Friday 30 August 2013

Mooring up MM at Longport Wharf for the Weekend.

Thursday and Friday 29th and 30th August, 2013 in Longport near Stoke-on-Trent.
On Thursday we walked up to the Royal Doulton Outlet Shop in Etruria. Wow! Ali Baba's cave come to life!  What fabulous stuff and at great prices. Wall to wall beautiful porcelain and glistening crystal. Royal Doulton, Royal Albert, Wedgwood, Waterford and Minton. We would advise prospective visitors to leave their credit cards at home!
It also had a lovely cafe, where we had tea and cake served on examples of their wares!
We walked back via Longport Wharf, where MM is booked in for tonight so that we can go home tomorrow for the weekend. The staff were very helpful and friendly, so we walked back to MM and sailed the short distance back to the Wharf and moored her up. nb "Poppy" was moored up against the wharf, but the staff moved her so that we could moor MM inside her, between her and the wharf.
By no means the prettiest mooring we have had, and close to a busy road, but nevertheless we were able to get a good night's sleep.
On Friday, a taxi collected us at 9:30 and took us to Stoke-on-Trent railway station to catch the train to Euston. The station is a wonderful Victorian building, clearly built to show off the economic power of the potteries.
Opposite the station is a lovely statue of Josiah Wedgwood holding one of his pots.
At the station, we had a coffee while waiting for the train. There was already a line of cups on the table, to which we added our own!

The journey into London was non-stop and astonishingly fast, just an hour and a quarter. The canal follows close by the railway line, so we were able to see some of the places we will be visiting in the next few weeks.
Today: Just a few hundred yards!

Wednesday 28 August 2013

Surprises at the Museum!

Wednesday 28th August at Longport, Stoke-on-Trent. 
A rather cloudy day, but dry. We decided not to move MM, but to leave her moored up by the lake and walk in to the city. It was further than we thought, about three miles each way in the end.
The walk along the towpath was interesting, but not what we had expected. This area is famous for being the centre of the development of the pottery and china making industries as it had plentiful supplies of good quality clay and coal for the ovens. The few remaining relics of the industry make a sorry sight of dereliction and decay.
There are still a few bottle kilns in evidence, but the weeds growing out of the brickwork indicate that they have been kept but not maintained.
One small sign of hope was the Middleport Potteries, which is still operating as a "Victorian" pottery and is being extensively renovated. We are booked to go on the factory tour on Monday.
The canal used to run for more than a mile through the middle of the huge Shelton Bar steel works, but since this closed in 2000, all sign of it has been obliterated. On the west side of the canal it is just a huge flat depressing wasteland. On the east side of the canal, the site has been turned into a park and commercial developments, at the centre of which is Josiah Wedgwood's house, that had originally been surrounded by the steelworks but is now preserved as part of a Best Western Hotel.
We turned off the towpath at bridge 117, which used to be part of a rail "Loop Line" that used to link the six towns that make up Stoke-on-Trent. M thought that we were heading for the Potteries Museum in the Centre of the City - which we were - but we just happened to pass the only Costa in Stoke, so stopped for refreshment. How convenient!
Sadly the centre of the City was a mix of old buildings, many still derelict, shiny souless new developments and large tracts of wasteland, cut through with big, busy roads. The comparison with Birmingham, which has effected a rejuvenation of some charm, was inevitable.
However, the Pottery Museum was a joy and, to our delight, we discovered that the "Staffordshire Hoard" was on display in an exhibition that ends on Sunday. Great timing!
The Hoard was found in 2009 and consists of over 3,500 pieces mainly of gold but many pieces inlaid with garnet. All the pieces were beautifully and intricately decorated and mainly military in nature but there were no blades found with the dagger, seax or sword decorations, just the decorative parts. In terms of "value" in Saxon times, the experts say that is strange because the blades were as much valued as the decoration. Perhaps "scrap" for re-cycling carried by an artisan? We shall probably never know, but it has certainly "illuminated" the Dark Ages just a little bit.
Another surprise in the Museum was a second World War Spitfire being extensively restored. It seems that R.J. Mitchell, the designer of the Spitfire, was born and educated in Stoke-on-Trent and was apprenticed here before moving to Supermarines in Southampton.
M was also very please to see a statue of Gordon Banks, one of her heroes, in the lobby of the Museum.  He is holding aloft the World Cup.
After a cup of tea in the Museum Cafe, we made our way back towards the canal, walking back on the east side, and found again the contrast of rows of derelict terraced houses, next to other rows that had been refurbished very nicely.
Finally we arrived back at MM for a quiet evening.
Today: No movement and just 3.4 hours for power.


Tuesday 27 August 2013

The Harecastle Tunnel.

