Bricking it…

We came through Harecastle Tunnel this morning, and in the course of the subterranean trip I got musing… I wonder how many bricks were used to line the bore?
So I did some rough calculations. They had to be rough, the height varies considerable, as does the width, and I had to make an assumption about the underwater profile. But this is what I reckon the average shape is…
Because it’s only going to be an estimation, I took the bore to be circular and added a bit, giving me 40’ or 160 brick courses.

The length of the tunnel is 2926 yards, or 8778 feet, which will need around 11,700 bricks laid end to end. A simple multiplication gives the staggering number of around 1¾ million bricks! That's a single brick thickness. I think we can safely assume that the walls will be at least 2 bricks thick. That’s a lot of bricks.


A dry brick weighs in at around 10lb, so 3½ million bricks would be around 15,500 tons.
A massive logistical operation!

Notice I’ve used imperial measurements, it seemed appropriate, somehow..

Anyway, back to cruising. We were up early-ish, and Meg’s morning walk revealed all three locks above us empty with the bottom gates standing open. An opportunity too good to miss! We set off about 09:00, spent 20 minutes at the services filling and emptying, then took advantage of another boater’s idleness.

Up Red Bull Lock, grass cutters at work in the pub garden, Meg having a good old scratch.

Mags heading for Pooles Locks, taken from under the aqueduct carrying the Hardings Wood Branch to the Macclesfield Canal.

There was a lot of water in the last pound, decreasing the headroom under the already low bridges below the summit lock. We had a look at the lower, left side…
But decided that the slightly higher one on the right was a better option!

That’s it, the top of the Cheshire Locks, or Heartbreak Hill as the boatmen used to call it. Mind you, they’d do them in a morning.

Lock 41, the Canal Tavern in the background

Now we’re back to that tunnel…

We pulled in on the moorings to wait for a convoy of three boats coming north. Tunnel traffic is controlled by keepers at either end, booking boats in and out.

Looking down at the tunnel entrance(s).
The first boat of the northbound convoy is just emerging.

Beyond the current portal can be seen the entrance to the original 1777 tunnel, which closed in 1914. The one we use now was built in 1827 by Thomas Telford, and both carried one-way traffic till the closure of the earlier Brindley-built bore due to subsidence and a partial collapse.

Brindley’s early tunnel

It took 11 years to construct…  Telford’s tunnel took only 3.

Our turn now, at 10:25

If you’re quick with the camera you might see Kit Crewbucket…

Some odd rust stained flowstone sculptures near the middle of the tunnel.

We popped back out into the bright sunlight after 36 minutes, not a bad time through the tunnel.

If we’d have carried on yesterday through the rain we’d have stopped at Westport Lake, where good moorings give access to pleasant walks around the lake.

Westport Lake moorings, unusually empty.
But it was too early today to stop here, so we pushed on to Etruria.

Bottle kiln at Longport

Busy, busy at Longport Wharf

We had an uneventful trip to Etruria, Mags spent some time on the tiller while I went in to make a brew and make a start on dinner.

Approaching Etruria and the junction with the Caldon Canal
The chimney is at Jesse Shirley’s Flint and Bone Mill. Well worth a look if it’s open when you’re passing. I did, earlier in the year.

Instead of mooring on the Trent and Mersey above Etruria Lock, where you’re likely to be run down by whizzing cyclists at knocking-off time, we’ve taken to turning onto the Caldon, winding and mooring below the staircase locks. It’s a lot more pleasant here, with a large green area for Meg.

“Eh?”

On the Caldon for the night

Down Stoke Locks tomorrow to Barlaston. Deep joy…

Locks 3, miles 6½

Rain stopped play.

After being woken by thunder this morning at 07:00, followed by a heavy shower bouncing off the roof, the sun came out and it looked like being a pleasant day. But as we prepared for departure it went dull and started to rain again. Not too much so we decided to press on regardless. We only got as far as Red Bull…

Yesterday, after a day bankside at Rode Heath, we were away about 11:00. It was a bright, sunny day after a Saturday of mixed sunshine and showers.

Leaving Rode Heath

New lock gates for somewhere…

Laden working boat below Lawton Treble Locks.

It was NB Tench, loaded with gravel.

Lawton Treble Locks are probably the most attractive on this stretch. The paired chambers are all operational, the gear well lubricated and the grass is manicured.
They replaced a triple staircase when the flight was improved.
An added bonus is Mrs Riley’s cakes, chutneys and jams. She lives locally and can be seen here on weekends selling her home-made products for Great Ormond Street Hospital. I got some very tasty rhubarb and ginger jam. The cakes had all sold out, though.

