Saturday 4th July, 2015 at Norton Priory, Castlefields.
An eventful day! Heavy rain overnight gave way to a bright morning. We felt that a "boater's breakfast" was the order of the day and enjoyed an excellent one in the Anderton Lift Visitors' Centre. Our table had a good view of the lift as a pair of boats went down.
From this point on, the canal was virgin territory for us. We were not disappointed; it was delightful cruising along this densely wooded waterway.
The only disadvantage was that, as a result of the trees, we failed to glimpse the much vaunted views of the River Weaver in its valley below! We did, however, glimpse a very jolly pirate brandishing his cutlass at us.
There are three tunnels on this stretch. Barton comes first, it is only 572 yards long and you can see through to check that it is clear (there is not room to pass inside) and as R disappeared into its portal.....
M took the lovely path over the top......
M just beat him to the other side where he emerged safely.
The next tunnel is Saltersford, which is slightly shorter but has a large kink in the middle so you cannot see through it. This tunnel is controlled by time so northbound boats, like us, can go through for the first 20 minutes of each hour. As we arrived on the hour, we went straight through and M stayed on board.
Before the third tunnel, there is a stop lock, just six inches high, that was designed to stop the Bridgewater Canal from stealing the Trent & Mersey Canal's water. M helped other boats through the lock and spotted an orchid beside the canal.
This tunnel is also timed, and by the time we negotiated the lock it was exactly on the hour so R took MM straight in while M again walked over the top.
The tunnel is 1,239 yards long and the official border between the two canals is - would you believe - in the middle of the tunnel! There was nothing in the tunnel to indicate the junction point, but on the hill above, M found the mile marker that defined the boundary.
Shortly after the tunnel, almost on a whim, we turned on to the Runcorn Arm. This is a five mile canal arm that terminates in Runcorn. It used to have two set of ten locks at the end down on to the Manchester Ship Canal, but these were closed and filled in in the 1960s. As it is a dead-end, very few boats bother to venture down this arm which is very sad because it is beautiful and the water is so clear that we could see the bottom. The water looked green, such a pleasant change from the brown of most of the canals.
We had read about a ruined priory about half way along, so moored up close to it and walked the quarter of a mile to it only to find that unfortunately it was closed for renovations. However, the notice on the gate said that the walled garden was still open about another quarter of a mile further on. We walked there to find an absolute gem.
The garden was probably the finest, most beautiful example we've ever visited.
We got talking to one of the staff, Claire, who told us that the floor of the undercroft of the old priory was subsiding due to a change in the water table and so the floor tiles were being lifted and the area under them excavated by archaeologists. They hoped to have the floor back and the priory reopened sometime next year - so we will have to come back again!
Today: 9 miles, 1 lock and 4.2 hours.
Trip: 100 miles, 53 locks and 66.9 hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment