Sunrise – Narrowboat Firecrest

Mooching around Middlewich

We have a bit of time on our hands as we wait until Nick can fit us in to have the port holes fixed so we have been mooching around Middlewich for longer than usual. It’s not high on the tourist attraction list, usually a place we pass through without exploring. Although King’s Lock chippy is an essential port of call. It does one of the best plates of fish and chips on the cut.

Are we getting old? Even sharing a portion of chips seems too much these days.

The mooring at Booth Lane is nice and wide, has rings and has full sun all day, so you could say almost perfect, but the downside is the road noise. It’s relentless and pervasive, so we unchained the boat and set off through Kings Lock

Down King’s Lock going past the Middlewich branch

And moved to the other side of town, where it’s also wide, has rings and (when its not cloudy) is in full sun. And despite being closer to walk to the supermarket than Booth Lane, has a rural tranquility, definitely perfect.

Eric settled down to work whilst I settled down to do a bit of exploring. Middlewich is a town that is built upon salt, being the middle of the three wich towns, the other two being Northwich and Nantwich. With wich being the suffix meaning salt town. Of course the Roaming Romans took advantage of this gold mine and the confluence of several rivers to build themselves a settlement here. Being an explorer myself, I saw the reference to the Roman fort on my OS map so I followed the foot path over the canal bridge, and through a pretty wooded area

into Harbutts field to see for myself.

Just in case I’d missed something I walked around the other side to check out the view from the west

And to be sure from the south

OK I confess I may have got the north south east west orientations out of order but you get the impression. At least there were info boards to help me see what I was looking at.

And this is board 7 so there must be more…

As we cruised through the town I’d seen a standing stone just off the canal near the Andersen hire boat yard, so I thought I’d investigate Middlewich’s prehistoric culture.

Alas there was no info board, or dedication plaque, so I’m non the wiser as to how and why this Monolith appeared. With a Scandinavian name like Andersen, I wonder if the vikings also came to take advantage of the salt pans, and the carving on the rock face really is a longboat not a modern narrowboat.
However undeterred I wandered back to the boat via the High Street and discovered a good butchers, which we will return to on our next visit. Middlewich really isn’t a tourist attraction, but its home to around 15000 people, and although somewhat run down in areas, is a very useful stopping place for boaters like us, just not for a whole week.

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.

Messing about at Middleport

We have a vague memory from back in 2017 when we moved aboard, of us saying we’d always try to moor in a different place. Middleport pottery quickly fell through that net. Its not the perfect mooring, but its a mooring we enjoy and we seem to keep coming back to it. Probably because its within easy reach of the Harecastle Tunnel, and we dont have to put up with honking geese and goose poo if we were to moor at Westport Lakes. And of course, we love the architectural heritage of being able to moor right opposite a pottery built in 1888. I can’t get enough of bottle kilns.

Being Easter Weekend we assumed we’d get some bad weather, but Saturday proved to be dry and sunny- until storm Dave put in an appearance and blew the cobwebs away. The pottery was hosting a Steam Punk extravaganza on the Saturday, alas victorian sci-fi fashion isnt the most practical boat wear so we donned our jeans and waterproofs and went to admire what others were wearing.

I love the idea of creating a unique outfit, where rules are meant to be broken, but not all steam punk is quite so relaxed. We came across the highly competitive sport of tea dueling.

These two starving urchins had been dragged off the street for our entertainment with the temptation of being allowed to eat a whole malted milk biscuit. However, they were first to endure a tortuous duel. Having dunked their biscuit into a freshly poured cup of tea for precisely 3 second, (as counted down by the audience) they competed to hold their biscuit upright, without it breaking, for the longest time without devouring it in one greedy mouthful. One urchin lasted 41 seconds the other 42. And the audience was well entertained.
We resumed our self guided tour of the pottery, which although it has developed as a heritage site, preserving its old buildings, it is still a working pottery and a teaching site for budding potters. I’d have loved to have joined a class but they were all full up this weekend. Instead we had a look at the bath house. Right up until the 1950s it was unusual for the workers terrace houses to have an indoor bathroom, or even a zinc tub of their own, so the Mills would often have bath houses available for their employees to use. During world war II this bath house was the designated bomb shelter to accommodate 38 people. The factory employed over 200.

Whilst we were enjoying Middleport, I saw directions to Oatbakers. Which according to various online reviews serves the best Staffordshire oatcakes available. As you would expect Eric opted for the challenger, a giant Oatcake. I always thought an Oatcake was a crisp biscuit that you’d eat with cheese. These however are more like a pancake, served with a sweet or savoury filling. We chose cheese and bacon. If you moor at Middleport or at Westport, the bakery is within easy walking distance, and worth a visit.

