Old Crocks cruise to Worsley

Well, we did leave Trafford today, a far more pleasant cruise than it would have been yesterday.

We’re a bit battered, Chas has hurt his back, Ann has a dodgy knee and I‘ve strained an Achilles tendon. Mine started on Monday during a heavy session of intervals, so I took a day off yesterday, but I actually felt something give way on my run first thing this morning.

I had a miserably uncomfortable walk 2½ mile walk back to the boat. I may be out of the Manchester 10k now, it’s only 10 days away and I don’t think it’ll heal before then. Bugger.
Mags is the fittest of us all at the moment, how about that!

The cripples convoy got away not long before noon, a short distance and around the corner to Barton Swing Aqueduct.

Moore2Life across the ship canal
Designed by Edward Leader Williams and built in 1894, the aqueduct is swung about a central pier, still containing 800 tons of water.

Looking “downhill”, Barton Road Swing Bridge in the foreground, then the M60, Barton Locks in the distance
The swing aqueduct replaced the original stone-built arched aqueduct over the River Irwell, built by James Brindley in 1761. When the Manchester Ship Canal was constructed in the 1890’s, the arched aqueduct wouldn’t  have had enough headroom, so was replaced with the steel structure.
A few years ago we were lucky enough to see the aqueduct in operation.

The oddball “lighthouse” at Monton is still there, standing proud at the side of the canal.

The Bridgewater Canal tends to be in better condition than a lot of the canals that now fall under the jurisdiction of C&RT. Neglect and lack of funding during British Waterways governership has allowed quite a bit of bank damage to occur. Peel Holdings maybe have a  bit more cash to splash about.

Bank repairs, Bridgewater Canal style
They even bring their own loo!

Into Worsley

Worsley Dry Dock is on the right, reckoned to be the oldest still in use on the inland waterways.

Worsley Dry Dock
Both sheds are currently occupied by Mersey/Weaver flats.

We moored just beyond the iron footbridge, almost opposite the boathouse built to house the Royal Barge during Queen Victoria’s visit to the town in 1851

Tea time, after all we’re only 2¼ miles from where they come from…
Yummy!

Locks 0, miles 3

Thought about it, decided not to bother…

Moving today, that is.

We were going to make the short toddle to Worsley, but it was raining at 6 when I woke, still raining at 7 so I rolled over and went back to sleep, and still raining at half-8 when I finally decided to get up.
Meg wasn’t impressed having her walk in the rain, me neither.

It’s a good job we didn’t move, as it happens. Charles had bought some technology from PC World in the Trafford Centre yesterday, but the two of the three elements are ignorant of each other instead of having an amiable exchange of information. So one bit went back today for a refund.

There’s been a few boats up and down, but it’s generally very quiet on the stretch.

The towpath has recently been resurfaced along here with pea gravel, so every walker, jogger and cyclist gives advanced warning of their imminent arrival. A good thing from my point of view is that they had to cut back some of the small trees to widen the path, so I’ve been scavenging, trying to eke out the last bag of smokeless fuel till the summer comes.

Today’s small haul.

Could do with the rain to stop so I can cut it up…

Yesterday afternoon’s (dry!) walk took us down to the ship canal at Barton.

Twin Barton swing bridges, Barton Road nearer, Bridgewater Canal behind
Pigeons eye view from Bing maps

 

Manchester Coat of Arms on pump house alongside the ship canal
If your Latin is a bit rusty (or non-existent like mine) the motto means “By council and work”, a biblical reference – Eccl 37:14, “Let reason be the beginning of every work, and let council go before every action”.

Just along the road there’s the Franciscan Friary of All Saints, a fine building around 150 years old.

The forecast looks a bit better for tomorrow, so we’ll dodge the showers to Worsley.

Locks 0, miles 0.

A short toodle to Trafford.

After a blustery, showery weekend in Castlefield, it was time to make a move.

We’re killing time before heading back into town, we don’t need to be in Castlefield till Friday the 24th, so we thought we’d head off towards Leigh for a few days.

Moored in Castlefield

After filling tanks it was about 12:30 when we finally moved out from the railway bridges and wharves of the junction.

Hulme Locks, the old link to the Manchester Ship Canal, now derelict

There’s always a large population of Canada geese along here, must be something in the water. There are several young families, being guarded carefully by the adults.




On my morning runs this way I’ve been mugged on several occasions by the protective parents, they fly at you with beak open and wings wide. A couple got pecks in before I lost patience and gave one a thick ear. (do geese have ears? I suppose they must have…)

MV LS Lowry takes another boatful of sightseers down the “new” Pomona Lock, to take the tour of Salford Quays

Cruising this stretch you can’t help but notice Manchester Utd Old Trafford stadium on the left, but I was more interested in another of those very large drills working on the other side of the canal.

Another big drill. I want one!

It drills large, deep holes for cylindrical fabrications of steel reinforcing bar, which are then filled with concrete to form secure foundation pillars.

