Messing about on the river.

After a pretty grim weekend today dawned bright, dry and sunny. Pity about the cold wind, though. Without that it would have been very pleasant.

With three boats to drop down to the river we needed two trips. We went first, sharing with NB Partout at 10:15.

Waiting for the lift.

I didn’t take many pictures of the trip down, I’m sure that Carol and Ann, on Rock’n’Roll and Moore2Life respectively, have more than made up for it!

Our caisson going down, looking back along the aqueduct.

Looking back up through the structure.

Water leaking from the west caisson.

Down and out, NB Partout heads north (downstream) while we pull onto the holding moorings so I can get some pictures of R’n’R and M2L coming down.

Here they come.

They are lift “virgins”, so are full of questions for the operator when they reach the bottom.

Hello!

The lower gate goes up revealing both bows….
Watch out for the drips….

M2L comes out first…..

…..followed by R’n’R

Back aboard now, and we head upstream to Northwich

We weren’t alone on the river today, not quite.

Northwich Marina has one of the few remaining side-slipways still operating. This whole area is scheduled for redevelopment, but there’s talk of keeping this rare bit of machinery operational.

Northwich Marina slipway

We arrived at Hunt’s Lock to see the lock crew just setting up the lock for us.

Approaching Hunt’s Lock  
All of the Weaver locks are keeper operated. At this time of year they’re not manned all day, you have to ring the Northwich depot to book passage.
We used the smaller, earlier of the two locks.

In Hunt’s Lock.


Three narrowboats just nicely fit across the chamber. At just over 11 feet, this is the deepest of the four locks. The navigation has been upgraded several times, the locks steadily increasing in size and decreasing in number as traffic patterns changed.
In 1732 there were 11 timber locks and weirs, able to accommodate Weaver Flats of around 40 tons.  These boats either sailed or were bow hauled by teams of men up the river. Various improvements were made, but, when Edward Leader Williams was appointed Engineer in 1852, a massive upgrade was started. New locks were built to take 1000 ton coastal vessels, and the number reduced to five (including the one down to the Mersey at Weston Point).
In 1875 the boat lift at Anderton was finished, replacing chutes which dropped cargos down from the canal to the river.

Now, with commercial traffic at a standstill, we’re back to using the earlier, smaller locks. These are around 88 feet long and 25 feet wide. The 1000 ton locks are up to a massive 213 x 37 feet.

Leaving Hunt’s there’s a broad, tree-lined 2 miles of river before reaching the highest, Vale Royal, lock. There are two crossings along here, Hartford Bridge carrying the A556, then an older railway bridge carrying the West Coast Main Line.

M2L leads R’n’R beneath Hartford Bridge.

The fine sandstone railway bridge just below Vale Royal Lock

Hartford Bridge was built in 1938, hence the Art Deco influence on the design of the supports. The railway bridge pre-dates it by a century, solidly and uncompromisingly Victorian.

Vale Royal Locks are just around the corner. For a while boats have had to use the large chamber, as the swing bridge across the smaller was unsafe to use and had to be left closed for access. This resulted in a huge use of water every time the lock was emptied, so it was operated on an hourly up/down schedule to manage water lost downstream. BW have managed to swing the bridge open, and have temporarily replaced it with another bridge at the tail of the lock, so we can use the small one again.

Vale Royal Locks
The large chamber is on the left, we’re heading into the smaller one in the middle. On the far right is the bywash carrying surplus water downstream. This is a modified much earlier lock chamber.

Lunch in Vale Royal Lock

Just a ½ mile further on we pulled in on the moorings above the lock. It’s peaceful here, just the occasional drone of a plane heading for Manchester Airport.

On Vale Royal moorings.

The towpath has recently been resurfaced, there’s just the section between the lock and Hartford Bridge to finish, then there’ll be an all-weather surface from Winsford to Northwich.

Locks 2, miles 4¾

Landmark!

This is my 1000th post! I honestly never thought I’d stick at it this long, way back in 2006 when I started blogging. It was intended to merely let our families know where we were and what we were up to, but it’s developed considerably from there.

In terms of experience and knowledge we’re a million miles away from those first heady days in August 5½ years ago (but I’ll be happy to admit we’re still learning) but geographically we’re less than a mile from our first night’s mooring out of the marina!

Moored in Marbury Wood, August 9th, 2006.

Our outlook has changed, we’re far more easy going than we were then, conforming now more to the gentle pace of the waterways than frantic pace of the rat-race.

Seyella has also changed. Decorative paintwork adorns the top bend at the fore-end, there’s far more stuff on the roof and the cabin sides are not as glossy as they were.