Despite the area being quite run down, theres a great community spirit. Even though Port Vale lost against Chelsea in the football FA cup quarter final. Someone has a sense of humour creating the secret garden

I was curious to know what was behind the doors. And I just happened to meet a local who had lived in Middleport all his life. This building used to be a state of the art bakery. But it is now crumbling away and the secret garden is just a teaser, someone covering up a boarded up entrance.

We stayed 4 nights at the Middleport Pottery, this time. I am sure we will be back. But for now we were preparing to say goodbye to Staffordshire as we cruised towards Cheshire, so I couldnt not share this Staffie who came to say hello to us.

You light up my life, just one of the reasons I love waking up on a narrowboat.

What a difference a few hours make when the light changes. This is actually just over a week ago when we all thought summer had arrived. We had moored at a favourite spot of ours at Burston. It was peaceful and calming, (apart from the Canada guessed

I’m usually up at the crack of dawn to make the most of the sunrise, (and a cuppa). Only the view had disappeared

I’d like to pretend I watched the mist clear over the next hour, but I didnt, I snuggled back under the warm duvet. However the next day the world had turned pink.

And I remained mesmerised as the colours changed over the next hour

The day was going to be another good one.

Im not the only one who enjoys early mornings

Of course I couldn’t ignore the sunset, although that was looking the other way.

Burston is a pretty little hamlet, a half hour circular stroll takes you over the bridge and up to the village pond where the swans stand guard

And more daffodils

Now the good thing about the clocks springing forward is I get another week or two of seeing the sunrise at a reasonable hour, but I’m off the boat this weekend returning the car to our daughter so no 7am photos today. Unfortunately it also means I missed meeting Adrian and Adam on their new boat Kingley Vale yesterday.

Looking good for your age

After 4 lock free months it was time to get back into the swing of things.

Passing the entrance to the Middlewich Branch

There are just 5 locks on the Trent and Mersey going through Middlewich, which allowed us to stretch those muscles and start building up some stamina again.

Kings Lock on the Trent and Mersey, Middlewich

And of course after all that hard work….. with the help from three volunteer lockies, we had to reward ourselves with the best fish and chips on the cut from King’s Lock Chippie.

After all we were celebrating my birthday

Chocolate Fudge cake, with the appropriate number of candles

Yes we did eat it all, but not in one go. We moved on to Ettiley Heath where we tried to bribe Mike Carter with a slice when he came to do our Boat Safety inspection. He wasn’t having any of it, not that he needed bribery, Firecrest is well maintained and passed with flying colours.

Looking towards Watchlane Flash at Ettiley Heath

We moved onto Firecrest in 2017. You might have noticed that after 8 years we have finally added our painted Firecrest image as a blog icon so if you have stored our blog on your home pages or own blog roll hopefully it will be a little easier to see. Apologies that we still don’t accept comments on our posts.

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

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

6 weeks on the Shroppie

The Shropshire Union Canal is definitely one of the prettiest, although the double locks are heavy going, but it’s worth it to get to Chester.

Chester is one of our favourite cities and we were lucky to get moored at King Charles Garden, under the wall. ( that’s Charles I, we’re still waiting for an invitation to moor in our current King Charles garden)

It’s so close to the cathedral that I managed to almost managed to fit in a whole years worth of soul refreshment into one week

And we still had plenty of time to explore the city as well,

Of course it became a daily challenge to walk the wall

Looking up to the wall to Eastgate clock

Thankfully we had left Chester before storm Babet arrived and flooded all the rivers. The river Dee still looked a lovely place to stroll along outside the wall.

We took advantage of being able to stay 14 days in Chester before we turned round to head south, like the Airbus dolphin that flies to Toulouse everyday delivering parts from its Cheshire manufacturing plant and headquarters.

One of the Airbus dolphins flying above us

Lots of idyllic rural mooring

Although we knew we’d be cruising straight into that sun after breakfast and we wouldn’t be able to see a thing.

We stopped at the Shady just in time to avoid a torrential down pour, and took advantage of eating out, although it was a nice meal, neither of us thought it justified the price,

Bates Mill Bridge 109, with the Shady pub just the other side

As it didnt entail any more locks, we decided not to turn off onto the Middlewich Branch straight away, but to go on to Nantwich for a few days. And contrary to what we saw in the shop windows Nantwich really isn’t a dead end place

It’s a very interesting historic town, and if all the mooring wasn’t restricted we’d have stayed a whole week,

As usual I made a beeline for the local church St Marys , besides the deep spiritual calm, they are some of the most accessible historic buildings usually full of hidden gems. This time I couldn’t tear myself away from the two hanging embroideries, worked to commemorate both the queen’s silver jubilee and the people of Nanwich.

Nantwich also has a very good cheese shop, several craft brewery’s and a good market. Not to forget also mentioning some nice mooring, although it’s 2 days throughout the entire stretch of the town.