Tuesday 27th August, 2013 at Longport, Stoke-on-Trent.
Less sunny than yesterday, but still a bright day. M has three pots of violas on MM's roof and they constantly attract butterflies and bumble bees.
 
We set off from Congleton mid-morning and enjoyed a quiet cruise back to Hall Green and the junction with the Trent & Mersey Canal. The only slight problem came when we had to stop for a swing bridge, which could be pulled across with a chain if needed by a pedestrian. The chain is designed to be left in the water and is long enough so that it sits on the bottom of the canal; however, someone had left the chain pulled up on the grass, so that it was stretched across the canal. R had to stop MM and walk along the roof to re-set the chain so that we could pass.
Further down the canal, we passed Ramsdell Hall, built around 1760 - some 70 years before the Macclesfield Canal opened at the bottom of its garden.  Apparently the owners were not impressed to see "vulgar boatmen" passing by at the bottom of their lawn!
We shall definitely come this way again, hopefully next year. Apart from the glorious scenery, there are wonderful walks to be had in the western foothills of the Peak District - and the promise further north of a trip down the Peak Forest Canal into the heart of Derbyshire.
Our destination today was the northern end of the Potteries. This necessitated a passage through the famous Harecastle Tunnel, 2,926 yards long. The original tunnel was built by James Brindley, took eleven years to build and opened in 1777. A second tunnel was built by Thomas Telford in just three years and it opened in 1827. For a while both tunnels operated together until gradual subsidence of Brindley's tunnel led to its closure in the 20th century. The entrance to Brindley's tunnel could still be seen alongside the current tunnel, but closed up with an iron gate. A sad sight.
We arrived to find a queue of six boats waiting to go through. We moored up alongside nb "Happy Daze" and passed the time happily chatting with the couple on board.
The tunnel is one-way, so convoys of up to eight boats are sent through in alternate directions. Bryan, the tunnel keeper, came and gave us a safety briefing, took down details of each boat and the number of people on board. He said gorillas didn't count!  After about half an hour, we watched as five boats emerged from the tunnel and then we were ushered into the tunnel by Bryan at two minute intervals. The water here is stained a chocolate brown colour by the ironstone through which the tunnel is cut.

M decided to walk over the top of the hill on the route that would have been taken by the horses while R took MM through the tunnel.  She watched him go in and wondered if she would ever see him again! The middle part of the tunnel was very low, just about a foot above MM's roof, but the passage was uneventful. The only problem was that the noise of all the engines reverberating in the tunnel was so loud that R couldn't hear MM's engine and had to set the revs on the rev counter!

At the other end, R moored up and was surprised to have a cyclist stop next to him to say "Your wife is a bit lost but says that she will be along soon!" In due course M arrived, having been led astray by a map given her by the tunnel keeper that was hand drawn, very unclear and certainy misleading!
Time for a cup of tea before we continued on towards Stoke-on-Trent. Just before the town, we passed a beautiful spot called Westport Lake. We decided to stop and moor for the night, but as R put MM into reverse to back into an available mooring, something got caught in the propellor, so we had to pull MM into the mooring by hand with the kind help of Denis and Gail on the boat in front - nb "Angel's Whisper". Their boat was built by Aintree boats and launched in the same month as MM.
R spent some time down the weed hatch retrieving a large lump of plastic, rope, string and cloth from around the propellor.
Later in the evening, we walked all round the lake, which had originally been formed by mine subsidence but has since been turned into a very pleasant wildlife park.
Today: 8 miles, 1 lock, 1 tunnel and 5.5 hours.
Trip: 329 miles, 258 locks and 266.9 hours.

Monday 26 August 2013

Keith and Molly Visit.

Monday 26th August, 2013 in Congleton.
We awoke to a beautiful morning. The water in front of the old warehouse was very still and made wonderful reflections in the morning light.
Keith called to suggest that they bring a picnic lunch with them to maximise their time on MM, as opposed to the pub lunch that they had originally planned.
M sat on the towpath bench, next to the aqueduct close to MM, to watch out for them.
Keith duly arrived; he had left Molly, the car and the picnic lunch about half a mile up the canal, so he hopped on board and we cruised up to where Molly was waiting. They both looked so smart compared with us scruffy narrowboaters and the cool box was huge!
After a cup of tea we set off north up the Macclesfield Canal. The guide books told us of the scenic delights of this canal but even so, we were taken aback as one beautiful vista after another unfolded round each bend.


