On to Venetian Marina & Home for the Weekend

 Thursday 18th June 2026 at Venetian Marina.

Last night there was a spectacular sunset looking across the valley towards the horizon way off in the distance. The colours were amazing and changing all the time.

 

We stayed up far too late watching the light show, but it was definitely worth it.

This morning, we set off from Church Minshull for the short run to Venetian Marina, where we will leave MM over the weekend.  We have ordered a taxi to take us to Crewe where we will get a train to Euston and then through to Redhill.

The plan is to drive the car back up to Venetian early on Tuesday morning and then take MM on to Tattenhall where the final closing will take place.

We have been in touch with MM's new owners and suggested that we will take them out for a cruise on Wednesday 8th July. We are looking forward to that.

Jenni and Ed Visit.

Wednesday 17th June 2026 at Church Minshull.

We had planned an early start this morning but were delayed for an hour by some issues with the charity of which R is a Trustee. This actually worked in our favour, as the weather, which had been dull and showery, brightened considerably and turned into a lovely day. Eventually R set off and found that somebody had left the top gates of the next lock open overnight, which again worked in our favour, and he was able to take MM straight in and complete the lock in record time. The first of only seven locks today.

We are heading for Church Minshull on the Middlewich Arm to meet up for lunch with our close friend Jenni and her son Ed. . This area was once a major producer of salt and south of King's Lock we passed the massive British Salt works that covers a huge area by the canal.

Next to the plant is a massive mountain of what looks like dirty salt. We're not sure if it actually can be salt because it would surely dissolve in the rain - but they certainly have a lot of it!

Immediately facing this huge ugly monstrosity is a new housing estate named "Millstream Meadows". At least they didn't have the audacity to call it Meadow View!  The name is definitely a classic example of marketing "speak" (i.e. complete nonsense!).

 Just before King's Lock, another narrowboat unmoored and went through the lock ahead of us but they stopped for water at the entrance to the Wardle Canal. Then they not only told us to go through ahead of them but, when M went up to set the lock, she found that they had walked up and set the lock for us. It's the kind of thoughtful gesture that boaters do for each other.  .

So R was able to take MM straight round the junction into Wardle Lock. The Wardle Canal is unique in that it is only 42 metres long from end to end. It was originally created to be able to charge tolls for boats going from the Trent & Mersey Canal to the Middlewich Branch. This photograph shows the whole length of the canal!

 

At Church Minshull we moored up and walked down into the town through the lovely woods next to the River Weaver.
 

When we were last here  a few years ago, the slopes of these woods were covered in badgers' setts. Sadly, we could see little evidence of fresh setts, just a couple of "back doors". We just hope that they have moved their main setts further up the hill away from the constant passing of humans out walking and their inquisitive dogs.

 We had arranged to meet up with  Jenni and Ed at the Badger Inn down in the village; they had kindly driven all the way from Manchester to join us. Its a lovely pub and we had an excellent lunch and a chance for a proper catch up. Ed decided to have an "Ice Cream Sandwich" for dessert, which looked "interesting"! He said it was very tasty.

 

Afterwards, we walked back up the hill through the woods together, although M lingered for some time, collecting native bluebell seeds and listening to the buzzards who nest there. Back on board, we chatted with Jenni and Ed before they left to walk back to their car. It was so good to see them. It was Jenni who "launched" MM at Enslow all those years ago, so it was very appropriate that Jenni should visit the boat as MM is about to pass on to new owners and new adventures.

 We have decided to stay here tonight and make an early start tomorrow to take MM to Venetian Marina where we will leave her for a few days so that we can go home for the weekend.

Today:8 Miles, 7 Locks and 4.1 Hours.

Trip: 181 Miles, 137 Locks ans 89.8 Hours.

Almost The Longest Day?

 Tuesday 16th June 2026 North of Sandbach.

We made a very early start as there are 29 locks between Kidsgrove and King's Lock. Most of them are paired with two locks side by side although in many cases only one of the pair is working. Major works were being done on one side of one of the first locks that we went through. A C&RT barge was removing the old lock gates.

A large notice announced that the C&RT is replacing the bottom gates and paddle gear, and doing work on the brick walls and ladders.

M photographed the new gates in place but still awaiting their balance beams.

The first five locks were all against us but the next five were either in our favour or there were boats coming the other way. We paused for coffee after three hours, having done 10 locks. We stopped at the Broughton Arms in Rode Heath where we had lunch with our lovely friends Shelley and Harley in July 2024.

