motorway – Narrowboat Firecrest

Moving down to Middlewich

After our traumatic wake up sliding ungracefully out of bed on Monday morning, we were relishing a few days of a rural idyll. It’s funny how coming through the Harecastle Tunnel is a bit like teleporting us into a completely different world. The rundown redbrick industrial revolution makes way for green growth and rural beauty. It’s the contrasts that keep this living adventure alive and so exciting for us. Even the same stretch of canal can look very different as the seasons change. Today we woke up in Cheshire not Staffordshire- where Firecrest had been since the 3rd May 2025. The actual county border is where the Macclesfield canal aqueduct crosses over the Trent and Mersey Canal at Hardings Wood Junction although we weren’t in the right frame of mind to celebrate at the time. Today we were setting off down the hill, aiming to get back to the Paintshed where Nick was going to reseal our leaking portholes. But we weren’t rushing. It might only be 13 miles to Middlewich but there are a lot of locks to work through. At least they are pretty.

church lawton locks

We broke our journey at Rode Heath, where there’s a good length of visitor mooring, and it wasnt busy

The sunshine is making everything look so pretty

Even the obligatory photo of us passing under the M6

We moored up quite close to the motorway, its just a gentle hum in the background rather than being invasively noisy.

Eric decided it was time to screw the new pole support onto the roof – only a year after our repaint.

Always an anxious time drilling holes in your roof

Some early morning wake ups are worth waking up for

We stayed here a few days before completing the last of the Wheelock locks.

And another quiet mooring at Wheelock.

Where is everybody?

Eric’s cousin lives quite close by so we arranged to meet up for a meal at the canalside Italian restaurant Barchetta, and I must admit it was a very enjoyable meal. Not only was the company good, portions were generous and service was friendly and attentive. And they do an early bird menu till 6:30 for £15. We’ll definitely go there again.
Final days cruise in this little trip found us a mooring in Middlewich above Kings Lock.

Booth Lane moorings, nice and close to King’s Lock fish and chips shop.

But it’s only 6 miles

….and 25 locks from the bottom lock at Wheelock to the top lock at Red Bull, Kidsgrove. No wonder it’s known as Heartbreak Hill. Even the summit of that big hill Everest is only 5.5miles above sea level, but I’ve more sense than to attempt that only carrying a windlass. Not to mention my dodgy logic. We set off from Ettiley Heath at 7am so as to beat the heat.

The forecast was for the hottest day of the year so far, mid 20’s, so we only planned to cruise until 11 then find a tree to moor under.

Entering Wheelock Bottom Lock, the start of the flight

As per ususal we gave a big sigh of relief that our chosen mode of transport took us under the M6 and not along it. Although to be fair, the country would be a very different place if we still relied on the canals to get goods from A to B.

That caravan is nearly as long as Firecrest,

We found our tree after 12 locks and settled down to watch the world go by, except it didn’t, the canal is exceptionally quiet, only 6 boats in the whole day cruised past us.

The next day was a lot busier, although some people had the right idea.

Wonder what they serve at the Red Bull pub?

We’d done the hill in 2 days, and it really wasn’t too bad. It’s a pretty section of canal and there’s several nice mooring places to break up the journey. Plan B had been to turn onto the Macclesfield canal here, but alas, due to the April breach we were now onto Plan C, travelling south. We topped up at the very convenient canal side Lidl, and set off through the tomato soup to go through the Harecastle Tunnel.

“Who said red and green should never be seen”

I didn’t manage to catch the skeleton on camera very well this transit, it must have been running away….

or was it running to catch us, either way I wasn’t hanging around to find out. After 38 minutes underground we were happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We moored up outside the Middleport Pottery to plan our next adventure

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.

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

Spitting distance

After sitting down last December and deciding to purchase a gold licence so we could spend the summer in East Anglia, we are on the final few days of our very protracted and frustrating journey, we set off with spring in the air and a spring in our step.

Only to have it clouded over by the time we reached Gayton Junction. We picked up some fuel from Blisworth Marina, (about 15pl cheaper than nearby marinas ) and off we set up the Northampton arm.

Gayton Junction going onto the Northampton Arm

Only 17 locks down

The first 12 are a flight so easy for Eric and I to work as a team, I set the lock, he cruises in, whilst I walk on to set the next one, by the time he’s let the water out I’m usually back in time to close up as he cruises on. And thankfully there’s only one lift bridge which is usually raised.

And as we were working our way down the flight, my adventurous Sister in Law was in South America ticking off her bucket list visiting the Iguaçu falls in Brazil, Lock 9 did its best to impress….

There’s some interesting art work along the 5 miles between Gayton Junction and Northampton

And the M1 motorway thunders overhead .

And another friend was visiting Chelsea Flower show as we made our way down the flight. Sometimes simple is just as good.

And we made it. Well almost, the heavens opened just as we reached Cotton End in Northampton, which is still on the canal, and under CRTs management and there were rings so we moored up. Our final, lock, Lock 17 is within spitting distance . Once the rain stopped we thought we would take a walk up to the Marina office and talk to the Enviroment Agency about river etiquette, buy ourselves the required access key, and prepare our anchor etc ready for the River Nene after a good nights sleep…..

This is a trip of 165 miles, 1½ furlongs and 137 locks from Macclesfield Visitor Moorings (Pontoons) to Northampton Lock No 17. And had we cruised for 7 hours a day (which admittedly we wouldn’t even contemplate let alone achieve) we could have done it in a fortnight. (Screenshot swiped from AC Canal plan)

Moving swiftly on

We have mixed feelings about being in built up areas, sometimes they appeal and other times we yearn for the countryside. And having explored Birmingham last January the busyness of the Easter Bank Holiday encouraged us to move on after only one night.
Last year we had travelled into Birmingham on the Old Line, so this time we decided to explore a new route and leave on the New Main line

The two lines run parallel to each other for quite a stretch,

The advantage being that the improved new mainline tackles the summit with a tunnel instead of 6 locks, making it a much quicker and easier passage for the barges.

And also reducing the workload for the Smethwick pumping station

And whilst I’m sure they weren’t built at the same time, the M5 motorway provides a canopy over the Old line for quite a section, whereas the New line creeps underneath the two, although you cant see it, there’s also a railway line crossing at the same point.

Duck, going under the Old line and the M5

Last January we had taken 3 days to do this journey on the Old Line it was cold and bitter and section’s of the canal were still frozen. This time we had reached the Netherton tunnel branch in 3 hours.

And we were able to moor up in the very pretty and peaceful Bumblehole

From a galaxy far far away, to somewhere beyond Watford

Cassiobury Park came from a large area of land that King Offa gave to the Abbey of St Albans in 793 but when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1539 , the estate became home to the Earls of Essex. (I always wonder why the aristocracy don’t live in the county of their title) However as times changed and fortunes were found and lost, parts and parcels of the huge estate were sold off . In 1909 Watford council bought the parkland that we are enjoying today. It really was a lovely place to cruise through,

At least that’s what Jar Jar Binks thinks, as areas of the woodland were used as the planet Naboo in the film Star Wars, The Phantom Menace. However the only menace we were in danger from was the crocodiles in the canal.

We moored up just beyond the current park outside the Grove Mill

and looking at the beautiful bridges the 4th Earl of Essex really did insist on the canal being an asset to his properties

Nowadays some bridges need to be a little more heavyweight, especially this one which carries the link road onto the M25

and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves cruising parallel to the bain of our past life, although its outlook from the canal was somewhat more tranquil

And the image of its mega structure, somewhat more impressive from below than above

So that was it, we had now been released from the inner circle, cruised past Watford, where we now officially back in the north?