Our way along the canal was impeded by a fallen branch.
We squeezed past it with great difficulty, going right up against the bank where the canal was very shallow. In the process MM ran along the shallows, tipping her over slightly and a bottle of red wine, that Keith and Molly had thoughtfully provided for the picnic, went flying and smashed into a thousand pieces on the floor spilling its contents everywhere. While M and Molly cleared up the mess, R backed up and attached a rope to the branch and succeeded in pulling it clear to open up the canal again. We were initially worried that the grouting in between the floor tiles had been permanently stained purple by the wine, but later in the evening we were able to return the grouting to its pristine state with a bit of bleach and a lot of elbow grease.
"The Cloud" (not the internet one!) is a craggy limestone ridge towering several hundred feet up to the east. A large slice out of the side of the hill is the source of all the beautiful local building stone, epitomised by the lovely canal bridges.
Keith said that the views from the summit are superb. Sadly, we don't have time to walk up it this summer, but are resolved to come back this way possibly next year. We moored up for lunch just below the bottom lock of the flight of 12 locks with "The Cloud" in the background.
Lunch turned out to be a banquet! Keith and Molly had done us proud, it was delicious.
After lunch, we went through the first lock to where there was a turning point, turned round and then went back through the lock. The sides of the lock chamber were made out of huge stone blocks, Very different from the brick-sided locks that we have been used to. We marvelled at how the Victorians had managed to quarry, dress, transport and fit such large, heavy blocks of stone.
It was a lovely cruise back to Congleton in the afternoon sun, where we said goodbye to Keith and Molly, but not before we had made them walk the plank!
We then returned to the same mooring as last night opposite the old warehouse, but as we were now pointing the other way, R was able to wash the other side of MM.
Today: 9 miles, 2 locks and 4.7 hours.
Trip: 321 miles, 257 locks and 261.4 hours.

Sunday 25 August 2013

An Unexpected Journey

Sunday 25th August, 2013 in Congleton.
An Unexpected Journey? Well, we are Hobbits after all, and Hobbits have unexpected journeys!
Our "no-plan" route was to continue down the Trent & Mersey Canal, south towards Stoke-on-Trent. This is still the no-plan but we've made a detour due to the fact that Keith and Molly, who we'd arranged to meet on Monday, live in Congleton and as Congleton is on the Macclesfield Canal, and we have a little time in hand, we decided to take a short trip up the "Maccie".
However, before we could get to the junction with the Macclesfield, there was the small matter of 13 locks to cope with - the second half of "Heartbreak Hill". Actually the locks were quite easy and the sun shone, so the day passed very pleasantly.
The double locks were interesting in that the original lock chambers had been built by James Brindley in the eighteenth century and the duplicate locks were built by Thomas Telford in the nineteenth century. Where there are bridges into the locks, the two sides of the bridge had the same very different provenance although they had been built in the same style. Very skilled craftsmanship - you can hardly see the join!!!
Between locks 52 and 50, Brindley had built a staircase of three locks, which proved to be wasteful of water and a bottleneck for traffic. Telford replaced the staircase with three separate duplicated locks - and beside the "new" locks can be seen the grass covered outline of Brindley's original staircase.
In some cases, the duplicate lock had been abandoned - and it was interesting to see how quickly mother nature reclaims anything left unmaintained for any length of time.
The junction with the "Maccie" was interesting, if a trifle bizarre. We turned right (west) under the junction bridge, then the canal doubles back on itself for a few hundred yards before turning right again (east) and passing on an aqueduct over the bit of the Trent & Mersey that we had just sailed down. "How can this be?" asked M, puzzled.  R explained that after going under the aqueduct on the T&M, we had climbed up through two locks before the junction, to the level of the Maccie.
The Maccie is 26 miles long and only has 12 locks, all crowded together within a mile in the middle. The first mile after the junction and the aqueduct was actually built by the owners of the Trent & Mersey to connect with the Maccie at Hall Green, where there is a "stop-lock", just one foot deep to stop the "Maccie" from stealing the T&M's water. Actually, due to the companies' rivalry, there were originally two six-inch stop-locks, one immediately after the other, two guaging points and two toll houses!
The four mile journey up to Congleton was a delight, peaceful, gentle countryside and very few boats. Unlike the brick-built bridges on the T&M, the Maccie has very elegant locally sourced stone bridges.
It was a warm day and one local resident had decided to cool off in the shallows at the side of the canal.
We moored in Congleton by the old town wharf, overlooked by a handsome former warehouse, now converted into apartments.
A nice supper, quiet moorings, a beautiful sunset and a chap on the boat next door strumming a banjo - bliss!
Today: 8 miles, 13 locks and 6.8 hours.
Trip: 312 miles, 255 locks and 256.7 hours.

Saturday 24 August 2013

Heartbreak Hill?