When we met Shelley and Harley there in 2024, we were driving up north and knew they were moored at  Rode Heath, so stopped off there and took a photograph from the car park of them in their boat Lazy Bee. Today, we had moored MM in exactly the same place, so M recreated the photograph. We do miss those two special people.

 Some of the pounds are very short so it is a tight fit to get two boats to pass as one goes up and the other goes down.

 

It was good to see that the C&RT is working on some of the paired locks but quite a few of the "pair" have been abandoned completely like this one, or some have even been filled in.

Anyway, we made very good progress and the weather was kind. For much of the morning the sun came out and we took off layer after layer as we got too hot. The countryside hereabouts is truly lovely, much of it is pastureland given over to grazing herds of cows, hence Cheshire's famous cheese!

 Our original idea had been to stop next to Malkin's Bank Golf Club overnight and have breakfast there in the morning but as we plan to meet up with Jenni tomorrow, we needed to get on and so settled for an ice cream and kept on cruising.

Further along we came upon another lock undergoing major work including replacing gates and paddle gear. 

 

 Finally we cleared lock 66 of what the old boat people used to call "Heartbreak Hill" and after cruising on for a few miles moored up just west of Sandbach. There are no good moorings here but we did find a rather unorthodox spot by tying up to a few posts stuck into the canal bank. The small blue flowers on the bank are the wild geranium.

 Not perhaps the longest day that we have ever done but a good effort to do 25 locks and 9 miles in only 7 hours and 40 minutes.

 Today: 9 Miles, 25 Locks and 7.6 Hours.

 Trip: 173 Miles, 130 Locks and 85.7 Hours.

Middleport Pottery and the Harecastle Tunnel.

 Monday 15th June 2026 in Kidsgrove.

Just north of last night's mooring are the three very deep Etruria Locks, which we tackled after breakfast. There used to be a sanitary station there; M could find no sign of it but she did get a good photograph of the statue of James Brindley.

Etruria is the junction of the  Trent & Mersey Canal and the Caldon Canal, which goes off to the left in the photo below. In the centre is an old dry dock for maintenance. Etruria is an interesting name; it was adopted by the early pottery makers because they thought it sounded Roman and therefore "classy"!

After Etruria, we stopped off at Middleport Pottery for some early lunch. There are excellent visitors' moorings here and we decide that we should come back by car one day and do the tour again as it was excellent when we did it some years ago.It was a very "hands on" type tour which made you feel very involved with all the fascinatimg processes. 

M greatly admired the lampshades in the Café. Sadly the shop which sells the products made at the pottery does not open on a Monday. Another reason to come back!

The then "Prince" Charles was very involved in the restoration of Middleport Pottery and has visited on a number of occasions. The restoration was made possible by a handsome donation from the Prince's Trust.

 

On our way to the Harecastle Tunnel, we passed this narrowboat with a familiar name and exchanged laughing greetings with the owner.
 

At Harecastle there was a wait for an hour to go through due to boats coming through the one-way tunnel in the other direction.. M took a photograph of James Brindley's original  tunnel, which was completed in 1777 after 11 years' work, an incredible achievement for its time. It was finally closed in the 20th century due to subsidence.

We set off through Thomas Telford's tunnel, which was completed in 1827 after only three years' work, a sign of the speed of developments in civil engineering in that intervening period.

40 minutes and 2,926yards later, we emerged at the northern portal. Today, M decided to stay on board rather than walking across the top. Her previous experience of walking over the top was "interesting" due to a highly inaccurate hand drawn map provided by a well meaning tunnel keeper who unfortunately didn't know east from west or north from south!

Just past the tunnel exit we passed the entrance to the Macclesfield Canal, which goes up to the Peak Forest Canal. Sadly Bosley locks, in the middle of the "Maccie", have been closed on and off for some time.

We only went through one lock at Kidsgrove before mooring up and walking back to the large Lidl next to the lock for a few bits and in search of a post box (which we eventually found in Tesco after asking some locals!).

 Today: 6 Miles, 4 Locks and 3.0 Hours.

Trip: 164 Miles, 105 Locks and 78.1 Hours.

A Great Day with Special Friends.

Sunday 14th June 2026 in Stoke-on-Trent.

Today we had arranged to meet up with April and Mark, (a lovely couple whom we met at the Crick Boat Show), and to take them out for the day on MM. With perfect timing, they arrived as we were filling up with water by M&S in Stone. The first lock was Star Lock and, as experienced narrowboaters,  they volunteered to go and set the lock for us. 

