Trent and Mersey Canal – Page 4 – Narrowboat Firecrest

I don’t believe it

I don’t believe it….. We finally get cruising, and ….. the memo comes through from CTR that there’s been a landslide and trees down ahead of us stopping navigation for at least 2 days. Not only that but the weather is perfect cruising weather.

We were sitting at the Fazeley Junction

Sitting at the junction, waiting to turn onto the Birmingham and Fazeley canal

Our options included staying put until we got the allclear, detouring through Aston and centre of Birmingham, or …. back tracking back to Fradley Junction, and carrying on along the Trent and Mersey then up the River Soar. Rightly or wrongly, we didn’t fancy sitting it out, or facing all the Aston locks with unknown mooring options, so we winded and back tracked.

We’ll do the Fazeley canal another time. As I’d just had another few days off the boat sorting out mum’s affairs, we were desperate to be cruising again, and my reward was seeing our first ducklings of the year.

I had an easy lock free day, and even when we turned right at Fradley the volunteers were ready and willing to help us through,

Then we got to Alrewas, such a pretty place,

Until you see this

It didn’t take us completely by surprise to see the red warning signs but we’d spoken to the lockies and we knew the river levels were falling. Much to the consternation of a holiday boater we went through the lock knowing we could moor up on the other side of the village and await our go ahead.

We walked along the towpath to see what awaited us

Sure enough, CRT came along and removed the padlocks giving us the all clear ride the rapids. Several boats were itching to go through ASAP, but we decided to wait until the morning.

I think those fields would be more suited to water buffalo than our cows

Thought for the day

Speed Boating

Speed boating, or Endurance boating, ….Well it felt like it for us. We rarely cruise for over 3 hours a day, but with so many delays both Eric and I were keen to push on. 5 or 6 hours cruising on a few days.

Back in mid December, a few days before the breach at Scholar’s Green halted our journey south, we treated ourselves to a Gold Licence intending to spend the season cruising the East Anglia waterways. 10 weeks later we finally broke free and sailed through to Kidsgrove.

10 and half weeks later I got the phone call to return home, but now 4 weeks later we’re finally on the move again. We dutifully checked our route maps and CanalPlanAC says 115 miles, 69 locks, 57 hours.. Kidsgrove to Northampton.
But no, there’s been a major landslide at Brinklow and our direct route is blocked until mid June. We’ll have to travel via Birmingham, 125 miles and 128 locks and 68 hours. That’s almost twice as many locks to do. (James if you’re reading this, be warned we’re coming via Hatton.)
But we all love locking, especially when the sun’s shining, and we’ve already done 23.

Approaching one of our 128, somewhere below Stoke

We got very lucky with the Easter Bank Holiday weather, and we had some perfect cruising weather from Stoke. Even the occassional heavy showers ended with a rainbow

No one offered to swim across to find the pot of gold

We were surprised at how quiet the canal was, despite it being the start of the hire season and a 4 day weekend,

Dead quiet, This person obviously spent too long on their mobile

Perhaps the wild swan at Weston had seen everyone off. We’ve cruised this way a couple of times and for the past few years, this territorial swan has chased us off his patch, pecking at the boat. This time we were brave enough to moor overnight in Weston and saw him attack several trespassers.

The much nicer Swan at Fradley was doing a roaring trade and has provided a photo fit for next years self print calender

Leaving the Trent and Mersey at Fradley junction, and joining the Coventry canal

What Eric hauled up from the prop wasn’t quite so pretty,

It could have been worse, only a rope fender this time

And talking of pretty

We had a rained off day, so we caught the bus into Lichfield to have a wander around. The weather didn’t make for good photos, but we did both enjoy our mooch. It’s quite a historic place, in the 7th century, Chad established his Bishopric, and it became the ecclesiastical centre of Mercia. Unfortunately the famous 3 spired cathedral was wearing scaffolding so not looking its best.

One of Lichfields other claims to fame is that it is the birthplace of Samuel Johnson, who complied the first English Dictionary

But whilst I might enjoy words, not a lot beats sunrise on your own boat.