Up Lawton Treble Locks


Notice I managed to get two coats of black gloss on the right side gunwale Saturday afternoon and before we left Sunday morning.

Church Locks can be a pain if there are boats going in both directions, there’s a very short pound between them.

Swapping between the two Church Locks.

That’s it for the day, Mags heading for the moorings opposite All Saint’s Church, Church Lawton.

This morning the rain had increased from a few spots to a continuous downpour by the time we’d arrived at the bottom of Lock 46. I made the decision then; if it hadn’t improved by the time we get to the moorings above Lock 44 we’ll call it a (short) day. It didn’t, so we did!

All Saint’s, Church Lawton, just light rain.

Up Lock 44, it doesn’t look it but it’s chucking it down. Thunder rolling in the distance.

We were both wet through by the time we’d moored, the boat windows are now steamed up from the damp jackets (and dog) hanging up to dry. No, Meg isn’t hung up.. just the jackets.

The sun is trying to make an appearance now, but I think we’ll stay put anyway.

Yesterday, locks 6, miles 1¼. Today, locks 3, miles 1

A shorter day.

After yesterday’s fairly long day we deserved a bit of an easier one, so just moved up to Rode Heath.

I took this last night, at 10:15

We’re only a couple of weeks from the summer solstice!

Same view this morning (well, nearly. We’d set off)

We had a slow start, a boat went past us as I was getting ready to go.
Above us were the Hassall Green locks, a paired set followed by a single chamber. The pound between was low, so we hung back for the boat ahead to get into the next lock before we filled ours. There was a chance that the pound may have been too low after we’d come up, and there was no point having both boats stuck.
As it was we were OK, Mags took it very gently down the middle of the channel.

Hassall Green bottom lock, Lock 58, from under the M6 bridge

Lock 57, the shop and cafe here have closed and are being converted to a private residence

There weren’t enough boats coming down to set all the locks for us, but the few that were helped a bit. We still had to turn maybe 3 out of the 6 today.

Last lock for today at Thurlwood, unusually having a gate paddle at the upper end.
We pulled in at Rode Heath around mid-day, and have enjoyed the sunny afternoon chatting to folk walking past and just pottering about.

Overnight we’ve thundery showers moving in, lasting through most of tomorrow, so we’ll be staying put. Maybe move on a bit on Sunday.

Hi Alf, sorry we missed you yesterday. Glad to see someone's keeping the wheels of industry turning...
Today, folk coming up from Wheelock have been complaining about low pounds all the way up to the golf course. The pound between 65 and 66 was dry again first thing.
Hiya Carol, well spotted! A check of the original 4Mb picture confirms your suspicion. It's certainly had a paint job recently...

Locks 6, miles 2½

Making a start on the Cheshire Locks

Yesterday, as predicted, was wet for most of the day. Meg and I ventured out for exercise, and I made a visit to Tesco’s for groceries, but that was about it.

Today didn’t look too promising either first thing, but has steadily improved as the day wore on.

Leaving Middlewich moorings at 09:30 on a dull morning.
We had the three Middlewich Locks and Kings Lock to deal with before we left the town, and were disappointed to have them all against us. We’d expected a few boats coming down.

Mags makes the turn into Lock 72

It’s always a bit congested alongside Middlewich Boats
Luckily no-one was coming. We did meet an oncoming boat under the bridge just before the junction, but he backed off to let us through.

Mags heading for King’s Lock, the entrance to the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal under the bridge to the left.

Leaving Middlewich, the next 2½ miles of canal is shadowed by the busy Booth Lane, with three locks to do before peace is regained near Crow’s Nest Lock.

A heron watches us approach with studied indifference…

…but bottles it at the last minute.

It was along the Booth Lane stretch that we started to meet boats coming the other way, leaving the locks set in our favour. We didn’t have to turn another lock all day…

Into Booth Lane Top Lock, No 68 

Heading into Wheelock village the canal follows the valley of the river of the same name, becoming quite bendy in places.

A bit of gardening would improve visibility on some of the bends…

We watered etc. at Wheelock Wharf, timing it well as another boat was leaving as we arrived. There’s normally room for two or three boats to get on here, but access was somewhat hampered by the butty Maria, moored alongside one of the taps.

Horseboat Maria
There’s some doubt as to whether this is the original Maria built by Jink’s yard at Marple in 1854. Records suggest that she was replaced by another of the same name, in 1915, by the same builder. 160 or 99 years old, she’s a venerable old lady, but still shouldn’t have been left blocking a water point.

