Monday, March 16, 2015

Another short hop…

I was once told the best way to eat an elephant – a bit at a time. The same approach can be used for the Cheshire locks; spread out the climb over a few days. There are several pleasant spots to stop, so if you’re in no rush why do them all in one go?

Following that philosophy we left Rode Heath this morning, cruised for just 90 minutes and pulled in on the moorings below the church at Church Lawton.

We had a good afternoon yesterday, brother and sister Andy and Sue came to find us. We had a good catch up; we see Andy fairly frequently but Sue lives in either Australia or New Zealand depending on work. I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t come up on Andy’s new Harley, though.
I was a bit knackered after they’d left, I’d got up at 6:00 for a long run of 17 miles so  could be back in time to do the roast dinner. But I managed to stay awake for the start of the new series of the Tim and Pru show.  It didn’t disappoint…

We had a bit of a lie-in this morning finally moving off at nearer midday than 11:00.

Just out of Rode Heath the canal passes over a minor road on an aqueduct with curving brick parapets.
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It was less than half an hour to the first of today’s locks, the bottom of the Lawton Treble Locks.

Mags waiting while I empty the nearside lockIMG_3792
These three locks are second and third generation. Originally this steep bank was negotiated by a staircase of three locks, where one chamber led directly into the next. It was soon recognised as a major bottleneck, so a conventional flight of three was constructed alongside and the staircase closed and filled. Then the improvements during the 19th century saw the second chambers built alongside.

Mags going into Lock 50
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Looking down at the top of the Lawton Treble Locks from Hall’s LockIMG_3797
The route of the canal to the staircase goes off to the right, through the stand of trees.

Twin brick tail bridges at Lock 49, Hall’s LockIMG_3796
The earlier, Brindley built, arch has stone edging, the later addition has a brick arch.

Mags in Hall’s Lock, Mow Cop Castle visible on the hill in the backgroundIMG_3804

Church Locks were our last two today, close together but with only one chamber on each still in use.

Church Locks
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We pulled in on the moorings near the church. It’s been a fair day, a cool breeze brought a few drops of rain as we came up Church Locks, but that was all.




We’ll move on to Red Bull tomorrow.

Well done Ade. A bit of an epic trip, eh!

Locks 6, miles 1½

3 comments:

Ade said...

Hi Geoff,
That looks like a random comment on the bottom of today's blog! As the post you were referring to was on the bottom of November 13th 2014 post. I made the comment yesterday, To explain I have copy & paste here.

Hi Geoff & Maggs,
Well here I'am up to date Thursday November 13th 2014.
I started following you're blog from here with the links from Tom & Jans & Sue & Vic's blogs.
1,405 blog posts later probably 4 novels worth of well written and informative work. Taken me 4 months'ish reading a post or many a day. I'll have research that I know I wrote a comment on Toms blog about the ones I had read start to finish and that I was about to embark on this blog.
It's been great trip navigating these canals from the bank. Keep up training and good luck in Manchester
Ade

Ade said...

Epic is a good word to describe it, still really enjoying your blog so keep up the good work.
Next winter I may have a 100% go at Sue & Vic's I've done a fair bit of theirs but not everything 2003 to date.
Cheers
Ade

Anonymous said...

hi you two just got toasa rugeley always meet you around here so thought we would see where you are. We both thought the tim and pru show was let down with bad editing like they are talking to the late sonia rolt at kings sutton lock then the next day they take of from anyho this is only one mistake made in the broadcast Tony and Jackie nb timewap