A couple of beaufiful day’s cruising.

It’s been sunny and dry, but there’s been a chilly breeze from the north-east keeping the temperature down. But still, it’s not Easter yet. We’ve had snow on Good Friday in the past!
We dropped down the last two locks of the Cheshire Flight yesterday morning, filled up with water at the Wheelock services, then set off on the three-mile pound to the next one on the way to Middlewich.

Locks 65 and 66 at the bottom of the Cheshire Flight

Wheelock Services.


The canal twists and turns as it leaves Wheelock, following the valley of the river for which the village is named.

But after the dismantled Bridge 158 it starts to straighten and head decisively north. The river meanwhile continues westward a while longer before also heading up to Middlewich and joining the River Dane just to the north of the town.

An angling match near Ettiley Heath, but they were mostly amenable as we passed.

After Wheelock the next lock is Crow’s nest Lock, and we arrived just in time…

We’d actually passed another four boats heading up towards Wheelock, so I was pretty sure the locks would be with us.

Booth Lane Locks, 68 and 69, alongside the busy A533 Booth Lane



The last time we came into Middlewich the usually large swan population had been reduced to just one or individuals. But there are more about again now, including a Whooper Swan mixed into the more common Mutes. He was very shy, this was the closest I could get…

Coming into Middlewich, approaching Kings Lock

It was a “shall we, shan’t we” moment, before we decided to pull in above the lock for the night.

This morning, it was bright sunshine again after a chilly night. I was just getting ready to head down to Kings Lock when there was a flurry of activity around the lock as a boat came up. So I held back to let them leave the lock, incidentally ready for us.

While Mags was dropping down I walked around the corner to Wardle Lock, to find it empty and ready for us. So I opened the gates, trotted back to Kings, and then we turned the sharp corner under the bridge and into the lock.




We’re now going uphill, and will be doing so for a while.

Above Wardle Lock

Just before Stanthorne Lock, as the canal leaves the town, is where that major breech occurred on March 16th 2018 which closed the Middlewich Branch for 9 months.  

It’s all looking very solid now, and they’ve even installed a few mooring rings at the Stanthorne Lock end of the reconstruction.

Coming up Stanthorne Lock.


We had a lovely trip through the rolling Cheshire countryside, heading south and west.

At Weaver Bank lies a canal-side cottage and a row of converted stables.

The Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company ran a passenger fly-boat service between Chester and Middlewich, hauled by a team of horses that were regularly changed. This was one of the change-over points. The cottage would have been occupied by the ostler, responsible for ensuring a fit team of horses were always available.

Passing Church Minshull down in the valley, the Weaver is crossed on an embankment, then there are some fine moorings just before Aqueduct Marina, where we pulled in.

We’re going to have a day off tomorrow, before toddling on on Friday to join the Main Line at Barbridge.

Locks 9, miles 12¾ – 2 days.

Easy down the locks on a fine day.

We continued dropping down the Cheshire Locks today, and it was an easy run with all but one of the twelve locks we did today waiting for us.

Leaving the Rode Heath moorings after a day off yesterday.

Thurlwood Lock was just around the corner and it was this one I had to fill. Alongside it is a planted area that was the site of the Thurlwood Steel Lock, an experimental construction designed to be used where subsidence was a problem.
It was built as a complete unit, with the chamber and guillotine gates able to be jacked up as the ground shifted. But it was sadly unreliable and slow to fill, and boat crews tended to avoid it, using the conventional chamber alongside. It opened with much fanfare in 1958, and in 1988 it was demolished, the steel cut up for scrap and the site cleared.

By the time I’d filled and emptied the lock a boat had arrived to go up, Dave off Brittany Lauren who we often meet in the winter on the Llangollen.

After this we met full locks all the way down, with boats making regular appearances on their way up.

Lock 57 at Hassel Green

Several of the duplicated chambers are out of action, some for a long time but others a lot more recently.

This actually complicates matters on the short pounds. The paired locks make using the flight a rapid operation, but then everything slows down when boats have to queue when there’s only one chamber in use. Today it wasn’t a problem, but in the height of the season…
Maybe CRT should just close one of the still-working pairs to keep the traffic flow consistent?

Canal-side cottages at Malkins Bank

Lock 64, Saw Pit Lock, our last for the day.

Locks are often named for a local feature, dwelling or industry. Lock 61 is Cardboard Lock which is a little confusing until you realise that there used to be papermill alongside!

