In search of an Arm…..

After my passing mention of the Whitchurch Arm in yesterday’s post, I decided to try and trace the route into the town, or at least as much of it as is accessible.

Ann, George and I set off on what was initially a pretty fruitless quest. The current limit of the Arm is just before what would have Bridge 1, although there’s no number on it.

End of the arm – restored bridge.
Looking back from under the modern concrete bridge a little further on, you can see that the line of the canal would have headed off to the left of the footpath…
 

All this area has been infilled for housing, in fact the canal is buried several yards deep under this car park.
The canal ran parallel to the road for a few hundred yards….

Under these houses…..
……before veering off to the north as the road rises. There were no locks on the arm, it stuck resolutely to the 192 foot contour, so had to swing around the rising ground.

A ¼ mile further on it swung back in towards and under the road, somewhere near these back gardens.
This would have been Sherryman’s Bridge, and the end of the line from 1808 till the terminus was established at Castle Well 3 years later.

The arm reappears from under the road into the open area of Jubilee Park, and from here it’s easy to follow although there is no surface evidence.

Ann is standing next to a group of manholes, presumably to access some sort of watercourse, and there’s a fenced-off boggy area just beyond.

The level runs straight towards the right side of the tiered brick buildings in the distance.

Looking back from near the end of Park Avenue…..

.....and forward towards the terminus basin, now being built upon.
The route is under the footpath.

From Mill Street, the new development on top of the old terminal basin.

It’s obvious that restoration of the original line is unrealistic. There is, however, a limited project intending to build a new channel to a small mooring basin where the car park sits alongside Chemistry (picture above). Any further into town would involve considerable effort. A further proposal involves flooding the valley below the arm on the north side, creating a mooring lake and connected to the arm by an inclined plane. 

We had a walk up to the church at the top of the High Street, and was pleased to see it open.

St Alkmund’s, Whitchurch

Built in sandstone, it replaces a 14C building which collapsed in 1711. With tall broad windows, the interior is light and airy.

Fine altar

There’s a side chapel containing the tomb of Sir John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, who died at the Battle of Bordeaux in 1453. He’d fought for King and Country for 24 years, and asked that he be buried at Whitchurch.

Side Chapel

His embalmed heart was returned first, and is buried under a stone in the porch. His bones came later and are in the tomb on the right.

Tablet under the porch - Click to enlarge

Above the entrance to the chapel is a dedication to William Henry Egerton 1811-1910, rector here, following in his father’s footsteps. There’s an interesting canal connection. Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, is a relative. Known as the father of the modern canal system after building the Bridgewater Canal in 1761, he died childless and the Dukedom died with him.
A lesser title, that of the Earl of Bridgewater, was transferred to a cousin, John Egerton, Bishop of Durham, who became the 7th Earl. He was  William Henry’s uncle. John also died without an heir so the title went to his brother Philip, who became the 8th Earl. William, being Philip's 4th son, didn’t inherit the title and did what most younger sons did; joined the clergy. It was generally either that or the military.

We headed back down High Street and had a sandwich and a pint in the White Bear.

Looking down High Street

Tucked away down an alley, this pub looks old from the outside but has unfortunately been “modernised” on the inside. Still, can’t fault the food or the pint of Greene King.

A quick visit to Tesco, then we headed back to the boats.

Moving on towards Ellesmere tomorrow.

Locks 0, miles 0.

Change of Scene

We waited out the gale force winds, moored above Grindley Brook Locks. And it certainly was windy. Not cruising weather, as most other boaters agreed. We only saw one other boat moving over the weekend, a hire boat out of Norbury Junction.

With the wind easing and larders running low we headed off to Whitchurch today. There’s a lift bridge about a mile on, and Ann chose to walk up with the dogs to open it.

Ann, Molly and Meg heading off down the towpath.
Meg is normally unwilling to go off with anyone else, but with us on the boat following along she was OK. She did keep looking back to make sure we’d not disappeared, though.


Moore2Life coming through New Mills Lift Bridge, we’d already gone through.

