It's Over

Friday 18^th September 2020 

The mooring below Big Lock proved very successful. It was nice and quiet – just a few dog walkers early on, but less traffic than a normal towpath mooring. And of course there was nice open green space close by in both directions. The other benefit was that with the Middlewich locks all behind us there was no pressure to get moving early, so we took our time.

In the end we got moving about ten. As we were approaching Croxton Aqueduct I saw a boat coming the other way towards us. This aqueduct is very narrow, just a few inches either side of a narrowboat, so I swerved over to the left to let them past. As they came by I recognised them – the Tiller People, regular vloggers based at the Overwater Marina on the Shroppie.

Tired crew on the final leg

Trent and Mersey jungle north of Middlewich

Bridge 213 - last one on the T&M

After that we were following a well-trodden path back through the wilds north of Middlewich, then through Wincham and Marston, past Marbury and Anderton, then through the tunnels. Loulie took the dogs off for a walk after Barnton, and we got back to the marina at about five, and our adventure was over.

It has been a great trip, with a strange hiatus in the middle. We have reached two landmark points on the network – Shardlow and Birmingham - as well as a number of other memorable spots; the Trent crossroads, Fradley and Fazeley Junctions, Dudley Museum and the tunnels, and the Wolverhampton flight. Given the strange year and the constraints of lockdown it’s good that we have managed to get away for a significant length of time. We have not had as many nights on board as we had planned, but something is better than nothing.

TODAY: 7:00 HOURS. 19 MILES. 1 LOCK.

Voyage: 94:25 HOURS. 176.7 MILES. 138 LOCKS.

Winter Window 2019

Monday 30^th December

Sunset at the marina before we set off

Cormorant at the marina

Last year, in order to get Eileen to the Navigation Narrowboat Company in Nantwich we were forced to take her over during a brief window of time between the opening of the Middlewich breach a few days before Christmas, and the closing of the canals in several places on the 2^nd January. Although we had no choice, in the event we enjoyed it so much, especially New Year’s Eve on board, that we decided to do the same again. We have some work planned on her, so at some point we needed to get her over to Nantwich. There is no breach this time, of course, and there seem to be far fewer stoppages generally on our route, so there was no real constraint on when we moved her. Even so we decided to plan the trip so we were on board on New Year’s Eve, and furthermore well out in the country so that the dogs wouldn’t be disturbed by fireworks.

Winter sunshine on the Trent and Mersey

Moored at Bartington

As we were under no time pressure we decided to take it easy on the first day. I brought Eileen up to Keckwick and we loaded up, then set off at about two, so we could get through the tunnel at two thirty. That meant that we had about an hour of daylight on the other side, and we cruised just past Bartington before mooring at a nice spot on clips. On the way we passed a boat with a nice paint job, called Dark Side of the Moon – we would be encountering her again on the journey.

  

TODAY: 2:30 HOURS. 7.9 MILES. 1 LOCK.

Tuesday 31^st December

We made a leisurely start and reached the Saltersford tunnel for 11:30. However we discovered that the circuit for the pump on the toilet was not working, presumably a fuse gone. Loulie found a bag of spare fuses behind the electrical panel, but we still did not know where the actual fuses were. Eventually we figured out that they could be found by removing the illuminated plastic strips on the front of the panel, and once we had found them it was the work of a moment to replace the correct fuse, and all was working again.

The crew below decks

In the pool before Barnton Tunnel

Emerging from the south end of Barnton Tunnel

We did this repair in the pool between the Saltersford and Barnton tunnels, and then we pressed on again to Anderton. Here we stopped on the holding moorings for the boat lift – as this is closed for the winter we were confident that no-one would be bothered if we tied up there for a couple of hours. We took the dogs (apart from Ruby) for a long walk down into the country park towards Marbury. It is great walking – mostly wooded with lots of slopes and little valleys with streams running down to the Witton Brook and eventually to the Weaver. It was a fine day, if cold, and we met a lot of other walkers, mostly with dogs. Ours had a whale of a time, and were nicely tired when we got back up to Eileen.