We pulled in a couple of hundred yards below Lock 64. We could have dropped down the final two to the Wheelock moorings, but it’s nicer up here. TV reception is better, the bank is higher so it’s easier for Meg, there’s plenty of grass and you don’t get bounced about when the lock above is emptied. No brainer, really.

Locks 12, miles 3¼

Down Into Cheshire.

After the drama of Thursday’s trip we’ve had a couple of steady days, off the summit level and starting the descent onto the Cheshire Plain.

It was dull and grey when we left the Westport Lake moorings yesterday morning.

With just 20 minutes to go to Harecastle Tunnel, I hoped we wouldn’t have to wait in a queue. We passed a boat going the other way about 10 minutes from the tunnel, so I thought we might have missed the north-bound convoy, and the moorings were empty when we arrived. But the CRT tunnel guy said that if we were ready to go we could follow them straight in.

Into the wormhole…


We had a quick run through the 2926 yard long bore, emerging into daylight after just over half an hour.

Light at the end of the tunnel…


Out at the northern end

We dropped down the first three locks of the Cheshire Flight, passing the junction to the Macclesfield Canal above the top one, Lock 41.

Hardings Wood Junction and Lock 41 ahead

Lock 42 with Poole Aqueduct carrying the Macc back across the T&M

We topped up with water at Red Bull services then pulled in on the moorings just beyond for the night.

This morning dawned bright and sunny, no hint of rain and that wind that has plagued us for the last few days had pretty well died out.

We had a fine but short trip, dropping down the Red Bull Locks, then Church Locks, followed by Halls Lock and the three Lawton Locks. We stopped at Rode Heath, although we were tempted to push on a little further but we’ve plenty of time at the moment.

Red Bull Locks


Church Locks, two very close together with the later duplicated chambers on the offside both derelict.

At the top of Lawton Locks the widening in the channel marks the point where the original line went, dropping down through a triple staircase.
This caused a major bottleneck and was quickly replaced with the three individual chambers in use today.

Below Lawton Locks a 15 minute gentle cruise brought us to Rode Heath. We tied up at around 12:15 after a very pleasant morning. I do like the Cheshire Locks. I think the girls do too…


A day off tomorrow, then carrying on down towards Middlewich on Monday.

Locks 12, miles 6, 2 days.

A strange kind of day…

We set off at half past nine this morning, hoping to avoid having to queue at Stoke Locks, and also intending to be well up towards the Stoke summit by the time the rain arrived late morning.

The sun was out and the birds were singing when we woke up, but by the time we untied the clouds had rolled in again. At least it wasn’t as windy as yesterday.

We made good time towards Stoke, passing the incinerator after about 35 minutes.



From here I reckon we’re actually in the city, although there are some leafy bits roads and industry are never far from the canal.

By Bridge 112a the canal crosses the very young River Trent.
From here it’s about 8 miles to it’s source on Biddulph Moor, with another 175 or so miles to run before it joins the Yorkshire Ouse and heads out into the North Sea through the Humber estuary.

Stoke Bottom Lock, an ugly concrete structure which replaced the original during road improvement works.

The locks come regular up to Etruria, only minutes separating them. Cockshutts Lock was next, accessed under a tunnel formed by two adjacent railway lines. Low headroom too. We squashed a chimney under here once!



I try to get a picture of us in the lock with a train passing over the bridge, but the timetables weren’t co-operative today.

Twyford Lock is reached after passing the large cemetery on the right, then it’s a short run to the final two, one after the other, at Etruria.

All the locks as we came up were full, so I had to empty them. Johnson’s Lock was no different, so I tied the boat up and lifted the paddles to drop the water level. Idly leaning on the bridge rail watching the water swirling below the lock as it emptied I saw what I thought was a bundle of rags and I remember thinking that’s likely to get wrapped around the prop. It was only when it rolled over in the water and I saw a face that I realised it was actually a body. A 999 call resulted in the police and paramedics arriving at the scene, although even I could see he was well past CPR.
It was apparently a local chap who’d gone missing on March 20th. https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/police-set-up-cordon-after-2721352
At least the family know what happened to him now. Very sad.

It was a couple of hours before we could carry on, after the body had been collected by a mortuary team. We were soon up onto the summit though and on our way.

Looking back at Stoke Top Lock, with the Caldon Canal heading off to the left.

By now we’d missed any chance of avoiding the weather, it had been raining steadily since we’d arrived at Johnson’s Lock. But I decided to press on anyway, no more locks to do, with just around 45 minutes to cruise to Westport Lake.