Rock’n’Roll was a little way behind, still filling with water, so we got both boats tied up near the end of the arm into Whitchurch.

When R’n’R arrived they had a hand mooring up….
Well, actually two hands and one mouth…

And that was it for today. From here it’s a bit nearer to the shops in Whitchurch, but still a fair trek.

It’s supposed to be wet all day tomorrow, so we may or may not move on. Winter cruising, eh. No schedule, no rush.

The best way into the town is along the short stub of the Whitchurch Arm. It now only runs to the first bridge from New Mills Junction, where the Chemistry road comes close alongside. It was originally built to Sherryman’s Bridge (the next bridge crossing on the map), then extended the final ¼ mile to Castle Well in 1811. There was a narrow triangular basin built here, and prior to the extension being completed unloaded boats had to reverse back down to the junction.

Whitchurch Arm before 1950's development filled the majority of the line.

The current limit of the Arm

 
Google maps view of the terminus area shows some link to the past.


View Larger Map
A large corn mill was built near the basin, hence Mill Street, and a new development called The Wharfage has appeared. Though I think there's a degree of licence been allowed with the name. The basin was on the west side of Mill Street.
There's lots more information on the Whitchurch Waterway Trust website.

Locks 0, miles 1

We CAN move when we want to….

Plan A was to get to the bottom of Grindley Brook Locks today, and then to go up the locks to Whitchurch for the weekend. But overnight rain which carried on into the morning and a rising wind made us doubt the sense in doing this. Plan B involved doing nothing till the weekend, hoping for an improvement. A sort of non-plan, really.

In the end we went for Plan C, get going and see where we finish up. It’s not as daft as it sounds, there are several very pleasant mooring spots between Wrenbury and Grindley Brook, if the weather turned particularly nasty.

We’re glad we did, the sky cleared and the wind wasn’t as bad as anticipated. In fact we went considerably further than expected…

A fine but blowy morning. 
Looking forward towards Wales…..

….And back into England

There are four locks to ascend between Wrenbury and the final flight at Grindley Brook, the first at Marbury about 40 minutes away.

Marbury Lock
The lock cottage here is looking good after renovation.

One of those pleasant mooring spots I mentioned earlier. M2L in the distance.

The next is Quoisley, alongside the busy A49, where you often get tooted at by wagon drivers going past.
Remember Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday? Mags was doing her impression today, but with a narrowboat instead of a motor-scooter.

Hepburn impressions……
 




But I’m no Gregory Peck….

Just a short way on we came to Willeymoor Lock, with the Willey Moor Lock Inn alongside. We caught up with Chas and Ann here.

M2L in Willeymoor Lock

One more lock, Povey’s, and we arrived at the bottom of Grindley Brook Locks. By our reckoning we’d already done more than a day’s travelling, but the weather stayed fine and we’d made good time so off we went up the flight.

Through the railway bridge just below the locks.
There are 6 locks here, 3 single chambers and the remainder making up a triple staircase. In the summer this can be a major bottleneck and a pair of lock-keepers arbitrate. But today not another boat was moving.

Mags tackling another ferocious bywash, this one below Lock 5, the middle of the singles.

Lock 4, below the staircase.

While Mags was coming up in this one, I walked up to have a look at the situation on the staircase.
Rock’n’Roll was in the top chamber, and Moore2Life rising up in the bottom, so I waited for them to move up one, then drained the bottom chamber.

Looking down Grindley Brook Staircase.

Mags was able to go straight into the bottom lock after she came round the sharp corner under the road bridge.

Seyella at the bottom.

Looking up to where Chas is just moving M2L out of the chamber above.
The gates are a bit leaky!

All three boats clear, we watered and emptied as required then pulled onto the moorings just up from the locks.

The original lock cottage is smart but now in private hands…..

The duty lock-keepers now have to use this.
A bit of a come-down, eh!

We just about made it before the predicted rain blew in from the west. Strong winds and rain for tomorrow, brighter but still windy over the weekend, so we’ll play it by ear. After all, we’ve done well today….

Locks 10, miles 6½

It’s all go…..

