak that Eric and Tim climbed 2 months ago. I decreed that the Cloud’s cloud would obliterate the view so I would leave it until “next time” before I considered the climb.

And of course when we woke to a perfect day, we needed to continue cruising.

To Bollington and beyond

We had the good fortune to be approaching Bollington at the same time as the weather forecast was predicting 4 days of thunderstorms and torrential rain. We had the even better good fortune to find a space on the aqueduct in time for us to hunker down and watch the world go by.

Bollington is a largely unspoilt little place that grew out of 3 small farming communities into a thriving, but small victorian mill town. Nestled in the foothills of the Pennines, on the edge of the Peak district, the canal straddles the wooded valley of the River Dean on a 60′ high aqueduct and embankment.

Perhaps not the most spectacular on the system, but one of my favourites because there’s mooring and a wide towpath, and an interesting town below to explore.

We had the added benefit of being joined by Sapphire, another Braidbar boat and it’s always good to share cruising notes, especially over a pint. No wonder it is also known as Happy Valley.

The Macclesfield canal was completed in the 1830’s and provided the incentive for local entrepreneurs to take advantage of the Macclesfield silk and cotton trade. Several mills were built, but only Clarence and Adelphi mills are still standing, both as residential and creative hubs with cafes, perfect for gongoozlers. Bollington seems to attract good food, and the day we arrived we only just missed the Hairy Bikers filming at the Indian Goat for a Christmas special. Needless to say we also had to sample the menu, not once but twice.

The Indian Goat, street food worth having.

To compensate for our excessive gluttony, we also took advantage of some great walking trails. The Middlewood Way, (from Marple to Macclesfield) runs through Bollington, along the disused railway line. Just like the canal, straddling the valley also required some skilled engineering. The west side of town is dominated by a long stretch of arches. The weather was against us completing the full trail although it’s one of Tim’s favourite cycling routes.

The Middlewood Way, above the playground

The other local landmark is known as the White Nancy, found on the Kerridge ridge. It’s a folly built in 1817 to celebrate the victory at the Battle of Waterloo. Apparently it used to have a door into a single room inside, but that’s no longer there. And at certain times of the year, it could well be dressed up as father Christmas, or sporting various other commemorative symbols. One year vandals painted it pink, can’t think why….The views from the top are spectacular, even with the cloud, we could see over to the Welsh hills, Merseyside, and the Peak District. We could even see Sapphire moored on the aqueduct. And we could see the White Nancy from the aqueduct.

All in all we managed to avoid most of the heavy showers and the canal didn’t quite overflow. We are once again heading south.

Heading south towards Macclesfield, hope the blue sky comes too

Full Steam Ahead

Just south of the Gurnett Aqueduct is the medieval village of Sutton, or to give it it’s formal name, Sutton Lane Ends. It’s only a little place, but has a tardis like village shop and tea room. It’s an easy walk from the canal where there’s some pleasant 14 day mooring just before the aqueduct itself.

Firecrest is the furthest boat in the line

We’re definitely in Braidbar country, seeing several tootling up and down. We’ve have had some lovely conversations and struck up friendships as we’ve discussed batteries and solar panels. This week we found ourselves moored next to Kumpali, one of the newest Braidbars.

Still dancing around the dilemma of social distancing, Paul, Kim Eric and I decided a pint in the pub was the nicest way to pass an hour chatting, so instead of descending the steps to the crowed Kings Head, we strolled across the field to Sutton Hall. A rather grand timber framed house with gardens to match.

After a few hours more than we’d intended, we thought it time to return to our boats but found ourselves surrounded by steam driven traction engines.

Some were tractors, there were steam rollers

one thing they all had in common were that they were beautifully polished

And loved by their owners

We would have loved to have found out a bit more about them, but the ale had been flowing and whilst the conversation was amusing and light hearted it was neither repeatable or socially acceptable, even if it did make us laugh.

A good day had by all.

Heading into the Cloud

One of the many nice things about the Macclesfield Canal is that all 12 locks are contained over a mile, known as the Bosley flight. Tim didn’t take much persuading to stay on board to help us up, but that did mean we couldn’t hang around Ramsdell. Once we had returned triumphant from our Mow Cop ascent, we cruised on to base camp, to moored overnight at the Dane Aqueduct. Expecting our next exertions to be wielding the windlass, was forgetting that Tim is 30 years younger than us, and when he saw the rocky outcrop across the fields there was no stopping him, “come on Dad, we can be there and back before Mum’s cooked tea….”

And they were, admittedly a late tea, but I was able to stand on the Towpath and with the help of the binoculars, saw them wave to me. The Cloud, as it is known, is the gritstone quarry which provided the stone to build the locks. There was some debate the next morning whether we should join the caravan heading north. A faulty swing bridge beyond top lock, implied that there would be a backlog of boats unable to move on. But word came down the locks that we should proceed. Some people rely upon pigeon post, here we have goose gossip.

Due to the on going need for water management, passage on this flight is only permitted between 8 and 1. We assume this is to consolidate the two-way traffic thus reducing the need to set the locks. It suits me just fine, although I imagine it’s frustrating for the boaters with deadlines.

We made it up in good time and found a pleasant mooring.

After lunch said our farewells to Tim as he set off on his 20 mile bike ride back home.