Our Neighbours from Meadvale Visit for the Weekend.

 Friday 29th and Saturday 30th April 2022 in Middlewich.

Glorious weather today with clear blue skies. Because we had extended our cruise yesterday and moored up in Middlewich, we could take it easy today and stay put. A day off!  Hurrah!!!

 "Larry" (Laryngitis) Blackbird serenaded us all day from his perch at the top of the tree next to us. We named him Larry as his song was definitely on the croaky side. We couldn't decide if it was Covid or Bird Flu but the lady blackbirds didn't seem to be impressed, poor chap!.

Although we have only been out for less than a week, we have done a lot of locks, so MM was in need of a good wash and polish inside and out in preparation for our weekend visitors.

We also took the opportunity to walk to the local Morrisons for a "few bits".

Early on Saturday morning, our lovely Bulgarian neighbours arrived at 9:30. Boris, Ivona, young Boris and little Alex. This is a "first" for them as they had little knowledge of these eccentric English narrowboats or of the canals.

R walked them down to Wardle Lock, 100 yards behind us, to explain the mysteries of a working lock. We set off to the west, in the other direction, shortly after.

There is something magnetic about the gunwales for teens/preteens. Within a few minutes of setting off, young Boris was very confidently walking round MM and continued enjoying the experience all day!

When young Boris wasn't walking round MM, he became very good at steering her.

Their first ever lock was Stanthorne Lock, which is a deep one. Certainly a baptism of fire (water?).

Two happy Boris's, Senior and Junior.

Both Boris's very quickly learnt the ropes (literally) and how the locks work. For the rest of the weekend, they made an excellent and very helpful crew.

Young Alex was fascinated by the wildflowers next to the towpath. As M, Ivona and Alex walked the towpath, M told them all the English names of the flowers, more than twenty differnt species of them.

After cruising along the Middlewich Branch for  few miles, we turned MM around and moored up for lunch.

 Young Boris looked very relaxed sitting in MM's bow as we cruised back toward Stanthorne Lock.

We moored up back in Middlewich in exactly the same place that we had left this morning, just facing in the other direction in preparation for tomorrow. Having had a large (and rather late) lunch, no one felt hungry enough for dinner. So, Ivona, Boris, Boris and Alex walked back to their car, which they had parked nearby, and returned to their hotel in Chester, declaring that they had had a marvellous day today and were looking forward to tomorrow.

Today: 8 miles, 2 locks and 6.0 hours (including power on Friday).

Trip: 37 miles, 49 locks and 25.5 hours.

An Extended Day of Locks.

 Thursday 28th April 2022 in Middlewich.

For the first time on this trip, the sun failed to appear and so it felt colder. M declared that the only part of her that was warm was her head, thanks to a toasty wooly hat lovingly knitted for her by her friend Mel. A tongue in cheek plea to Mel for a matching "Onesie" met with a short response!

We set off early, a good decision as all 16 of today's locks were set in our favour or had a boat coming out towards us.

The soil round here is very rich and makes a fine tilth.

This is underlined by the very rich grass sward in the foreground and the tractor cutting hay in the background. Hay already - in April?!

 The M6 is just a few yards from our first lock of the day! Quite a contrast between life at three miles per hour and the mad rush on the motorway. We know where we would rather be - no contest!

A large pair of ducks seemed to have made their home on this V-shaped section between two duplicated locks. We had some bread but it was a bit dry, so we threw it in the water to soften it.

However, they just looked down at the water in a disdainful fashion and decided it wasn't worth getting their feet wet. They then waddled over to MM and loudly complained about the service!

We remembered this duplicated lock from 2016, when we were last here. The second lock has been made into a waterfall to carry the excess water.

Lock 66, the last on Heartbreak Hill. A very "good road" as every lock was in our favour.

This is Wheelock Lock Cottage. M was fascinated to see the new owner trying to lever a huge cupboard through the tiny back door. M fell into conversation with him (naturally!) and it turned out that he had just bought the lovely cottage as his "forever" home. A very happy man, who turned out to be a collector of John Deere tractors (he has four!) and also owns two narrowboats which he hires out.

23 miles done on the Trent & Mersey Canal and 23 to go!

We decided to press on through the industrial south of Middlewich as the moorings here are not very nice and the canal runs right alongside a very busy, and noisy, road.

We stopped to look at the King's Lock pub as a possible venue for Saturday night's dinner. In 2013 we had a meal there that was probably our worst ever - hilariously awful, in fact! More recently, Canal Boat Magazine readers voted it the best pub on the network. So we thought we should check to see if major improvements had taken place but they clearly had not - we walked in, took one look and walked straight out again!

We decided to moor up on the Middlewich Branch, which is accessed via the Wardle Canal, the shortest canal on the network. It is only about 120ft long!

The moorings here are very quiet. We moored here before in 2016.

 We will stay here tomorrow to await our guests who are arriving on Saturday morning. Plenty of time to relax, shop for a "few bits" and clean MM.

Today: 8 miles. 16 locks and 5.8 hours.

