Wheelock bound

We had supper from the Kings Lock chippy on Wednesday evening -

Whale and chips twice, please!




Meg had a jumbo sausage - and half of Mags’ fish! No batter though, we had an unfortunate incident a few years ago… it took ages to get the fishy smell out of the rug.





Leaving Middlewich yesterday morning.

What happened to all the swans? I hear you ask. There’s usually dozens hanging around here. Well, I don’t know either. Sorry.

The Kinderton Arms, opposite Rumps Lock, is having another rebirth, this time as a Thai restaurant.
 
They’ve just had a load of turf delivered, so they must be doing up the gardens too.

We had to empty Rumps as we were following a boat that had left the moorings ahead of us, but both the Booth Lane locks were set for us by boats coming down.

Booth Lane Top Lock


The Albion Lock development is coming on apace…
A bit of poetic licence for Wimpey Homes in the name. There is no Albion Lock on the network, the nearest to it is Albion Mills Lock up on the Rochdale Canal.

Mags waiting in a patch of sunshine below Crows Nest Lock…

…and Meg in a patch of shade.

Her coat is too heavy for sunny weather, but that’s in hand.

A good sized brood


After passing under the railway at Moston, on the edge of Sandbach, the canal leaves the slowly expanding conurbation and picks up the River Wheelock, winding back and forth as it follows the valley side.

Bank repairs just outside Wheelock village.

Playing silly buggers at the water point.


We pulled in around the corner at around half-twelve.

We’re usually passing here at some point in the Spring, and we’ve got into the habit of getting Meg clipped at the groomers here. It appears that Lynne, who ran Hair of the Dog from the salon next to the pet food store has retired, but Joanne, Mutleys, has taken over. We’d spoken about fitting Meg in, but she’s booked up until the end of June. She did promise to get in touch if she had a cancellation, and this morning, just as I was thinking of taking Meg out for a walk (in the rain…) the phone rang, Jo could fit us in if we could get there straight away. So ten minutes later I was dropping Meg off for her makeover.  Still waiting to collect her as I type this.

It’s raining. as I mentioned, but there might be a bit of a drier spell around lunchtime, so we might go a little way up the Cheshire Locks today after all.

Locks 4, miles 6

A short run up through Middlewich

Today we toddled up the Middlewich locks, mooring above Kings Lock at lunchtime. No volunteers on today, unlike yesterday, but we still took just about an hour. Not a lot to report, one or two coming down and a pause with boats ahead to go up Kings, but not for too long.

Leaving the moorings alongside the small park.

Mags waiting for me to set Lock 74, Andersen Boats hire base looking empty. They must be busy…

Having negotiated the tricky bend below Lock 72, coming in to the chamber.

Above Lock 72 there’s a congregation of boats, a lot of them Middlewich Boats hire fleet.
I guess they’re not doing so well yet this season.

That’s it, out of Kings Lock. I left the top gate open for a boat coming down the cut.

Wheelock tomorrow, and the start of the climb up the Cheshire locks. But for this evening fish and chips from across the road.

Locks 4, miles just under 1.

And then there were six!

We were just getting ready to set off when a boat when past. It was Chardonnay, the boat we came up the lift with yesterday afternoon. So we set off in hot pursuit, well, sort of tepid, really, so we could share Middlewich Big Lock with them.

Leaving the flash


See the bird paddling along to the right? It was this chap, been to fetch breakfast.
I’m guessing that there’s a grebe nest in the reeds with a brood of youngsters installed.

Through the woods alongside the River Dane, full of birdsong even on a dull morning.

We caught sight of Chardonnay before Bridge 177

The sunken boat along here isn’t looking any better…

A boat pulled out from the Brambles Cutting moorings between us and Chardonay…
…so now there were two in front, and one had caught up our slow convoy from behind. The new addition was Oakfield, the boat we went down the lift with last Tuesday. So both our lift companions are there, now!

It stayed like this till we rounded the corner below Big Lock, and there were another two there, waiting to go up. Good job no-one was in a hurry.


It wasn’t too bad, even though it’s a slow lock. Crews off waiting boats helped those ahead up, and we had one to fetch down too. Of course, there was no-one waiting when it was our turn. Still, 45 minutes later we were tied up alongside the small park, handy for shopping.

Meg had a vet appointment this afternoon, just a six monthly check-up and a new prescription for her arthritis meds. A bit of shopping in the morning and then we’ll amble up the Middlewich Locks and moor up above Kings. Kings Lock Chippie for tea tomorrow.

I‘ve been trying to get Meg sorted with a groomer to get her clipped. The one we’ve used in the past at Wheelock seems to have closed, but another has opened at the farm just a little way up the locks. I’m waiting to hear back from them.