We pulled on to the visitor moorings at Wheelock for a bite to eat and a quick visit to the pet superstore for dog food, then set off to tackle the start of the steady ascent into Stoke. We’d just got going, heading towards another boat that’d left the bottom lock, when I recognised the oncoming craft. It was Dave and Dylis on NB Trundle.
They moor on the Soar, where we’re heading. We always seem to meet up heading in the opposite direction! Anyway, both boats pulled in and we had a quick 5 minute catch-up before heading our separate ways. Have a good trip, you two!

It was a bit chaotic at the bottom of the Wheelock Flight. Above the bottom lock the locks are paired, but the offside of the bottom pair is out of action (again!). Most of the traffic was heading downhill, using both the adjacent chambers till they got here…

Above Lock 66

As we headed up to L65 there were four boats in the short pound between the locks!
(There’s one out of sight, still in the empty lock to the left)

With plenty of boats coming down we made short work of the locks up to the golf club at Malkin’s Bank, where we intended to stop.

Swapping locks at Malkin’s Bank

The bank near the golf course was a bit overgrown and a boat coming down had left Lock 60 open for us, so we pushed on up another 2, stopping below the pair at Hassall Green.

Moored below Hassall Green, with a view of Mow Cop in the distance and the M6 buzzing along in the foreground.
With the wind coming from the north-west there’s no noise from the motorway here.

It’s been a long day by our standards, but very enjoyable. It means we’ve now only a short trip to Rode Heath tomorrow, where we’ll take at least one day off.

Locks 16, miles 7½

Scraping, sanding, painting, cruising and a substantial haircut!

I took advantage of the fine weather on Sunday and yesterday morning to do a bit of paintwork tidying. The black paint below the gunwales was looking a bit shabby after a winter of knocks and scrapes, and the aft bilge and swim was in need of some TLC too.

Sanded and spot-primed ready for rubbing back

Rust scraped and cleaned ready for 2 coats of Hammerite.

Aft bilge done.

I was planning to get a coat of black on the right side as well this morning before we moved down to Middlewich, but the showery forecast put me off. I shouldn’t have taken any notice of the weatherman; we’ve only had a gentle sprinkle which hardly even reached the ground.

In between the painting Meg and I have been chatting to the locals…

The grebes are a bit shy…

…and the swans are a bit anti-social…



…but the cygnets are cute!

Yesterday afternoon we were lashed by heavy showers, which put an end to any further work outside.

I could happily have stayed at the flashes another day, but we’d run out of bread and were down to a cupful of milk. The former I could have dealt with, but I can’t make milk!

So this morning we were away at around half ten, after I’d reclipped the pipework and cabling I’d shifted to paint in the engine ‘ole.

Looking back at the flash, really a very pleasant mooring.
Don’t be fooled by the inviting expanse of water on the right, It’s only a foot deep!

Whatcroft Lodges are always well worth a photo.

A beautiful wooded stretch above the River Dane. 

Great Crested Grebe and zebra-striped grebelings

No-one moored at the popular Brambles Cutting, but I’m sure there would have been last night.

We stopped at the household waste site on the edge of Middlewich to dispose of several containers of used engine oil, then followed two boats around the corner to Middlewich Big Lock. While they were going up we topped up the water tank at the handy tap below the lock, then joined NB White Harriett to go up ourselves.


We moored near the small park, and I studied the sky with a view to doing the paintwork I’d planned for this morning. But I got talking to the couple on the boat in front…
They’d just come back from collecting their two wire haired terriers from the local dog groomer. I’d been considering getting Meg clipped, she gets quite hot with all that hair in the warmer weather. So I called Sarah at Waggs Boutique (really???) and she was able to fit us in this afternoon. I dropped her off after being told in no uncertain terms by Mags to make sure she wasn’t scalped, then went shopping before picking her up again 90 minutes later.
I nearly didn’t recognise her; she looks a lot smaller shorn! We discussed it on the way home and came to the same conclusion – Mum’s not going to be happy!
She wasn’t. But It’ll grow again, and she’ll be a lot more comfortable if it’s hot, and a lot easier to dry if it’s wet. And it’s barely long enough to tangle and form mats.

Another call I made was to Dave at Taft Wharf, down near Rugeley. As we were heading north I noticed that he was doing Boat Safety Scheme examinations at £100.

That’s considerably cheaper than the going rate of around £150. The BSS is the boat equivalent of an MOT test, but only needs doing every 4 years. Our second check is due at the end of the month.

We weren’t expecting to be passing on the way back, but as we are now, I wanted to make sure he’d be available. No problem there.


It’s going to be wet overnight and tomorrow, so we’ll be stopping here, moving on to Wheelock on Thursday.

Locks 1 miles 4