The chemical reaction that made Northwich famous

At this time of year the cruising day is strictly limited, and you need to be moored by four or soon after, so we pressed on through Marston and Wincham. Just beyond Wincham you pass right through the Lostock Works of Tata Chemicals, previously ICI (and Brunner Mond before that). Since our last visit they have erected a footbridge with decorations symbolic of the history of the works, including a chemical equation. This represents the decomposition of brine (salt and water) into chlorine, hydrogen and caustic soda - the basis of the chemical industry that made Northwich a significant industrial centre, beyond its ancient history as a salt town. 

At Broken Cross we passed a moored boat called Constanze, which I thought belonged to a couple who put out a vlog under the title Floating Our Boat, but we couldn’t see anyone around, and we couldn’t afford the time to stop to find out. Later I discovered that it was indeed theirs, but that they had been away on a trip down south and the boat was empty. We went on and reached the spot we had been aiming at, a mooring near Bostock Green, nearly opposite a wide area of shallows.

Moored by the wide at Bostock Green

We were only just around the corner from a new marina, Oakwood Marina, and we were a little concerned that they might have some sort of fireworks display. As it turned out they did, but it was quite short and didn’t really trouble the dogs at all. At home we could guarantee a variety of displays all around us, and going on for a long time – Mabel is particularly unhappy with loud noises, and Bridget and Ruby are not keen. So we were able to see the New Year in with a glass or two of bubbly, and five happy dogs.

TODAY: 3:00 HOURS. 10.0 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

VOYAGE: 5:30 HOURS. 17.9 MILES. 1 LOCK.

Wednesday 1^st January

Today we went through Middlewich and its locks. We started out around eleven, and cruised up just past Bramble Cuttings, where Loulie got off with the dogs and walked on most of the way to Middlewich, getting back aboard just before the aqueduct over the Dane. We did Big Lock and then stopped to take on water in the centre, and did a bit of shopping. We pulled away from the water point just before another boat, Dark Side of the Moon, appeared behind us, which meant that we found the locks in the three lock flight set in our favour, while they had to wait for them to fill after our passage.

Loulie had been navigating through the locks, and she stayed in place and carefully made the sharp right hand turn into the Wardle lock entrance, the start of the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union canal. For historic reasons this is actually the Wardle Canal, the shortest canal in the country at 154 feet long – it is just the one lock and the approach to it, and it was put there by the Trent and Mersey canal company to give them commercial control when the Branch was built to connect the T&M to the Shropshire.

When we turned in we found that there was already a boat there, Otter, preparing to go up. It looked like a man on his own, and I went forward to help him – in fact it turned out that his wife was also aboard, but because of a disability affecting her arms she could do very little of the work. I helped them go through, but as they came out they realised that they had something around their prop, and pulled over a little way further down.

I emptied the lock – there was no-one going down – and Loulie brought Eileen in. As we were working through, Dark Side of the Moon came under the bridge behind us, and the man came up to help us. We had a bit of a chat – I remarked on the paint job on his boat, which was based on the famous rainbow prism design from the Pink Floyd album cover. It turns out that this was done by Andy Russell, who painted Eileen, both originally and when we modified her.

Three Amigos on the poop

What are you doing with that thing?

The ship's company assembled at the stern

As we left the lock the people ahead of us in Otter were still struggling with the stuff wrapped around their prop, so we cruised on and were clear into the next lock a short distance away at Stanthorne. After going up that one we went on for a mile or so, then looked for a mooring. After rejecting one spot because of sheep in a field behind the towpath, we stopped on some shuttering just round the corner. It seemed a nice spot, but we did not realise that just opposite was a farm where, at four in the morning, someone would start reversing a vehicle over and over again – beep, beep, beep.

Moored at Wimboldsley - noisy farm just visible in the distance

TODAY: 4:35 HOURS. 7.8 MILES. 6 LOCKS.

VOYAGE: 10:05 HOURS. 25.7 MILES. 7 LOCKs.

Thursday 1^st January

This was the last day of our trip, and we wanted to get to Nantwich reasonably early, so that Jonjo could pick us up and run us home. We got away just before ten, and sailed comfortably along to the first lock, Minshull – I dropped Loulie and the dogs off for a good walk before we got there. As we were going up a very old-fashioned boat, towing a butty, pulled up at the top moorings ready to come down. The people on her had restored both boats and were cruising the network along with another vintage boat which was a little way behind them. When we got to the next lock, Cholmondeston, we saw behind us the Otter, the boat with the disabled lady, so we waited in order to help them through the lock. As we were doing so Dark Side of the Moon also arrived on her way up – the canals are pretty quiet at this time of year, so you tend to see the same people a lot.

