You shall not pass

Sunday 28th July

It rained very hard all night, loud enough on the roof to wake us several times, and it was forecast to carry on all day. We got ourselves organised and we were just feeding the dogs when a walker passing by mentioned that a boater around the corner was having trouble with the swing bridge, he couldn’t open it. As we were going to have to go that way, I walked down the towpath to see what was up.

I found a man and his wife, on the narrowboat Northgate. The bridge was jammed because the rain had washed a whole lot of gravel and small stones down the lane, and into the curved groove between the bridge body and the stone rim. This meant that we could not rotate the bridge, it wouldn’t budge. The man had already started to scrape and lever the stones out, using a screwdriver, but the gap was much deeper than the length of the screwdriver, and many of the stones seemed stuck fast anyway.

I went back to our boat to see if I could find anything longer, but the only item I found, a brush handle, was too wide to go into the slot. At that point I called CRT, who said someone would be along, and we went back to scraping.

The offending bridge (after fixing)

Over time we were joined by other boaters, and the CRT people came. They had a couple of long thin metal fence poles, the sort that have a loop at one end to take cord or wire, and we started prodding and scraping with them – they were at least long enough, but it was still tedious work. They went off to see if they could find a pressure hose, and our small but growing team continued – one guy found a bucket and start to use that to wash away the smaller stuff, which allowed the rest of us to see and move the bigger bits more easily. After about three hours chipping away like the Seven Dwarves we had got out enough stones to allow us to shift the thing, and we were on our way. In the end it was fun in an odd sense, like the challenges you get on a management training course – "with this limited choice of tools your team has to achieve the following objectives".

The start of the Macc

The rain hadn’t been too bad, but it picked up as we sailed back to Marple, and stopped to replenish our water. We only did that yesterday, but Loulie had done several loads of washing in the meantime. She got the machine, a little single tub, before this trip, so that we can be self-sustaining on longer journeys. She has to intervene manually more often than she does at home, but it works well, though it does use up a lot of our water.

Goyt Mill in Marple

Navigating in the pouring rain

When the water had been refilled we set off down the Macclesfield Canal, past a really large old building, Goyt Mill, the biggest we have seen since Manchester. It was really torrential now, and we were looking for a place to stop, but this is a busy canal with a lot of people moored in the good spots, and quite a bit of the towpath wall is collapsing, so you cannot moor. We went about four miles, through High Lane, and then in Higher Poynton we found a very nice mooring, with no-one close and shuttering to attach the mooring pins to. The only downside is that we have very poor internet signal, so I am writing this up offline to be posted when we reach civilisation.

Map at 28-7-19

TODAY: 4.75 HOURS. 6.9 MILES. 0 LOCKS. 2 BRIDGEs.

VOYAGE: 43.65 HOURS. 57.3 MILES. 43 LOCKS. 6 BRIDGES

End of the line

Saturday 27th July

We made a fairly leisurely start today. John went for a run first thing, back all the way into Marple, a bit over four miles for the round trip. Then Loulie took the girls for a proper long walk, down into the valley of the Goyt below the canal. We set off eventually some time after eleven, and headed up the valley towards Whalley Bridge and the end of the canal. 

This is a curious landscape. We are well into the Peak District, so the canal is following a narrow winding valley, with spectacular hills rising on either side - we had a view of Kinder Scout at one point. But the small towns we are passing through - Disley, New Mills, Furness Vale - grew up around the cotton mills, mining and other centres of the early Industrial Revolution. And of course the canal was at the centre of that. So it is bordered in places by small factories - some old and picturesque, some modern and ugly - and rows of terraced houses. Then you are back winding through heavy woodland with hills glimpsed beyond.

It started to rain as we set off, and essentially didn't stop all day. We were in no hurry, and travelled slowly up to New Mills, then Furness Vale, where we spotted a workshop beside the canal which is the base of Andy Russell, who painted Eileen, and whose signature (“Lovingly Hand Painted by Andy Russell”) appears on many of the nicest-looking boats.

We pressed on down to the end of the canal, which is Y-shaped, with two arms of about half a mile each. The first one goes down into Whalley Bridge, where it ends in a small triangular basin next to a warehouse which was built in around 1800 when the canal reached the town. There's a water point there, and we filled up, about half an hour in the rain. On the way back down that arm we moored again next to a Tesco, and picked up supplies. 

Whalley Bridge Basin

Back at the junction we turned down the other arm to Bugworth Basin, which is a much bigger transhipment area, now preserved by volunteers, with lots of dead end arms and bridges. We had thought of staying overnight, but it was quite crowded, and didn't look like our sort of place. As we left we passed a boatload of drunken young men, all crowded in the stern of their hire boat, and we were very glad we had made the right decision.

Bugsworth Basin

We were aiming to moor close to the spot we had occupied last night, but in the end we found a place a few hundred yards short which looked good, and moored there, on the edge of Disley. We were opposite some houses, which meant we felt a little embarrassed when our dogs wouldn’t stop barking, but at least we were out of the rain at last.

Map at 27-7-19

TODAY: 7.5 HOURS. 9.2 MILES. 0 LOCKS. 2 BRIDGEs.