Trip: 29 miles, 47 locks and 19.5 hours.

Heartbreak Hill?

 Wednesday 27th April 2022 at Hassall Green.

While M did the usual daily "domestics" (ie: chores), R took himself back to Lidl for milk, orange juice and bread.

There is a railway line close by and, to our astonishment, we both heard the unmistakable sound of a steam engine approaching. Clouds of steam and the engine's whistle sent the sheep in the field opposite into a panic but, sadly, a large earth embankment prevented us from seeing the locomotive, just its steam rising into the sky.

Later we saw a post that indicated that it had been LMS "Duchess of Sutherland" on her way from the National Railway Museum in York to south Wales.

A family of nine ducklings were perfectly camouflaged in the orange tinted water. M tried to lure them closer with a little bread but Mummy Duck told the ducklings to stay where they were and she came closer on her own to get the bread.

The first lock of the day.

This long flight of locks was known to the old working boat people as the "Cheshire Locks", more recently however, it is known as "Heartbreak Hill", although we have never found it to be a problem. Many of the locks are duplicated with two locks side by side.

About half of the duplicate locks still work but some have been filled in, some are just temporarily out of action but this one was completely overgrown and clearly has been unused for many years. It seems that the (newish) Canal & River Trust felt that a shiny new notice warning people not to use it was a priority. Good thing - as who knows - without the notice we might have been tempted to try to use it! Yes, there is an old lock under the forest on the left.

The blossom has been very prolific this year, particularly the cherry and apple blossom. Could it be another "Must" year?

We had a very "good road" today with every lock either in our favour, or we left one lock as another boat left the lock below us. Really nice to see this working boat still plying his trade on the waterways. In this case delivering fuel to regular customers and narrowboat liveaboards.

Another mile post marking 21 miles since we started.

Our mooring for the night in Hassall Green. Very peaceful and rural, despite the close proximity of the M6 motorway.

Today: 4 miles, 13 locks and 3.2 hours.

Trip: 21 miles, 31 locks and 13.7 hours.

Sarah, John and Middleport Pottery.

 Tuesday 26th April 2022 near Kidsgrove.

We started early at 8am to go up through the three Etruria locks. We needed to be at the south portal of the Harecastle Tunnel by midday, when it closes.

At the top of these locks is the junction with the Caldon Canal. Beside the junction is a statue to James Brindley, the engineer who built the Trent & Mersey Canal. The backdrop of modern apartments really doesn't do him justice.

The first heron that we have seen this year. He was a "brave heron" and stood his ground as we cruised past.

When we came this way in 2013 and 2016, the old Shelton Steelworks was just a vast wasteland. Now it is at last being developed with large warehouses and new roads covering this huge site.

Middleport Pottery welcomes boaters! Yesterday, we met up with Sarah and John, a lovely couple on n.b. "Cat's Whiskers". We had agreed to meet up at Middleport Pottery this morning for a look around and a cup of coffee.

Middleport Pottery is one of the very few potteries still manufacturing in Stoke-on-Trent and the only one still using traditional Victorian methods and equipment. It is fascinating to visit but sad that today we didn't have time to take the factory tour.

It is interesting to contrast Middleport's factory with the Wedgwood factory that we passed yesterday; one still in its original premises and the other all high-tech and modern.

 

The street outside Middleport could be Coronation Street, if it weren't for all the cars. The terrace of  houses looks as if they have been well renovated and gone quite up market.

 

The shop in Middleport Pottery is full of the china made on site; a real treasure trove!

We couldn't resist buying this for Judith, who loves doing jigsaw puzzles. It illustrates the history of the area, industrial and othewise.

The tea room at the factory is in the old Packing Shed. Tea and cakes served on their own china, of course!

Sarah and John outside the Factory entrance.

Middleport Pottery has its own moorings for narrowboats and we posed with the two boats before setting off to go through the Harecastle Tunnel.

The instructions for the tunnel say to arrive before 12:00 midday. Too much chatting over coffee led to us being very tight for time and we arrived at 11:59!  We were ushered straight into the tunnel. Couldn't have timed it better if we had tried!

The tunnel is 2,926 yards long and takes about 40 minutes to go through. It is very narrow, pitch black, quite wet and very cold indeed. Once the last boat in each convoy is in the tunnel, the tunnel keepers close the door behind you and start up huge fans to draw fresh air through, which means that there is a constant cold wind in your face. They advise you to wear warm clothing in the tunnel, no matter how warm it may be outside.

Emerging into the sunlight at the far end of the tunnel. The water at this end is a deep orange colour because of the local iron ore dissolved in the water.

 After leaving the tunnel, we waved goodbye to Sarah, John and Cat's Whiskers as they turned on to the Macclesfield Canal, on their way up to Bugsworth Basin, while we continued on up the Trent & Mersey Canal.

We moored up three locks further on. R did these locks while M went to nearby Lidl to get a "few bits".

Today: 7 miles, 6 locks and 4.5 hours.

Trip: 17 miles, 18 locks and 10.5 hours.