There’s a cratch board (the second) and cover over the well deck, and the interior has altered considerably, the dinette has moved twice, the galley once and the bed is now across rather than in-line.

We’ve made lots of good friends, people we’d never have met had we not adopted this lifestyle.
There’s been some “challenges”, but each one has given us that little bit more confidence in our abilities.

There’re still lots more waterways to explore, and return trips to those we’ve enjoyed before. Roll on the next 5½ years! I hope I’ll still be posting, (and you’ll still be reading) when the blog reaches it’s 2000th entry!

Just a couple of statistics – we’ve cruised 5968 miles and been up or down 3396 locks. Our “donk” has reliably clocked up 5857 hours without missing a beat. Not bad, eh.

Locks 0, miles 0 

Anderton bound.

We were intending to take two days to get to Anderton, but with the weather due to deteriorate rapidly over the weekend we decided to do the whole trip today. We’ll hunker down during the rain, and be ready for our Boat Lift bookings on Monday morning.

Leaving our mooring near Middlewich.

Middlewich is of course one of the Cheshire “wich” towns, notable for the production of salt. But the origin of the suffix –wich is interesting. In Early English a shallow bay was known as a wick or wich. At the time the only way to produce salt was to evaporate sea water, and a gently sloping beach was an ideal location to do so. Hence place-names like Harwich in Essex and Sandwich in Kent. Over time, following the discovery of inland underground salt concentrated in water as brine, the -wich was used to indicate a salt producing town.

Ironically, those who chose to adopt the name for a shallow bay to describe an inland town were in most cases right. The brine deposits to be found under Middlewich and Northwich are left over from the evaporation of shallow prehistoric seas.

Salt has been produced in these areas since Roman times, the traditional method of evaporating brine in open pans being used till recently. But extraction of the underground salt-rich water has left huge cavities, with the inevitable result; subsidence. Those who live in coal-mining areas are well aware of it’s effects,  but it’s also a problem around here. The numerous shallow bowls of water called flashes are the result of subsidence, and there has been a lot of structural damage to buildings as the ground shifts.

Brine pumping is no longer in use, but the slow sinking of the land still continues. The bridges over the canal around here are not the conventional brick arch, but consist of vertical brick abutments carrying a horizontal deck. In an area where ground subsidence is a problem, the benefits are two-fold. An arch requires both sides to stay relative to each other else a catastrophic failure will occur. Independent brick pillars don’t have the same problem, the deck may just need to be refitted to repair the span.

Bridge 175, brick pillars and an iron reinforced deck.

Another advantage is that as the surrounding land slumps the bridge goes with it but the canal doesn’t. That is to say, the water doesn’t. So headroom is reduced. With this design it’s easy to lift the deck by inserting a couple of courses of brick to the piers. Try doing that with an arch…

The canal just out of Middlewich is still on it’s downward journey. The concrete edges have been raised several times by the simple expedient of casting another layer of concrete on top.

Raised canal edges. 
This was done as recently as a couple of years ago just by Croxton Flash, but it’ll need doing again very soon…

Latest repair disappearing under water.

The towpath here is a good eight inches below water level, and is permanently awash.

Anyway, on with the trip. Just around the corner from Croxton Flash the reeds encroach into the channel, leaving just enough room for two boats to pass.

A bit bunged up.

The canal follows a generally northern course with the River Dane down on the left till it heads off to Northwich near the splendid Whatcroft Lodges

Whatcroft Lodges
These sit either side of the carriage road to Whatcroft Hall, a Georgian house built in 1780. English Heritage have it listed as a Grade II building. You can’t see it from the canal, though.

Two more flashes are passed before the countryside is left behind as the environs of Northwich start to appear.

Mags passing the derelict boat in Billinge Green Flash.

The wreck is probably the remains of an ex Fellows, Morton and Clayton motorboat Brill. It was sunk here deliberately to demonstrate the depth (or lack!) of water in the flash.

These flashes, again caused by the subsidence, were used by BW to dump several unwanted work boats, but most have since been salvaged.

Wincham Wharf is not quite so busy now. Harral Brokerage here unfortunately went into liquidation last August, but a new business, Narrowboats Ltd, is operating from here.

Wincham Wharf 

There’s a plant hire company near Northwich Victoria’s football ground, with portable offices to let.

Nothing wrong with having a dedicated area for those devoted to the weed, is there?
Hmm….
Making it difficult…..

We’re now heading west, towards the Weaver valley. The last bit of the built up area is left at Marston Bridge, where the Lion Salt Works seems to be gently decaying.