After that it was an uneventful trip up to Barbridge at the junction of the Branch with the main line of the Shroppie, and then down past the end of the Llangollen canal. The four lock flight at the bottom of the Llangollen is being rebuilt over the winter – one chamber is particularly narrow and boats keep getting stuck in there. We could see all the scaffolding and other building work in progress as we went by.

On our arrival in Nantwich we turned and moored stern-first in the finger docks at the NNC. Jonjo arrived soon after, and we were able to load ourselves, the dogs and all the luggage we needed into his van. We will be leaving Eileen there until March now – we are not getting as many changes done this year, but we are getting her blacking renewed (that requires a drydock) and the engine will be taken out so that the engine compartment can be cleaned and renewed. We are already looking forward to bringing her home in the spring – we may come back the long way around.

TODAY: 4:30 HOURS. 10.2 MILES. 2 LOCKS.

VOYAGE: 14:35 HOURS. 35.9 MILES. 9 LOCKs.

Running the Gauntlet

Having the dogs with us constrains the places we like to moor – specifically towns and cities where we can’t let them out of the boat without their leads. This means both Wigan and Manchester are big no-go areas. In addition we don’t really enjoy mooring anywhere on the Leigh branch, either of the Bridgewater or of the L&L. The banks are very high and steep, and in general it doesn’t feel friendly. So we were reluctant to make a short trip through Wigan and then stop very early. On the other hand we couldn’t just do a normal run, as that would mean mooring somewhere in Stretford or Sale. So we decided to try for the double jump, and see if we could blitz through both conurbations and get out into the country beyond Sale. That would also give us an easy trip home tomorrow.

It was a beautiful clear day, and in late October that meant a frost, with ice on the woodwork of the stern, and mist rising from the canal as we set off, a beautiful sight. We made a good start, getting up the first two locks with no problems, and as we approached the third, after Wigan Pier, a C&RT workman, who was doing some maintenance on the lock, waved us in and worked the whole thing so Loulie didn’t even have to get off.

We did the final lock upwards in Wigan, and then came to the junction and turned down the Leigh branch. Now we were going downhill, and after dropping through the first lock with no trouble, we came to the final one and found a widebeam just going in ahead of us. Although it is a double width lock it can’t take anything else alongside a widebeam, so we had to wait. Loulie took all four dogs and walked on ahead, while I waited for them to finish, and then worked Eileen down on my own. It’s the first dock I have done solo, and it is fine as long as you take care and think things through, but there’s no doubt it takes longer.

I then set off in hot pursuit, and picked up the landing party after a couple of miles. We were going as fast as we dared, and we caught up with the widebeam at Planks Lane lift bridge, where they were about to go through. As the wife was working the bridge and he would have to pick her up after closing it we asked if they minded if we passed by and headed on, as we were in a hurry.

Now there were no more locks or bridges ahead of us, and virtually no traffic, so it was just a question of keeping our speed as high as we could. The canal on this branch has high, concrete or metal sides, so the usual concern about creating a wash and damaging earth banks does not apply. The main cause of delay was moored boats, where we had to slow down, of course. At first, looking at our Pearson’s Canal Guide it seemed we had far too much to do, based on his time estimates for each page of the route. However it turned out that he had been far too generous with his estimates and we were taking much less time than forecast, so we could still just make it if we hurried.

We came through Leigh, then through the open countryside until we reached Worsley, Barton and Trafford Park. We arrived at Watersmeet a little before five, and now we were confident that we would at least reach the countryside, if not our preferred spot by the Bollin Aqueduct. Sale is long straight and boring, and the Sale Cruising Club occupies a large percentage of the bank, obliging us to slow down often. Eventually we got through and out into the open as the sun slipped below the horizon.

We still had about twenty minutes to go, but we resolved to reach the Bollin, and the twilight was OK for navigation, especially as there were no other boats. Still, we had the headlight on by the time we reached our mooring point, and tied up. It was about 6:40, and we had covered 28.9 miles, easily our best for a single day. Scrambled eggs and bacon, both from Yates Greer, rounded off a tough but fun day.

