Many Meetings: A Day in Llangollen.

Thursday 15th September, 2016 in Llangollen.
The basin at the end of the Llangollen Canal provides excellent mooring and even electricity - although there is a mooring fee.

The early morning started a bit misty but with clear blue skies and the forecast was for a very warm day.

Guy decided to "take some rays" while R updated the diary. We had earmarked today to explore this lovely town.

First on the agenda was a ride on the heritage steam railway and we planned to catch the first train at 10:40. So, after breakfast, we made our way down to the station, past the tea shop that doubles as the base for the horse drawn trip boat and where you have to purchase your mooring tickets.

Our train arrived on time, a little tank engine pulling a line of 1950's carriages.

It was a scenic journey ten miles up the valley alongside the River Dee. The line gains considerable height and the little engine was clearly working hard as it chugged uphill.
The end of the line has recently been extended to Corwen but as yet, they haven't been able to afford to build a platform there or a siding for the engine to run round the carriages - so after reaching Corwen, the whole train had to back down the line to Carrog, where the engine could be re-attached to the front of the train for the return journey.

We decided to alight at Berwyn on the return journey to visit the famous Horseshoe Falls that is the source of the Llangollen Canal water. The station is opposite the Chain Bridge Hotel.

The hotel is reached by a chain bridge that was originally built in 1813 to avoid the toll charges being levied on goods crossing the bridge in Llangollen. Since then it was rebuilt twice before finally being closed in 1985 as unsafe. Following a large Lottery grant it has been restored and was re-opened in May 2015.

The canal feeder runs behind the hotel from the Horseshoe Falls, built by Thomas Telford to provide water for the Llangollen Canal, the Shropshire Union Canal and for reservoirs that serve Chester and the surrounding area. Next to the "Falls", which is really a weir built across the river Dee, we saw this magnificent old oak tree. It looks old enough to have looked on as Mr Telford visited his creation when it was opened 208 years ago.

The water from the Falls is channelled under this metering house, where the flow is controlled at a consistent level; a mere 12 million gallons a day! At this point, the feeder is not navigable.

We walked the mile and a half back towards Llangollen on the towpath. After half a mile, we met the horse drawn trip boat just as it stopped to return to Llangollen. There is no way to turn it round so they just pick up the rudder from one end of the boat, put it back on at the other end and turn the horse around. So the horse is turned around but not the boat!

As he was being turned round, we had a chance to meet the horse, "Hercules", while he munched the grass beside the towpath.

When we arrived back in Llangollen, we decided that we deserved a little snack of something. Yesterday, we had visited an excellent tea room in a beautifully restored railway coach called "The Carriage".

Today, we promised ourselves proper afternoon tea in The Carriage. It was perfect, as it overlooks the station and we could watch the comings and goings of the steam train. All the doors were open, but the sun was so hot that we had to take the excellent spread off the table and put in the shade to stop everything melting!

Finally we had a last walk round this lovely town (we plan to leave early tomorrow). The view from the old bridge across the Dee is beautiful, overlooking the river and the station.