Lion Salt Works 
But appearances can be deceiving. The site is under restoration and is due to re-open as a working museum in 2014.

Through Marbury Wood and our little convoy pulled in to water and dump rubbish before moving on to moor in Anderton.

Through Marbury Wood

Locks 0, miles 8

Tee shirts and sunglasses…

That’s the dress code for today’s cruise. What a cracking day it’s been, remarkable for this time of year.

View from the galley window this morning

We had a light frost last night, but as soon as the sun came up in the clear blue sky the temperature rose.

I foraged a bit more wood, then we set off, a little earlier than the others as I had that log that George and I had dragged up the embankment to cut up and get on the roof. George, bless him, came and gave me a hand, and we were ready to go as the rest of the convoy appeared around the bend. We slotted in behind Moore2Life and before Rock’n’Roll.

Following M2L on a beautiful morning
Still got the fire lit, though!

Today we’ve seen the Middlewich Branch at it’s very best. Warm sun on the back, the smell of woodsmoke and muck spreading in the air, birdsong in the hedges, and buzzards wheeling against an endless sky.

What a sky!



We spent last night on one of the good spots on this canal, but there are two more that are equally pleasant.

Above Church Minshull, the River Weaver in the valley below, the village in the distance

It was here that Tom and Angela Rolt spent some time, with their converted work-boat Cressy, moored on the canal. They spent a year cruising the midland’s waterways, which were then, in the late 1930’s, in a state of slow decline as commercial carrying moved to rail and road. He wrote of his travels in the iconic book Narrow Boat, first published in 1944.

His description of the village shows a lost way of life –

“From the churchyard gate it was possible to look right and left along the village street, from the Post Office at one end to the smithy and wheelwright’s shop at the other. The post-mistress, white-haired and benevolent, as such a personage should be, supplied the children with the same sticky, vivid sweets as their mothers and grandmothers sucked when they, too, were young. Of an evening, when the menfolk repair to “The Badger” for a glass of mild, the housewives foregather in the post office for a gossip, on the pretext of a stamp or half a pound of tea.”

Well, the church is still in business….

The other fine mooring is high above the Weaver flashes, south of Winsford.

Looking over the Weaver valley and Top Flash

Stanthorne Lock was the first today, we followed M2L down.

Stanthorne Lock
Ann’s struggling with one of the lower gate paddles. As these locks are around 11’ deep there’s a lot of water pressure against the paddle face at the bottom of the gate. They get easier as the level drops.

It’s not long after leaving Stanthorne that Middlewich starts to make it’s presence known.

Into Middlewich, all good things must come to an end…
Wardle Lock is the last on the Branch. This is the end of the Middlewich Branch, below the lock the 100 or so feet to the junction belonged to the Trent and Mersey. They insisted on building this short link, known as the Wardle Canal, in order to control the lucrative commercial traffic using the connection to the Shropshire Union network.

In Wardle Lock

Wardle Canal Bridge
The bridge number is another clue to it’s heritage; bridges 167 and 169 are on the T&M…

We made a sharp left turn onto the Trent and Mersey, through the slalom course that is made up boats moored at Middlewich Narrowboats, and arrived at the top of the Middlewich Three Locks.

Middlewich Narrowboats, a bit of a wiggle required here.
Dropping down the Middlewich locks.




Andersen Boats, below the locks,  is another hire base in the town, but seems a bit better organised..

Andersen Boats

We hired a boat from here a lot of years ago, and did the Four Counties Ring in a week! 94 locks over 110 miles in 6 days. Ah, the enthusiasm of youth. Not much chance of that now…

We pulled in past the main road bridge for a mass shopping trip to Tesco, then set off again to get out of town for the night.

Mags waiting for Big Lock to fill.
As a broad lock (the only one at this end of the canal) it’ll take two boats. We got away first to set the lock, I wonder who’ll be next… Ah, yes. It’s Rock’n’Roll!

R’n’R following Seyella out of Big Lock, M2L is waiting for the next “locking”.

We all moored up just before Bridge 175, still in glorious sunshine.

Taken from Bridge 175

It’s been one of those fantastic cruising days, even better for being completely unexpected. We’ve seen the Middlewich Branch at it’s best, and we’ve not seen another soul on the water all day.
How was it, George? That’s right – EPIC!

I'm glad we took advantage of the good weather, according to tonight's forecast it's downhill all the way from here. Wet and windy, with a chance of wintry showers! I knew yesterday's post title was a mistake...

Locks 6, miles 8