All change with the weather today. At 07:30 it was 10° warmer than the same time yesterday. There are daffodils coming up on the verges!
Trouble is the frozen towpath has now returned to mud, so we decided to move at some point today, to the other side of the village where the towpath is drier. After a walk to the shop we stopped to chat with the BW chaps working on the bridge, and arranged to go through at around 14:30.
But at a quarter to two George was knocking on the window, they (the engineers) had just been down and it would be better for them if we were able to go through straight away. Now. Immediately.
It looked a bit like a WWII fighter scramble, crews out untying ropes, engines starting up, tiller bars fitted and we were all moving inside a few minutes. It usually takes a bit longer than that!

Off we go…

Rock’n’Roll was first through……

Followed by Moore2Life…….

……finally followed by us as tail-end-charlie. It was a bit tight lining up with the bow of that hire boat stuck out.

NB’s Armadillo and Jandai had arrived earlier today, but decided to stay put the other side of the lift bridge. 

There’s another black-and-white lift bridge at Wrenbury Frith, but this is normally open.

R’n’R through Wrenbury Frith Lift Bridge.

We moored shortly after, on the SUCS moorings near Thomason’s Bridge.

Moored near Thomason’s Bridge

There was a substantial blown down branch in the hedge bottom, and it seemed a shame to leave it there, so it’s now in 4 bits on the roof.

Locks 0, miles 1. Cracking on, then! 

Pewter skies…

Another cold night last night, down to 4 or 5° below zero. But, unlike the last couple of mornings, the sky was covered in thin grey cloud, preventing the sun from breaking through till this afternoon. So it stayed considerably colder, still -1° when we pulled in this afternoon.

Grey skies, white fields as we head for Baddiley Locks this morning.

George and Carol on NB Rock’n’Roll were ready first, so they’d set off 10 minutes before us. They’d cleared Baddiley Lock 3 by the time we arrived, but George had lifted a paddle to drain the lock ready for us, so we could go straight in.

After the cold night, the still water in the chamber had frozen, ice about 5mm thick that Carol had to break up as she pushed R’n’R in. Some was still hanging on the lock sides as we went in.

Ice shelf
The three locks at Baddiley raise the canal about 20 feet and are all close together.

Mags approaching Lock 2, the fierce bywash clearly seen.

The vast majority of canal locks have a bywash channel alongside, to carry surplus water from the pound above which would otherwise weir over the top gates of the lock. A notable exception is the Rochdale Nine out of Castlefield Basin in Manchester, and these are notoriously difficult. The bywashes would normally only carry water from a lock above being emptied, but on this canal there’s a continuous flow running down from the River Dee to feed Hurleston Reservoir and the ever-thirsty taps of Manchester. So the bywashes have a reputation for being particularly rapid, making lock approach tricky.

Mags made this one with only a gentle scrape on the bow.

Lock 1, top lock, was just around the corner. 

Seyella approaching Lock 1. The sheep looked surprised to see so many boats on the move….

From the top of the flight it was only another twenty minutes to Wrenbury, just time for a cup of tea.

Wrenbury Church Lift Bridge is one of the signature bridges of this canal, and George was on hand to lift it as he saw us coming. We’d dropped back a bit, having stopped to liberate a bit of wood, so had Chas and Ann on Moore2Life close behind.

Wrenbury Church Lift Bridge, with George sitting patiently waiting for us…

We pulled in behind R’n’R, just as the sun finally broke through the cloud cover.

Moored at Wrenbury, Meg’s new ball (retrieved at the locks) is on the roof.

I was cutting up my recently acquired fuel when a chap walking his dog stopped for a chat. I was dismayed when he told me that the electrically operated Wrenbury Lift Bridge, just around the corner, was closed until the weekend for maintenance. Didn’t spot that one on the stoppages list!
 We had a walk that way with the dogs this afternoon, and it turns out that the crew doing the work will lift the bridge for passing boaters on request. So that’s all right then.

We’ll be here until Thursday, anyway. The weather is due to change to milder and wetter for a couple of days, before turning cold again next weekend.

Locks 3, miles 2. Dashing along, aren’t we!