Locks 1, miles 4 

U Turns and late cruising…

We’d turned to face upstream when we stopped yesterday, so we had to turn around to head for the holding moorings below the boat lift. That was the first of three…

First trip to the holding moorings




I went up to the booking office in the visitor centre to get a slot for going up, to be told that the next available one was 15:45! They’ve only got one tank in operation, and, of course, the trip boat takes precedence. So I accepted that, then walked a little way up the towpath to have a chat with Peter and Jennifer on Mactra's Filia. We’d hoped to see them on the river, but they didn’t get out of Uplands Marina as soon as planned.
They intended to head down today, and after they’d booked in they walked down to see us, we’d turned around and moored back on the new pontoon by this time. A good natter and a brew and cake was had, and we found out that their booking is at 16:30, so they’ll be going down after we get back up onto the canal.
  
Back to the new pontoon


So at 15:00 we turned around for the third time today, and pulled in on the holding mooring again, behind another boat that we shared the lift with.

The Edwin Clark’s last trip to it’s mooring at the bottom of the finished as it rounded the corner from the lift entrance, then we were told to proceed.


Last look at the Weaver for this year – probably.

Peter and Jennifer were just arriving at the top for their trip down.
All being well we’ll see them later in the year.

It was 4 o’clock now, well past our normal finishing time, but we decided to push on anyway.

Dropping a bag of rubbish off at the services we carried on through Marbury Wood.


A drift of bluebells


We nearly stopped just outside of the woods, but didn’t. Then again near the Lion Salt Works, but the moorings were a bit full.
 
Wincham Wharf was another option but we went past there too.
The brisk wind was starting to feel chilly now, but we decided to head for the flashes. We’ll have a couple of nights in Middlewich when we get there, so we thought tonight should be spent in the sticks. We tied up at half-six, 2½ hours from the top of the lift.



Locks 0, miles 7

Back to Anderton

We’ve had a very pleasant couple of days lazing in Vale Royal, but today we’ve headed back to Anderton to start out trip down to the Ashby Canal.

We thought about heading down to the head of navigation yesterday, but Newbridge Swing Bridge, just half a mile upstream, no longer swings except in dire circumstances and has a headroom of 6’4”. Now, we can get under that, but only if I unscrew the radio aerial, take down the chimney, move three bags of coal into the cratch and stick John Sage back on his rack on the counter. All in all just too much effort for three miles there and three back again, with the very real possibility of running aground in the flash at the end. So we didn’t. It wasn’t such a nice day yesterday anyway. I washed the boat instead.

Back to the bright weather today


The sunny weather seems to have caused an algae bloom on the water.
The further downstream you go the less there is. I wouldn’t want to fall in here though…

I’d rung Chris at Vale Royal Lock to advise him of our imminent arrival, and he’d got the lock open, ready for us. There’s a problem here, the quadrant gears used to wind open the lower gates are U/S, so the solution is to use a baby winch to haul them open and closed.



Victorian lamp standards

I don’t know whether these are still gas lights, or converted for electricity. The horizontal crossbar was for the lamp-lighter to lean his ladder against. A closer look at the picture shows bulbs, in fact, and I doubt they’re original, either…

A half-hour downstream took us to Hunts Lock. Hartford Road Bridge was built in 1938…

…hence the art deco style buttresses.


MV Proceed at Jalsea’s yard


Although looking at the hull plating I don’t think she’s going to be proceeding much further…

Hunts Lock, with a ladies coxless 4 heading towards us, one of several on the river this morning.

That unexplained slope to the lockside copings is more apparent going down. 

That’s a quadrant, it’s those that are missing at Vale Royal

Fresh water mussels in the lock wall


Parfield moored outside Yarwood’s boatyard
She was built in 1952, and, along with sister ships Paradine and Parbella carried grain from Manchester Docks to the Kellogs factory at Water’s Meeting on the Bridgewater Canal.
 
The last loads by boat were in March 1974.

The navigation runs past the large Northwich Maintenance Yard. On the island opposite, accessed across a footbridge, sit a couple of winches and a steam engine to drive them.
 
I’m guessing that the reed-infested end of the island downstream was a slipway, although I can find no reference to one.

Hayhurst Swing Bridge, with Town Swing bridge just visible beyond.



A better shot of the new marina between the bridges.


Topping up the water tank


From here it’s only a mile or so to the pleasant moorings below the boat lift.

The Wincham Brook comes in from the right halfway there, under a black and white footbridge.
The brook used to navigable for about a mile up to Witton Mill, but is now silted up. At the turn of the 20th century the area bounded by a triangle from Marston to Anderton and then Northwich was pretty much inundated by water in shallow flashes, caused by subsidence following brine extraction. There’s a map from 1899 showing the extent of the wetlands here.

Around the corner, opposite the salt works wharf was were we intended to stop, and there was plenty of room.

It’s been busy with boats today after a very quiet few days. I guess the sun has brought out the day trippers. These two had to quickly get out of the way as the Edwin Clark, the boat lift trip boat, came barreling around the corner.
The skipper of the trip boat takes no prisoners…

Up the lift in the morning, back onto the cut.

Hi Ade, KevinToo. Looks like we might be getting early tans this year! Got to make the most of it…
Hi Jaq. We’ll be getting a bit more of a shift on now, heading for the Ashby for mid-June. Be lovely to catch up somewhere this summer. Hugs passed on…

Locks 2, miles 4¼