From a Cheshire Cat to Sunset and Wine

Tuesday 30th June, 2015 at Church Minshull.
R needed a haircut - badly! So he set off into town before 8:30. M followed a little later and we met in the "Cheshire Cat" pub (a magnificent timbered building which serves breakfast, lunch and teas) where we had an excellent breakfast.

Then we set off, passing another wooden carving, this time of a canal horse made out of old lock gates. You can just see him "leaning" forward as the boat horses used to do to get the boats moving.

To the west of the main canal is a short arm that branches off the main line. It is now used for moorings by the local boat club.

On the right is the route originally planned for the canal by Telford, but when the local landowners refused to allow him to cross their land, he was forced to reroute the canal. As a result, he had to build the tall embankment and aqueduct closer to the town - expensive both in terms of manpower and construction time.

At Hurleston Junction, we passed the turning up to the Llangollen Canal; very inviting but we're saving that delight for another year!

Another junction at Barbridge could have taken us on to Chester but again, we decided to save that for another year. So we turned north-east on to the Middlewich branch of the Shroppie.

This is a much under-valued length of waterway, very peaceful with some lovely moorings. There were only two locks today, but they were both very deep at 11ft 3in - quite intimidating when you're in the empty lock!

We found beautiful moorings on another of Telford's embankments, high above the little village of Church Minshull.
The guide book indicated a footpath down through a wood, known as "Eardswick Wood".

We followed the path through the wood, across several "Pooh Sticks" bridges, down by the infant River Weaver and into the village.

It was a very hot day and our hopes for an ice cream at the village shop were dashed when it appeared the village no longer has a shop. However, the "Badger Inn" advertised that it serves food and we managed to acquire two portions of ice-cream chosen from their dessert menu. Hooray!
Back at MM, we fell into conversation with Linda, Celia, John and Paul who were on an Anderton hire boat and are seriously considering buying a boat of their own. They asked many questions about MM and so we invited them on board for the "Ten Cent Tour".

They were great fun and it was a shame that they had to move on this afternoon, otherwise we imagine the evening would have been spent sitting on the towpath sharing a bottle or three of wine.
As it was, it was just Darby and Joan (alias Merry and Pippin - or M & R) with a glass of wine sitting on the towpath and watching the magnificent sunset.

Today: 9 miles, 2 locks and 3.4 hours.
Trip: 77 miles, 46 locks and 50.6 hours.