We finally tied up at just before three.

Tomorrow, hopefully with better weather and less drama, we’ll head through Harecastle Tunnel and down off the summit level.

Locks 5, miles 7

A better day than expected.

The forecast suggested that today would be a bit grim, wet and cold. But it was actually much better than that. It started cold after a chilly night, but slowly warmed up. It didn’t get to be warm, but at least it was comfortable. The rain didn’t arrive until we’d tied up in Trentham, and didn’t last long.
We were off handily this morning. There were a lot of boats in town yesterday, and we didn’t want to get stuck in a queue at the bottom of Meaford Locks.

Heading out of Stone.


A small cruiser had passed us about a half-hour before we set of, and he was the only other boat in the four-lock flight, and well ahead.

Mags waiting below Meaford top lock

By the time we’d go to the top there were a couple more boats heading up and more waiting to come down.


Above the locks the derelict land to the left was the site of Meaford Power Station. Opened in 1948 and extended in 1957, this coal-fired facility was the furthest upstream on the River Trent. Built after the “canal age” it was supplied with fuel by a rail spur off the Great Western Railway that crossed the canal.

It ceased generation in 1990 and only a year later the 5 cooling towers were demolished. The final chimney didn’t come down until 1996.

We’d made really good time, and the weather was still agreeable so we decided to press on up to Trentham rather than stop near Barlaston.

The Plume of Feathers, Barlaston

Trentham Lock


It started to rain after we cleared the lock, but we only had another 10 minutes or so before mooring near Bridge 106. By mid-afternoon the sky had cleared and the sun came out. I think we’ve had it better here than most places.

Over the last couple of days I’ve been working on another little project. When I swapped the bed around a few years ago I removed a radiator from the bedroom, and Mags has often complained that it’s a little cool in there. I also wanted to make sure that the Webasto water heater was working hard through the hour that it runs first thing, as it’s when these heaters go into tick-over with the water hot that they tend to coke up. I looked into a 200mm high radiator, but it would stick out to far. A finrad would have done the job, but would have involved a lot of messing about with the pipework. So I decided to make my own sort-of radiator. Ten foot of 15mm copper tube and a few fittings and we’ve a compact mini-radiator which should do.

I just need to clad it with vented panels to finish it off.

Up to Stoke tomorrow.

Locks 5, miles 4½ 

Into Stone for shopping and appointments

When we set off yesterday from above Sandon Lock it was fine with thin, high cloud, but it was decidedly chilly. A fresh breeze blowing from the north and west kept the temperature down below 10°.


A kestrel hunkered down on the hedge…

One of a pair of lapwings foraging for food on a freshly ploughed field.
Sorry about the poor quality, it’s difficult taking zoom pictures while trying to steer…

Since finally spotting some new lambs the other day, the pastures suddenly seem full of them!

There was a bit of a queue when we arrived at Aston Lock, two boats ahead of us, and by the time we got in the lock, another three behind. But with crews helping each other we were soon up and heading into Stone.

I wanted to be as close to Star Lock as possible, the vet Meg was to visit this morning isn’t far from there. We were lucky to get an ideal spot just above the lock on the end of the moorings between Star and Yard Locks. By this time the cloud had cleared and it was a bright warm afternoon.

All change overnight though. A band of rain had moved in and the wind had swung round to the north, driving the temperature down again. We’re stuck with this weather pattern for the next couple of days as a series of depressions move in from the Atlantic.

Meg’s appointment was first thing, and the visit was positive. Her wee sample was clear of any nasties, and the vet was happy with her condition but we’re still waiting on the results of a blood test.

After a trip up to Morrison’s we decided to move on up the locks through Stone. The rain had stopped and the cloud started to thin, so it seemed a good time.

There were a few folk about, so we met boats either above or below three of the four locks climbing up through town.

Canal Cruising Company’s base above Yard Lock

Into Newcastle Road Lock under the bridge.
The tunnel to the left is for boat crews.

My girls in Limekiln Lock

The day improved dramatically but we still pulled in above Limekiln Lock, just past Roger Fuller’s yard.

We would have pushed on up Meaford Locks but we had to stay in the town so I could go back to the vet’s to pick up some more medication. Meg is on steroids full-time now, one 5mg tablet a day but I needed 100 to last until her next check-up. They didn’t have enough on hand, but had some delivered later for me to collect.


Tomorrow, regardless of the weather, we’ll head up to Barlaston. Not a long trip.

Locks 5, miles 5