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.