Saturday, 24th August, 2013 at Rode Heath.
"Heartbreak Hill" is the nickname given to this heavily locked stretch of the Trent & Mersey Canal. The old boatmen simply called it the "Cheshire Locks" but the nickname presumably stems from the fact that there are 26 locks in six miles. Just when you think you've done the last one, there's another - and another - and another!
Actually, the locks went very well today. We did seven miles and 14 locks in well under five hours. Most of the locks are duplicated, there are two narrow locks side-by-side, and as there were several boats going up, there were always plenty of people to help and if someone was in front of you, they set the parallel lock for you and we did the same for those behind us.
In some cases, however, one of the duplicated locks was blocked off.  In one case it was being used as the overflow between the pounds! Quite a sight!
One or two of the locks also had warning notices on them to say that they were very narrow. You could see the side walls were bulging - so we used the other lock!
The water here is very brown, a sign that we are getting close to the Harecastle Tunnel, where the water is stained with ironstone from the old mine workings.
We passed under the M6 motorway, and felt very superior to be able to do our three miles an hour when the north bound traffic was at a standstill! However, the noise was horrible and could be heard  for a mile on either side.
The guide books talked of a Canal Centre and Post Office in Hassal Green village with excellent facilities and close to a very good 17th century pub rejoicing in the name of the "Romping Donkey". So we stopped in the village for lunch, but were sadly disappointed to discover that the Canal Centre and Post Office were closed (it looked permanent) and the beautiful old building of the "Romping Donkey" was  partly demolished and surrounded by security fencing. So we had sandwiches on MM instead.
We did see some lovely canalside cottages, one with a resident family of swans and several families of ducks outside the front door.
At Rode Heath, we moored up and walked in to the village to the Post Office to post some cards and buy a very "few bits". On our return to MM we saw that we had some young visitors who seemed to want to join us on board, so we shared some of our tea with them.
It was now late in the afternoon, so we decided to stay here for the night. The guide books metioned a wild flower meadow close by, created where there used to be a large salt works, so we went for a short walk to find it. Unfortunately the flowers are mainly finished now, other than some clover and ragwort, but it was a pretty place, certainly much prettier than a salt works!
Apart from some early rain, the weather stayed dry today, if a bit colder than recently, despite predictions of heavy rain. We even had a beautiful sunset over the trees.
As we did so well today, we have decided that we will try to go up the Macclesfield Canal from Kidsgrove to Congleton, where we hope to see Keith and Molly, Christine England's friends, on Monday.
Today: 7 miles, 14 locks and 6.4 hours.
Trip: 304 miles, 242 locks and 249.9 hours.

Friday 23 August 2013

Mick, Sue, Eva, Michael and Nicky Visit.

Friday 23rd August 2013, West of Sandbach.
We awoke to a lovely morning, bright, fresh and very still. We had both slept well.
As promised, Robbie duly arrived at 7:45 to do our "pump-out" and was rewarded with tea and biscuits! Happiness is a full water tank and an empty poo tank!
A passer-by told us that the cottage next to our mooring had once belonged to James Brindley, who was the consulting engineer on the Trent & Mersey Canal when it was being built between 1766 and 1777, although the guide books were silent on the issue.
As soon as we had finished at the boatyard, we moved on in order to free up the mooring. We went past the junction with the Shropshire Union Canal (which we had come down four days ago), through King's Lock and then moored up above it.  While in the lock and while the lock was filling, M took a photo of the water pouring through the lock gates from inside the bedroom on MM.
We were waiting for Mick, Sue, Eva, Michael and Nicky to visit us on their way back home from a few days' holiday near Carnforth. They had a four-night stay for the five of them in a luxurious lodge for just £150 in return for a two-hour hard sell, trying to get them to buy a time-share. They didn't buy!
They arrived at lunchtime and we all went to the King's Lock Inn, next to the lock, for lunch. Middlewich is a very run-down town and the pub, and its regulars, were no exception! The food was "interesting" and the service very slow, but quite cheerful! No matter, we enjoyed ourselves.
After lunch, we turned MM around and went back down King's Lock, introducing Michael to the mysteries of canal locks.  He'd never been on a narrowboat or worked a lock before but picked it up very quickly.
At the bottom, we turned again and filled up with diesel.
Heaven is a full water tank, a full diesel tank and an empty poo tank!!
Then we went back up through the lock. Everyone seemed to enjoy the short trip.
Eva declared that she was the Princess Captain!
After tea, they left to continue their journey home while we went on south to escape the noise of the busy road next to the canal. On the way we passed the "British Salt" works and the largest pile of salt you have ever seen.
Four miles and four locks later, we found a nice quiet mooring for the night. The landscape is becoming rural once more, a welcome return to the gentle countryside we've become used to.
Today: 4 miles, 7 locks and 5.8 hoours.
Trip: 297 miles, 228 locks and 243.5 hours.