Oh, all right then, here’s a picture of the “Theatre of Dreams”.

Manchester container Euroterminal straddles the canal nearer the junction of Waters Meeting. There is a seriously large fork truck at work here!

I don’t think my (expired) FLT licence would cover this chap

Big Boys Toys. I want one of these too!

We hung a right at the junction and had an uneventful but windswept trip through Trafford Park.

The Kelloggs factory used to have grain deliveries by barge, but not anymore.

Guess where we moored for the night…
A clue is on the under-exposed sign on the right…

Ann and I had a walk around The Trafford Centre this afternoon., what a place. You could do your wallet some serious damage here!

I kept my hand firmly in my pocket, but Ann succumbed and bought  a couple of pairs of jeans. Might go back tomorrow, though…

Mercedes 380SL

 on the brass plate –

This car belonged to Mrs Margaret Mary Whittaker, the Mother of the Chairman and founder of Peel Holdings p.l.c. and The Trafford Centre. It is installed at The Trafford Centre as a lasting tribute for all her support, inspiration and guidance.

10th September 1998

 

Seems a shame not to have it on the road, though.

Locks 0, miles 4½

The “Rochdale 9” to Castlefields

Before we set off yesterday on the last downhill stretch, Meg and I had a walk up the Rochdale Canal from Ducie Street, just a couple of locks, to have a look at the New Islington Wharf development.

Pound above Lock 83 a bit low….

Part of the redevelopment of the wharf area of Ancoats by Urban Splash involved the construction of a canal link between the Rochdale and Ashton Canals, two locks up from the junction.

There are some visitor moorings, at the moment only accessible from the Rochdale end, and permanent moorings about midway. A wetland area off to the side encourages wildlife, complete with nesting islands.

Swan’s nest

Amenity Block, showers, loos, pump-out, elsan disposal and water.



As you can see from the pictures, it was a damp, dismal sort of morning, not the weather you want for lock work, so we hung on, hoping for an improvement.

By 2 o’clock the rain had stopped and there was a bit of brightness in the sky, so we got underway, The first lock from the junction dips under the office block at Dale Street…

Dale Street Lock, immediately below Ducie Street Junction



It’s a bit grim down here, smelling of pigeon poo and stale urine. Apparently there’s other other activities involving relief as well…

That’s told ‘em!

It was a relief to escape down to Lock 85, even though the channel is hemmed in by tall buildings.
Canal Street, centre of Manchester’s Gay community, runs alongside the canal and Lock 84.

Queuing for the lock

Manchester made a lot of money out of wool, the older buildings are subsequently very grand.

Princess Street, Lancaster House with the tower under repair

Built in 1910 as a warehouse, it’s actually a steel frame faced with terracotta and brick.

Between the office blocks near Albion Mill Lock

Nearly there, cafés and bars in the arches above the canal, Deansgate on the left.

Lock 92, the last of the Rochdale Canal, below which it joins the Bridgewater Canal

The trip had been OK, just a drop of rain halfway down.
This last lock was the worst, taking 40 minutes to get close to filling, then requiring Ann, myself and a passer-by the open one gate. There was a lot of water leaking from the bottom gates.



I was amazed at how busy Castlefield Basin is. We went down to below the Grocers Warehouse, not a space to be had, so turned around and moored almost opposite Lock 92. It’s a bit noisier here than around the corner, with two railway lines running across ahead, but it’ll do for the weekend.

M2L into Castlefield. We finally moored just on the left here.

Since we left Barton Marina in March, we’ve climbed up 250 feet to Stoke on the Trent and Mersey Canal, then a further 100 feet up to Macclesfield on the Macclesfield Canal. This took us to 518 feet above sea level. Marple Locks, Ashton Locks and the Rochdale 9 have dropped us all the way back down to around 100 feet above sea level. Makes you wonder why you bother, doesn’t it….


Hi Michelle and Barry, yeah, it’s great, isn’t it. Ann must have had a very sheltered upbringing! How is it up there?
Bob, you’ll have realised by now that we are mooring at Castlefield for the weekend… For once the 9 weren’t too bad, very little water coming over the top so no problems emptying the locks. Just L92…

Locks 9, miles 1½

Dukinfield to Ducie Street, a day of contrasts.

We had a quiet night on the edge of Ashton Under Lyne, just a few hundred yards from Dukinfield Junction.
It’s almost rural there, apart from the odd emergency vehicle siren you could almost be convinced you’re in the countryside. Especially as there’s a farm down in the valley, alongside the River Tame.

