We finally got away from the moorings at Roundthorn Bridge on Thursday. Amber’s tummy was still a bit uncertain, but stable enough to be able to move on without fear of any “accidents”.
A couple of miles on we had to negotiate the lift Bridge at Tilstock Park.
This is unusual in that it’s not painted the traditional black and white of most of the canal infrastructure. A little research led to the fact that it’s actually owned and maintained by Shropshire County Council, and not the Canal and River Trust.
During construction of the section from Frankton to Whitchurch (originally to be the Whitchurch Branch) the work stalled at Tilstock Park. Until the digging started again there was no need for a bridge here, when it did the Ellesmere Canal Company conveniently forgot to build one. So the local landowner made his own, and the current one is adopted by the local authority.
After the bridge we toddled on to moor between Blackhoe Bridge No. 40 and the disused Cambrian Railway Bridge 39. This carried the branch line to Ellesmere from the main line at Whitchurch, across the mosses.
Friday saw us tied up near the Whitchurch Arm, just a couple of miles and two lift bridges further on. Moving on in the morning and being moored by lunchtime meant that we missed the showers that tended to develop in the afternoon. We spent a wet Saturday here, and on Sunday morning I had a walk up into town to collect a package. I usually follow the footpath that roughly traces the route of the filled in Whitchurch Arm rather than taking to the road. There’s little evidence of it now, just an overgrown bit near where it ducked under Smallbrook Road.
The terminal basin, once bustling with boats, is now a park. In the wet weather though it’s origins are evident in the form of large puddles in the grass!
When I got back, in need of water and with rubbish, recycling and loo tanks to empty, we moved on to join the queue above Grindley Brook Locks. We were seventh in line, not the worst that we’ve seen but it was still a couple of hours before we were able to start the descent of the triple staircase followed by the three single chambers lower down.
Staircase locks, where one chamber drops directly into the next, are a solution to a rapid change in elevation, but tend to be a bottleneck as boats can’t pass in the flight. The duty lock-keepers operate a three up, three down policy to keep the traffic flowing fairly freely.
Having negotiated the staircase we had an easy run down the three singles with boats coming up. Until we came under the bridge at the bottom lock where there was a bang under the counter and the engine stalled. We drifted out while I restarted the engine, but the prop was well jammed and it stalled as soon as I engaged gear, forward or reverse. With the help of the couple on a boat waiting to go up we got tied on the lock landing, where I managed, with a big hammer and a mooring pin, to dislodge a lump of wood which had wedged itself between the blades and the underside of the hull.
No damage done, luckily.
We waited for Richard and Ruth, on Mountbatten and Jellicoe today, who dropped us off a gas bottle and topped up the diesel tank. They’re going slowly, Richard is still suffering from a bad fall several days ago, leaving him with broken ribs and painful bruising. but he’s soldiering on, bless him.
Sorry, I seem to be very short of photographs to accompany this post, must be out of practice.
Here’s one though…
Tomorrow we’ll continue on towards Hurleston where we’ll rejoin the Shroppie main line and head south.
Thanks for all the welcome back messages, by the way.
Locks 6, miles 6¼
No comments:
Post a Comment