VOYAGE: 39.9 HOURS. 50.4 MILES. 43 LOCKS. 4 BRIDGES

Up to the top

Friday 26th July

Our main challenge today was going up the sixteen locks of the Marple Flight. This has become moderately notorious recently, as it has been closed for nearly two years after one lock collapsed and had to be rebuilt, and then they discovered another one also needed to be rebuilt. That meant that the Cheshire Ring was cut for much of 2017 and all of 2018, and only reopened in May this year. This flight takes the canal up 208 feet to the summit pound, which is very long and runs 16 miles down past Macclesfield to Bosley, and 6 miles up to Whalley Bridge, all on the same level. At Bosley you start the descent to the Trent and Mersey and eventually down Heartbreak Hill to the Cheshire plain.

The spectacular Marple Aqueduct

We had moored overnight only about half a mile from the start of the flight, but first we had to cross the Marple Aqueduct, a spectacular edifice about a hundred feet high, and dominated by an even higher railway viaduct. Apparently in the old days boatmen used to bury their horse in the valley below the aqueduct. Just after the crossing there was a narrow squeeze through between two walls which apparently used to be a short tunnel.

The remains of an old tunnel

When we arrived at the Marple flight we were greeted by two CRT volunteers (vlokkies), and a third soon arrived. One of them came up the whole flight with us, which made a huge difference. I alternated with him - one of us would let Loulie out and close the gate and paddles behind her, while the other went forward to the next lock to empty and open it. That meant that Loulie never had to hang around waiting, while I didn't have to scramble to finish one lock and then run up to the next one. So we were moving as fast as possible, without getting too exhausted - the pace was set by the speed the locks filled up. One lock was very slow to fill, and Loulie eventually sounded her horn to tell us that she wasn't going up at all, but apart from that they were all very well maintained and well designed, which also made the experience that much better. Locks 15 and 11 were very clean and neat - those are the two which had to be rebuilt, so the weed hasn't had time to regrow. Apparently they had to take out each stone by hand, number and clean it. Then when they had built a new concrete foundation and retaining wall all the stones were put back in place - the locks are all listed "buildings".

The flight is also in a very attractive setting - it starts in a deep wooded valley, and slowly moves into the town, past a fine looking old warehouse, and winds up beside a row of terraced houses climbing up the hill.

Looking down Marple Flight from the top

We reached the top in about two and a half hours, and moored for lunch, then I did a bit of shopping. The Macclesfield Canal sets off south from this point, but we intended to stick with the Peak Forest Canal right down to the end at Whalley Bridge. We made our way slowly for a mile or two, as the views became more spectacular ahead of us, looking into the lower reaches of the Peak District. The canal was also becoming more rural, with stone farmhouses on the steep slopes above and below us, and at one point I had to raise a bridge which allowed a farm track to cross the water. We were in no hurry, and about four we found a promising spot and moored on some Armco - there's a bit of a shelf but not too bad. We found out later that the towpath here is also a road or lane - it's tarmacked and just wide enough to get a car or van along, as happened to our surprise. Fortunately there have only been 2-3 vehicles along all night.

Progress to 26-7-19

TODAY: 6.15 HOURS. 4 MILES. 16 LOCKS. 1 BRIDGE.

VOYAGE: 32.4 HOURS. 41.2 MILES. 43 LOCKS. 2 BRIDGES

Hitting the Peak

Thursday 25th July

As I mentioned yesterday, we wanted to call in at Dukinfield Junction to get a pumpout, so we only had a short run, about 45 minutes, after leaving our moorings, until we got the the junction, where the Ashton, the Peak Forest and the Huddersfield Narrow Canals all meet.

The Museum at Portland Basin

The start of the Peak Forest Canal at Portland Basin

The pumpout was at Portland Basin marina - Portland Basin is the place where the three canals meet. This was like no marina we have ever seen - it was down a narrow arm between brick walls - essentially just a short dead end of canal with some boats moored on it. We got a pumpout but they told us they didn't do water and we'd have to back to the museum in the Portland Basin. This we did, and we were directed to moor alongside two old boats. Having done that, the owner of the boats appeared and said he had been told not to allow people to do that, for insurance reasons. (As it happens I had slipped on some rotting wood on the gunwale of one of those boats and scraped my shin, so I had some sympathy).

He was in fact very helpful, and apologetic, and he helped us moor with our bow in alongside one of his boats, so I could get the hosepipe to our water inlet. With no further excitement we completed the watering and set off along the Peak Forest canal.

Starting down the Peak Forest

The difference was immediate. The canal travels along the valley of the Tame, which flows far below, and it is wooded in many places. There were no locks today, but a little bit of exercise for me as I had to work a lifting bridge - lifted manually with a windlass handle. It was a fiercely hot day and we were concerned for the dogs; Loulie kept putting wet towels on them and encouraging them to drink. We passed Hyde, and then in Romiley we stopped and I walked to a nearby Aldi to get ice lollies, drinks and some chicken for Minnie. The best bit was that the supermarket was air conditioned, very cold and lovely.

After that we didn't go on very far. We had exchanged the Tame for the Goyt, but again it was flowing far below us on the right hand side. After going though a tunnel (300 yards, very short by our usual standards) we found a mooring in the middle of nowhere, much more our style. We are only a few miles from Marple, but there is a flight of 16 locks to tackle before we get there. For today we moored quite early, about 16:15, and Loulie used her new washing machine for the first time. It is threatening to rain, and indeed we need the clouds to open to clear the air, but so far it is just occasional showers. If it doesn't break it will be a very muggy night.

Mooring near Hyde Bank Tunnel - including a view through the tunnel

TODAY: 6.15 HOURS. 8.2 MILES. 0 LOCKS. 1 BRIDGE.

VOYAGE: 26.25 HOURS. 37.2 MILES. 27 LOCKS. 2 BRIDGEs