Not long after, we passed a narrowboat called "Idle Women" - obviously a nod to the Idle Women books about the young women who skippered loaded working boats during WW2..

We had a very "good road" through the four Stone locks and the four Meaford locks and made excellent time particularly with the help of April and Mark, who were quite happy to climb ladders and work gates and paddles.

After Meaford Locks, April had a turn on the tiller. They said that when they are cruising, April tends to do the locks and Mark normally steers. At the locks, April had been reminding Mark how to do the locks and now Mark had the opportunity to remind April how to steer. Either way, they both did an excellent job!

George and Debbie (M's sister's sister-in-law) live only a few hundred yards from the canal just north of Barlaston and they walked down to join us for tea and cake aboard MM.

After tea, we continued on for a while with George steering enthusiastically. We think that he would happily have stayed for much longer but he suddenly realised that they would have to walk back to where they started! And having had a knee replacement fairly recently, discretion was the better part of valour!!!.

Before they left, we had the obligatory photograph in front of MM.

We continued on with April and Mark to the centre of Stoke-on-Trent, where we dropped them off just by the railway station so that they could catch a train back to Stone. It really was a great day to share with special friends.They really were super company.

We continued on through two more locks to a very quiet mooring opposite the city cemetery.

Beside our mooring there used to be a massive pottery works: it is now a housing estate but these two bottle kilns still survive. We call them Jack & Jill and we have moored here many times over the years.

Today: 9 Miles, 11 Locks and 5.1 Hours.

Trip: 158 Miles, 101 Locks and 75.1 Hours.

Two Closed Cafes

Saturday 13th June 2026 at Stone.

 M got up early at 3.45am to listen to the dawn chorus already in full swing from the huge mature beech and sycamore trees beside our mooring.  However, this proved to be in vain, as the birdsong was completely drowned out by the racket coming from a large flock of quarrelling Canada Geese! They are most definitely not our favourite creatures at the best of times.

Later another visitor tapped on the window in the hopes of some breakfast for her family of cygnets. Not having any bird food or bread, we did try porridge oats, but they sank as soon as they touched the water. We had more success with cornflakes, so the swans were happy!.

 We had arranged some time ago to have breakfast with Bridgett and Peter in the Saracen's Head over the road from their house.Again, this establishment has been the site of many gathering of friends and, as ever, the breakfast and the company lived up to expectations.

After breakfast we said sad farewells to Bridgett and Peter and we promised to drop in by car in the not too distant future. What lovely friends they are!

Sandon Lock has often been the first and/or last lock on many of our trips from Aston Marina, where we moored MM for 12 years. This time, unusually,  there was a queue of three boats waiting to go up through the lock, which delayed us a little but we were soon through.

The penultimate bridge before Aston Marina we call Sheep Bridge because we have often seen sheep wandering across it. Today they were all the the next field and the bridge was closed off so it looked sad and lonely with no sheep looking down at us as we passed underneath.

 

We definitely could not pass Aston Marina without dropping in to see the guys. Unfortunately Nick, the Moorings Manager, was off this weekend but we did see Sandra and Nick's son Tobias, who has started working at the Marina having finished at University. We also took the opportunity to top up with diesel.

Finally, we arrived in Stone quite late in the day to find, predictably, that there were very few moorings available, so we ended up quite a long was from Star Lock.

As soon as we had moored up, we set off for the town because we wanted to visit Donna and Gaynor in the Secret Tea Room before they closed at 4:00pm, not least because they are due to retire soon. On the way we passed a young lad and his Dad just as they caught a large crayfish. They were totally astonished and clearly didn't know what to do with it. We do know there are two species of crayfish in our waterways. one of which is native but the other is a highly unwelcome and invasive type.  Unfortunately, M couldn't remember which is which! 

Having finally arrived at the Secret Tearoom, we were disappointed to find that it was already closed. Knowing that Donna and Gaynor want to retire soon, we will try to drop in with the car when next we are passing. In the meantime we will drop them a note to say how sorry we were to have missed them.

M needed a few bits, so we went to M&S intending to have a cuppa and cake in their cafe. A prospect made sweeter by the fact that M had an M&S voucher for £2 off in the cafe. Imagine our horror to find that the M&S cafe closed for good a couple of months ago. However, M was prepared to forgive them (just!) because they did have fresh peas in their pods - the first of the season! So, we went back to MM for tea and coffee instead.

Today: 6 Miles, 2 Locks and 2.2 Hours.

Trip: 149 Miles, 90 Locks and 70.0 Hours.