Today: 9.7 hours. 28.9 miles. 6 locks. 1 bridge.

Voyage: 48.2 hours. 108.4 miles. 30 locks. 26 bridges.

The Pennington Dog Poisoner

We were expecting today to be non-stop heavy rain, but we really needed to get through the Manchester urban sprawl to find a mooring that would suit the dogs. So I decided that I would just put on all my wet weather gear and endure it, so that we would have a run through Wigan tomorrow.

However, when we got up it was only raining lightly, and even that dropped away quite soon. By 10:00 it was quite pleasant, though the wind was stronger than we had expected - we were quite happy to trade that for a dry day. So we set off, and soon we were into the built up areas, Altrincham and Sale. Although James Brindley's canals tend to be very twisting, following the contours, the stretch through Sale is dead straight, because this area was flat empty farmland and moss when the canal was built. It only grew into the major population centre that it is now during the late Victorian era and the early twentieth century, as a commuter belt for Manchester. Although the straight, wide canal is rather dull, it does provide perfect conditions for rowing, and we saw a quad scull just being taken out of the water half way along.

The A56 north of Sale

Graffiti in Stretford

We moored near Sale town centre to do a bit of shopping, and Loulie walked the dogs. We then carried on north, and soon came to Waters Meeting in Stretford. Here the canal turns north west towards Worsley, and the other arm goes north east into the centre of Manchester. We took the Worsley direction, and had another couple of miles dead straight, through industrial estates around Trafford Park. We passed the Kellogg's factory, where until the 70s grain was delivered by canal from Liverpool, and a strong smell of baking filled the air.

Waters Meeting

Kellogg's Factory Canal Entrance

The Trafford Centre

We could have moored at the Trafford Centre to do some more purchasing, but we kept going, and crossed over the Manchester Ship Canal on the Barton Swing Bridge, a remarkable aqueduct which can swing, like a huge bath of water, if a tall ship is using the canal below. You feel very exposed high up in the air - the bridge isn't much wider than your boat and you are very close to the edge.

Barton Aqueduct

Lighthouse at Monton

After that we sailed through Barton and up to Worsley, past the mine entrance which provided the whole purpose of the canal in the first place. On the way we passed under the Liverpool-Manchester railway - the first proper canal in Britain crossing the first major railway. The canal water around the Worsley area is a strange ochre, from the dissolved minerals coming out of the mine - the canal literally goes right into the workings, and they used to have boats on several levels underground.

Worsley Delph

Zoomed in on the mine entrances

Leaving Worsley

Winding Gear (preserved) at Astley Green

Sign at Bridgewater Marina

We were now going pretty much west, and the strong south wind was blowing off the towpath, so that when I stopped to let Loulie off again with the dogs we had a bit of a struggle to keep the boat in to the side. We were starting to think about somewhere to stop, but the canal here has clearly been improved in recent times, and the banks are very high and hard concrete or steel pilings, not an attractive place to moor. So we continued, coming in to Leigh which is very much an old industrial Lancashire town, with large factories in various states of decay or restoration, and terraced houses right down to the canal bank.

Old factories in Leigh

In Leigh we reached the end of the Bridgewater Canal, where it turns into the Leeds and Liverpool - this was once a key link in the canal network of North West England. It's not very dramatic, just a notice on a bridge - but from this point on the bridges all have numbers, not names. The wind was getting very strong now, and at one point a fluky gust off a building caught us from the wrong side and we were stuck against the bank for a few moments.

Sculpture at the joining of the canals

End of the Bridgewater

Waterside pub in Leigh

After leaving Leigh we were back out into more open country - pockmarked with remnants of the mining industry, hills which were spoil heaps and flashes where water has filled the subsidence of the land. This has been made into a country park, and we moored in the middle of this. Loulie took the dogs down to the flashes for a swim, and only afterwards saw a notice about toxic blue-green algae in the water. A worried call to our out-of-hours vet brought the information that if they weren't showing symptoms by now then they were OK - the algae is at its greatest big risk in hot dry weather. So we settled down for the night, though it is going to be bumpy - the wind is strong and blowing us off the bank, so our mooring ropes constantly pull us back with a thud.

Today: 7 hours. 20.1 miles. 0 locks.

Voyage: 13 hours. 33.1 miles. 0 locks.