Into The Breach

We got to bed fairly early last night, but sadly the dogs have lost the habit of sleeping on the boat, so we were woken up at about 4am and had to take them out for a tiddle. I have to report that it is fairly cold at 4am on the canal bank, even in an unusually mild December. Once we had them settled back down we slept until 8am, when the day began to break. So in theory we had a reasonable amount of sleep overall, but somehow it didn’t seem that way.

We got up and moving at about 10am. Our main challenge for the day was the locks through Middlewich, six in all. We have decided that Loulie will navigate in the locks, while I do the heavy work, so that she doesn’t finish the day physically exhausted. Although for me some of the locks can be a bit tough, for Loulie some of them are borderline impossible, so she tires much more quickly than I do.

The first lock going up through Middlewich is Big Lock, which lives up to its name, being wide enough for two boats side by side. Nobody is quite sure why it has been built on such a scale, as there is no way a widebeam boat can get to the spot. We were fortunate as another boat was just coming out as we arrived, so I hopped out and Loulie was able to steam straight in. The huge gates were tough for me to move, and I am not sure how Loulie ever shifted them. It is also no fun being a single boat in a double sized lock, as there is more room to bounce around, and Loulie had a bit of work t do to keep her straight.

After that we had the three-lock flight in the centre of Middlewich. Sadly another boat was ahead of us going up, which meant that everything was set against us as we had to empty each lock before we could go in. At the middle lock I made a noob error by leaving one of the bottom paddles open before opening the top ones, which means it fills very slowly. Of course I only did this to make Loulie feel better, as she did the same on the Adderley flight in August.

Once up the flight we turned right at King Lock and went up the Shropshire Branch, going up the Wardle Lock immediately, and them mooring just short of the sit of the breach. We walked the dogs down to have a look, and then I trekked off to Morrisons to get some essential supplies. After that we got back under way, going past the breach and then up the Stanthorne lock, our last one for the day. We have two more tomorrow, and that’s the lot for the voyage.

The site of the breach, looking down to the River Dane

We pootled along for an hour or so more, very much out in the country again – though we did pass under the West Coast Main Line, which is about 15 minutes from our house as the train flies, even if it took us two days to get here. We moored near Church Minshull, far from any roads – we have been to the Badger in the village a couple of times before, and it’s very nice, but we don’t want to try it on New Year’s Eve.

So, that’s it for 2018, our first year on board the Eileen Dover, and we have just started to discuss what we will be doing next year. The Caldon Canal is one possibility, and the Cheshire Ring is another. The really long voyages, like London, will have to wait until I have retired.

Today: 5 hours. 9.9 miles. 6 locks.Voyage: 10.5 hours. 25.0 miles. 7 locks.

Trains, Boats and Cook-Chill food

Today we saw an Elizabethan gatehouse, passed over the River Trent to join the Trent and Mersey Canal at Great Haywood, and saw Intercity express trains passing yards from our boat. But the thing that really, really got Loulie excited was when we stopped for water on the outskirts of Stone. She looked through the hedge and realised that we had moored right next to a Marks & Spencer’s Food Hall. She shot in like a rat up a drainpipe, and returned a good while later with a shopping bag laden with goodies, and calories.

If the story of yesterday was the M6 motorway, today it was the West Coast Main line, which accompanied us all the way, on occasion with only the width of a fence between the canal and the ballast of the track. With trains passing at over 100mph this was pretty dramatic.

The West Coast Main Line

We made an early start, hoping to catch up with our target for the day. The canal took us north through the suburbs of Stafford, and then turned sharp right, heading east towards the valley of the Trent. This canal, and the Trent & Mersey, were built by Thomas Brindley, and he used river valleys to make building easier. So we followed the course of the River Sow to where it joins the Trent at Great Haywood. Before we got there we had a couple of isolated locks, and also the Tixall Wide, where the canal spreads out like a lake. From there you can see the gatehouse of Tixall Hall. This looks like a substantial castle, the Hall itself (where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned) must have been very impressive, but it has long been demolished.

Crossing the Sow

Tixall Gatehouse

A canoeist on the Staffs & Worcs

Tixall Wide

Crossing the Trent

Approaching the junction

Fingerposts at Great Haywood

We reached the junction at Great Haywood without incident, and turned north. The mileposts on the Trent and Mersey show the distances to the two ends, Shardlow to the south and east, and Preston Brook in the north, our destination. So now we can see the miles ticking down, starting at 54 miles on the first post after the junction.

The midpoint of the Trent & Mersey Canal

Domino Cows

From Great Haywood the canal climbs steadily to Stoke and Harecastle Tunnel – after which it drops down into Cheshire. So we now had a dozen more locks to do before we would reach our moorings for the night. At first they were well spread out, and Loulie was able to take the dogs for a good walk between two of them. However things heated up when we reached the town of Stone, which was once the administrative centre of this canal, and now seems to live on its past, with all sorts of historic buildings and interpretive sign boards. For us the more important element (after the water point and M&S) was the flight of four locks in the town centre, followed by four more at Meaford just north. The town ones were slow, mainly because a boat hire company were showing one of their customers, and his children, how to work a lock. But we met lots of interesting people, including a Turkish couple, their daughter and granddaughter, and an old lady who told me firmly that Meaford is pronounced “Mefford” (like method).

An ornate bridge outside Salt

A handy map on the last lock before Stone - but no mention of M&S

Between the Stone locks and Meaford Loulie took the dogs again, while I went on ahead. However they disgraced themselves – Minnie dived into a filthy muddy patch, Ruby decided she didn’t want to walk and ran all the way back to where she had last seen the boat, and Posie stuck her tongue into a pot of black paint a boater was using to touch up his gunwales. Loulie had used up her sense of humour by the time she caught up with the boat – and she still had four locks to do.

Mischief Managed

Once we had cleared the Meaford flight we were looking for a berth, as it was well after six. We found a nice spot quite soon – good moorings and safe for the dogs. The only issue is that the railway is about thirty yards away, but this is the same line which runs past the front of our house fifty miles to the north, so the noise does not bother us, and it means we have no neighbours to annoy the dogs.

A fine meal courtesy of M&S, and we can retire, tired but happy, as we have caught up all the backlog on our timetable. We have done 53 locks, out of 101, so we have passed half way on that count too. If all goes well tomorrow we could be through Harecastle tunnel and on our way down towards home.

Today: 9.5 hours. 18.3 miles. 14 locks.

Voyage: 39.5 hours. 71.3 miles. 53 locks.