Plantation Farm

The farm has connections with Africa, the Africa of the Victorian missionaries.
Mary Smith was born here in 1795, and followed her soon-to-be husband Robert Moffat to Cape Town to spread the word to the heathen. They wed in 1819 and immediately set off 600 miles north into the interior.
Their oldest daughter, also Mary, married a young David Livingstone in Africa in 1845, and set off with him on explorations. It was on one of these trips that she died, aged just 41, in Mozambique in 1862.
Livingstone continued his travels, and disappeared for 6 years. Henry Morton Stanley was commissioned in 1869 by the New York Herald to find the errant explorer, succeeding two years later on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. “Doctor Livingstone, I presume” has become a legendary phrase.

The farm is up for sale, if you want a slice of history it’ll cost you around half a million.

We got away around 09:00, expecting quite a long day with 18 locks in just over 6 miles to cover.

Dukinfield Junction is three way; the Huddersfield Narrow heads off left, eastwards, The Ashton Canal heads west down towards Manchester, and the Lower Peak Forest disappears behind us to the south.

There’s an unusually flat stone arched bridge carrying the towpath across the junction.

Dukinfield Junction






The building beyond houses the Portland Basin Museum. I really must visit sometime….




Turning left onto the Ashton Canal

Moore2Life follows us out, beyond the HNC heads off.

To Fairfield Junction the Ashton cuts a corridor through the industrial fringes of the city.

Converted textile mills visible one minute…

….leafy cuttings the next.

Fairfield Junction, where the Hollinwood Branch Canal heads off northwest
We’re filling water tanks in the mouth of the redundant duplicated lock. Both of the Fairfield Locks were paired to reduce congestion.

Ground paddle culvert in the unused chamber 
The Hollinwood Branch Canal heads off to the left, but currently only runs to the recently built Droylsden Marina. It used to go to Hollinwood, about 4 miles to the north east. It’s main cargo was coal.

Filled and emptied we set off down the long slope into Manchester.

Ashton Canal, Lock 18

We made steady progress downhill, but the bright start to the day soon gave way to cloudy skies and increasing wind.

In the Clayton flight another branch canal runs south from a large turning basin. This was the Stockport Canal, no prizes for guessing it’s ultimate destination…

Stockport Canal under the towpath bridge

It doesn’t go far now…

The bottom of the Clayton Locks marks the halfway point, well, near enough. The next group is the four Beswick Locks, running through the redeveloped area now home to Sportcity.
The Etihad stadium, home to Manchester City FC is on the left, and the Velodrome on the right.

MCFC

 

It was at Beswick that the weather turned distinctly unpleasant. The short showers weren’t that bad, the wind was the problem.


Bywash at Beswick Top Lock, water going upwards!

Mags was getting a bit tired by now, so, instead of trotting ahead to set the next lock I started to move the boat between them, mooring up and filling when we arrived. Quite a bit slower, but at least she had a chance for a sit down.

Locks 6 and 5 were leaking badly from the bottom gates, 6 so much that it wouldn’t make a level.

Lock 6 bottom gates

We had to resort to pulling the top gate open

There’s another very low bridge below Beswick, Ann had already had to clear several items off the roof of M2L way back at Lumb Lane Bridge, but it was still a close run thing.

Head down under Bridge 7

Just three more locks now, but the wind was gusting strongly so I decided to work one lock ahead, so that Mags could have a straight run from one to the next without having to wait in the pound.

Waves on the water between Ancoats mills

The problem was that you didn’t know where the wind was coming from next. The tall buildings funnelled the gusts, deflecting the air from the left, the right, straight ahead. It was difficult to predict, so aiming straight for an open lock was tricky.

Looking across Lock 3

New development at Ancoats above Lock 1

We’d caught up with the Anderton Marina hire boat who left Dukinfield 90 minutes before us.

A seriously big drill was being used alongside the old New Islington Wharf

   
  Didn’t get that from Homebase!

Click to enlarge…

That’s it, out of Lock 1 and into the gentrified Piccadilly area of Manchester

Looking through Bridge 1 to Ducie Street Junction and the Rochdale Canal
Those are raindrops on the lens…

Moored in a very wet Ducie Street Junction, M2L just arriving

This is hardest day Mags has had to cope with since her “do” last November, and she did really well in pretty grim conditions. We’re both tired now, though. With no boats coming up every lock was against us. A bad road, as the old boatmen would have said.

The couple on the hire boat in front of us had been told NOT to stop between Dukinfield and Castleford, but I told them that they should break the trip around here so they’ve pulled over in Piccadilly. I wouldn’t fancy doing the Rochdale Nine after the Ashton Eighteen! They’ll wait for tomorrow!

So there you go, another safe transit of the Ashton Canal. No stone-throwing children, no mattress round the prop, no shortage of water (just the opposite). OK, it’s always going to be hard work doing 18 locks in 6 miles, but that would be the case anywhere.
If you’ve not been up here, come and give it a go. I can’t guarantee you’ll enjoy it, but it is satisfying to sit down to a chip butty after a busy day. Can you believe, Ann had never had a chip butty before? Have to introduce her to the delights of a fish-finger butty next…

Locks 18, miles 6¼