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

Goodbye British Summer Time

And time to catch up on a long overdue blog post. It’s been a funny old summer, the excitment of my trip to Iceland then the frustrations of navigation closures and broken locks which meant several changes of plans, not to mention the weather and one or two family distractions. I can’t even say we are back on track yet, but hey, that’s boat life for you. The best laid plans have to include course alterations.

So where were we back in July, heading down the Bridgewater, through lovely Lymm, despite glorious sunshine in June it felt like the sun had packed its bags and gone on holiday.

Blue sky would make a perfect jigsaw picture

Not sure what Eric had done to deserve this but it was too good an opportunity to miss.

We left the Bridgewater at Preston Brook,

And onto the Trent and Mersey, we managed to moor up at the the Dutton breach moorings and enjoyed looking down towards the Weaver valley

Which meant of course, the opportunity to explore the Weaver, down the Anderton Boat lift, which we frequently hear is breaking down, and one day those repairs will become economically unviable so we knew we had to take advantage whilst we were passing.

Last time we came onto the Weaver, it was Firecrest that broke down, when our generator decided to throw a wobbly and needed to be craned out for a major repair. (That was September 2020 if you want to look back for details)

Hope we never have to do that again (Sept 2020)

This time it proved to be one of the locks on the River that was out of action, meaning we could only explore downstream towards Runcorn. We found the beautiful rural mooring known as the Devils Garden and settled down to watch the world go by. Having lived on Firecrest for 7 years now, it’s not often that a boat takes us by surprise, but we were quite taken aback when we saw a sea worthy catamaran cruising towards us. How or why we will never know.

And then there was the Historic steam ship the Daniel Adamson. Originally a steam tugboat boat built in 1903 to haul barges from Cheshire and the Potteries to Liverpool, but as transport needs changed so did the Danny’s role,

And she became a pleasure craft for the rich and famous, beautifully fitted out in the best art deco style of the 1930s. Sadly that era was also to come to an end. In 2004 the Danny was in such disrepair that it was due to be scrapped until an enterprising enthusiast negotiated a deal to buy her for £1. And the story is well told on their website We were lucky enough to find a crew on board who let us on for a nose around. And of course we got to see the Dutton Breach from the bottom of the valley,

Looking up to the site of the Dutton Breach

We ended up spending a whole month on the Weaver as we made trips to visit family and had a mini holiday ourselves, when we caught the train for 2 nights in Llandudno to see the sea and to climb the Great Orme and eat fish and chips on the beach,.

And much to Eric’s pleasure we visited the Penderyn Whisky distillery

Eric’s reward for Posing in the stocks at Lymm

Once we were back onto the Trent and Mersey canal we continued onto Middlewich branch and headed off towards Chester for the autumn.

heading photo is looking towards Snowdonia from the Great Orme, llandudno

Bluebells, Breaches and Bridgewater

Back in 2012 the Trent and Mersey suffered a significant breach in its structure at Dutton, the T&M society have a very interesting summary with some dramatic photos.

the Dutton Breach, photo taken from the T&M society website

And whilst the plaque marking the spot is understated,

the consequences of the repair are some of the best moorings in the vicinity, with views over the Weaver valley and the impressive rail viaduct

And if you’re lucky a rainbow as well

A few hours earlier the sun had been cracking the flags and we took the opportunity to walk up to the Bluebell Cottage nursery, a small family business, that also opens up the garden on Wednesdays to Saturdays in the summer.

And yes there is a beautiful bluebell wood

We’d booked our passage onto the Bridgewater canal from Monday so on we went.

The Bridgewater canal is owned by Peel Holdings, rather than managed by Canal and River Trust, so we had to doff our caps and book a week’s passage before we were allowed transit through the tunnel.

Sweet and Salty

Aren’t they sweet,

Our journey from Middlewich took us through Cheshire’s salt heritage, a merry mix of beautiful countryside and gentle cruising,

I think this swan wanted to see us off his aqueduct over the river Dane

Although when we saw those black clouds rising we made straight for the next available mooring

We still got drenched in the minutes it took us to stop and tie up.

