Macclesfield Canal – Narrowboat Firecrest

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

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.

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

One of our favourite destinations, Bugsworth Basin.

Christmas on the Macc

With all our commitments complete, it was time to consider our cruising plans. We’d like to explore East Anglia next summer, which means moving south. CRT”s planned winter maintenance on the locks around Etruria meant we needed to off the Macc and beyond that point by New Year. Or we’d get caught by the stoppage till end of January. Fate had other plans. Making good progress, we stopped off in Macclesfield on 13th December to pick up provisions, only to recieve the notification that same day that there was a leaking culvert at Kents Green Bridge, (South of Congleton). Stop planks had been installed to stop the leak and navigation was closed from the Bosley locks. But was it fate? If we had been one day earlier, we would have been stranded on a rural section with no facilities nearby to keep us fed and watered. Updates were promised on the 18th December so we sort permission to overstay on the Macclesfield pontoon. A friend sent us this image from a FB post, it didnt look good.

And that was just the surface…. who knows what lies below.

With some potentially some grim cold, wet and windy weather on its way, we already knew in our hearts that the likelihood of the repair being complete was slim. Although technically possible to cruise 20 or so miles in 2 days to reach Etruria, it wasn’t going to be a fun challenge. We braced ourselves for the worst scenario. We were stuck. Instead of feeling glum, we made the most of Macclesfield and set about decorating the boat for Christmas.

I think our lights were outshone by the sunset

And I took advantage of the quick train into Manchester to meet up with Mum and Aunty for the day.

The promised update arrived on the 18th and alas as we feared, the repair was still ongoing. Our decision was made: we’d turn around and stay put -OK not actually stay put, but stay north of Macclesfield on the Macc and Peak Forest canals until we were able to cruise freely at our own pace. Even if that wouldn’t be until February. We considered the practicality of buying ourselves a house, this one had a certain appeal.

But first, Christmas in Bollington. A place we always enjoy returning to.

We were lucky to get a mooring on the aqueduct looking towards Clarence Mill. Although the view wasn’t always quite this tranquil as storms hit us and most of our 14 day stay was wet and windy, though thankfully not cold. And whilst we didn’t see that much sun, we did enjoy another spectacular moonbow

We enjoyed some good food at the Vale Inn, washed down with beer from their own brewery – well worth returning to.

that’s a Christmas dinner burger, yes it even included gravy in the bun.

We joined the community singing carols around the tree on Christmas eve.

the singing enhanced by mulled wine and a brass band

A scrumptious turkey for Christmas day thanks to Heathcotes butchers, -definitely a place we’ll return to

We decided to spend New Year’s Eve on the boat and thanks to the aqueducts elevation, thought we’d enjoy the towns fireworks at midnight. The weather got the better of us and it was just too wet to be outside although as the celebrations continued for over an our not everyone was bothered. Personally I prefer early mornings to late nights.

New Year’s Day 2024 didn’t disappoint.

What better way to start a new year than a cruise.

The latest CRT update came through yesterday. The canal is still closed at Bridge 85 and the next update is on 10th January.

Happy New Year,

Goodbye Autumn Hello Winter

Autumn seemed to arrive late and disappear early this year, or at least we think so. But what we did see of it was worth it.

With several more commitments off the boat we needed good access to public transport. Half way between Middlewood and High Lane provided us with good options, and a lovely walking route.

We couldn’t resist a cruise down memory lane either as we decided to go onto the Peak Forest canal for a week or two.

And we managed to get a perfect view of the Halo Moon

But of course clear skies make for a frosty morning

Our neice has just moved to the area so she came to see us and enjoyed the cruise into Bugsworth Basin

We took the opportunity to catch up with several friends that we made in 2017 when we’d moved onto Firecrest but weren’t able to leave the Braidbar

We said our goodbyes to Buggy and the Sunny,

And before we knew it winter had arrived

The canal was frozen for a week and the only boat daft enough to break the ice was a CRT work boat travelling at speed. We were livid, and wish we’d thought to take a number down to complain. The snow didn’t last long, unlike the snow that fell at mum’s up in the Lake District, they got 12 inches most of it falling in just an hour or two. No wonder it took them by surprise. I caught the train up a few days after and although most had gone, the views remained spectacular

and going back to wake up to my favourite view from my teenage bedroom

Mooving from the Middlewich to the Macclesfield

Time to set off up Heartbreak Hill and give the old lock muscles a workout. But before the aches set in we decided to take a detour on foot, to explore the lovely little market town of Sandbach. It’s a familiar name on the M6 junction signs, but we had never taken the time to visit it before, and I’m glad we did. It has lots of character, independant shops and some real medieval history, I have a feeling we will come here again. (If only to visit the Cafe on the Square for another Handmade sausage roll)

Fortified, we set off under bridge 152 at Wheelock bottom lock to tackle the 6 miles with 26 locks.

But unlike the hire boaters who do the whole flight twice in one week, we stopped off at the top of the Wheelock stretch

Waking to a fabulous sunrise, we set off nice and early, just cause it felt so good to be out in the fresh air and sunshine.

Red sky in the morning, sheperds warning

But whilst we were enjoying the sunshine and just a few flooded fields,

At least the canal hasn’t burst its banks here

our family in Suffolk were half a mile away from the devistation left by Storm Babet, luckily high enough up the hill not to be in need of their own boat.

The River Deben, the nearby houses were badly flooded (photo swiped from internet)

And whilst the country was still reeling from the mindless act of vandalism that destroyed Sycamore Gap, we’ve been enjoying some beautiful trees on our route.

From setting off at sunrise we were moored up at Church Lawton for sunset

With only 5 locks left to complete the flight we took it easy on day three, stopping for water at Red Bull before flying ove the aqueduct at Hardings Wood Junction, where the Macclesfield canal crosses over the Trent and Mersey Canal

Hello Macclesfield Canal,

Hall Green stop lock on the Macclesfield

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.