It didn’t last long but we didn’t trust the clearing sky

It didn’t look that much clearer when we reached the Tata Chemical factory at Northwich, although some of that is steam not cloud

It feels a bit alien travelling through a site like this

The site now includes the UKs largest carbon capture plant recycling 40,000 tonnes of CO2 opened in 2022, I wonder if they will need a new bridge symbol

It’s not that much further on to the Anderton nature park, one of our favourite moorings

Two day mooring at the Anderton nature park, time to take down the coronation bunting

We didn’t decend the Anderton Boat lift this time

But descended on foot and walked into Northwich along the River Weaver,

Last time we were here Firecrest’s generator had suffered a catastrophic malfunction and due to a number of reasons we ended up stranded in Northwich Marina for 8 weeks, (lovely marina though) and missed out on exploring the river. But Northwich has several millenia of providing salt for the country so we thought it only right to enjoy a bowl of salty popcorn

And a little more sweetness

Heading for the Kings Lock

Just as the coronation takes place a while after the accession, likewise this blog rarely gets written the day it happens. first we said goodbye to Reginald

And picked up some sound advice about our planned route up past Braidar on the Macclesfield- don’t bother it’s already desperately short of water and closures are expected. Mind made up, it was through the tomato soup tunnel, aka Harecastle tunnel.

Strong tea, tomato soup, or just plain old Iron deposits

And instead of turning left onto the Macc, we would carry straight on, staying on the Trent and Mersey.

Sadly the Macclesfield canal will have to wait until there’s a bit more water

The added advantage would be knocking 20 locks from our route, but we would have to descend “heartbreak hill” the 31 locks between Harecastle and Middlewich.

We’re never quite sure what this stretch has done to deserve this title, because it really is a very pretty section

and there’s plenty of of opportunity to moor up over the 12 miles. Which is what we did at Lawton, just below the Red Bull bottom lock.

Firecrest was suitably adorned in its finery, complete with a knitted golden crown

And we settled down to watch the coronation

Before taking another few days enjoying the cheshire countryside

And moving on to Middlewich for King’s lock fish and chips, deceptively good.

And finally through Kings lock

A few days of treats

We enjoy several spring time birthdays in our family, so declare whichever days are appropriate to celebrate a royal birthday, any excuse to eat cake and see family.

We picked up ‘Rito and Nova in Stone and set them to work doing the locks,

And we rewarded them with yet more ducklings

Can you ever see too many ducklings? What a daft question

No cygnets yet though

But we did see our first goslings in Etruria

We stopped to fill up with water under the watchful eye of James Brindley at Etruria junction

And moored up outside the Middleport pottery.

Where we had the good fortune to meet up with Reginald on her(?) way down to the Crick show, we might be biased but, it’s a beautiful boat, and full of some very clever innovations, not to mention James exceptional woodworking skills.

Always a nice treat to see friends and family,

Spring in our step

Time to push on. After two lovely days enjoying James and Helen’s company we set them off Firecrest as we reached the Meccano Bridge so they could walk home along the Valley Park footpath.

The Meccano Bridge over the disused railway

we were passing through some lovely rural countryside, through Penkridge, (great butchers and bakery), up through the Tixall wides and onto the Trent and Mersey canal

although it did get a bit narrow in places, even the ducks thought it safer to stick to the towpath, hope we don’t meet anyone coming the other way

But it wasnt all narrow, sometimes we had to duck as well

we met some thirsty cows

and some frolicking lambs

And some wagging wagtails

We also encountered a very aggressive swan at Weston, it chased us off its patch for over quarter mile, it even tried biting Eric’s leg. Funnily enough, we had the same thing happen 2 years ago in exactly the same spot. It must be the same swan-athough they all look alike to me,

If he’d asked nicely we’d have given him a lift

We seem to have settled into spring at last

we had a night on the Tixall wides but with it being a bank holiday weekend we decided to take the first available mooring, which was peaceful and just as pretty

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.