RHS Bridgewater Garden

 Wednesday 15th June 2022 at RHS Bridgewater.

Today we spent most of the day exploring more of the new RHS Bridgewater Garden.

The first priority was breakfast in the café. M had a bacon bap with a massive amount of excellent bacon that filled her up so much that she didn't need any lunch!

Yesterday, we had spent most of our time walking around the far end of the garden so today we started with the walled gardens. These were the original walled gardens to the Duke of Bridgewater's house and they have now been set out as a formal garden like this section:

Or a kitchen garden, and another area as a "Paradise" garden, an area in which to relax and unwind.:

Quite large sections have been left as wild grass areas, with lovely paths cut through them so that you can wander about or stop and have a picnic at one of the many tables provided.

Ox-eye daisies were very much in evidence with vast patches of them.

In one corner were a series of small gardens, each only about 15ft by 10ft. The first garden showed what NOT to do in a small garden.

Each subsequent small garden showed different ways of improving the garden and making it more resilient and ecologically friendly. Such a clever idea.

A large space at the end was being cleared as the "Discover Soil Garden" from the recent Chelsea Flower show, designed by Juliet Sargent, will be installed there in due course.

Clearly, there is still huge potential to develop the site but what has already been achieved is quite beautiful. The garden is very different from Wisley, which has large areas of formal plantings such as rose gardens; Bridgewater is very "wild" by contrast.

After returning to MM, we cruised the one mile to Worsley where we turned MM around in front of the original site of the Duke of Bridgewater's mines and hence the very beginning of "Canal Mania" and the Industrial Revolution. The mines are up the little arm on the right.

 We then cruised back towards the marina, where we will leave MM tomorrow morning, and moored up again. You might just be able to make out the marina on the far right of the photograph, so it is very close.

Tomorrow morning, we will put MM into the marina and go home by bus and train for a while. So please watch this space for when we return. It's been a marvellous few weeks (we've even managed to smile in retrospect about the notorious Wigan 21!).

Today: 2 miles, 0 locks and 2.1 hours (for power).

Trip: 232 miles, 161 locks and 127.0 hours.

What an Unexpected Surprise!

 Tuesday 14th June 2022 in Boothstown.

On Tuesday morning, we set off towards Boothstown. The first bridge marks the boundary between the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, Leigh Branch (controlled by C&RT) and the Bridgewater Canal, which is privately owned.

On the bridge behind us was the welcome to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

And a few yards in front was the welcome to the Bridgewater.

Leigh is surrounded by several huge, and handsome, cotton mills. Unlike many local towns, almost all of them are actually being well maintained and being used as offices or as accommodation.

As we arrived in Boothstown, we called into the lovely little marina there to check that they were expecting MM on Thursday morning (they were!) and to top up with diesel (red diesel at £1.54 per litre!).

Round the corner, we moored up just outside the new RHS Garden. Finally, after weeks of indifferent weather, summer has arrived "up north"!

On the way through here in May, we had dropped in to the new garden for a couple of hours but we had earmarked today and tomorrow to spend more time exploring it. Considering that construction only started in 2015, and was slowed up by Covid, the progress is remarkable.

Today was "Salford Tuesday" when anyone from Salford (again, Lancs, not Surrey!)  can go into the garden for free, so the huge car park was full and there were literally thousands of visitors. However, like RHS Wisley, it is a very large area and is quite capable of absorbing, and catering for, thousands of visitors without feeling crowded. Huge swathes of paths had been mown through the long grasses to make lovely walkways.

This is part of the Chinese Streamside Garden, which already looks lovely, although there is more development work to do to expand the length of it. This was M's favourite bit. There is a lot of Chinese influence which has gone into the planning and development of much of this huge garden.

There is a large lake at the far end, which we walked around, and then walked back towards the entrance building through the "Victorian Meadow". Another favourite for M!

At the end of the meadow was a board explaining the local plants and, as we were studying it, we moved to one side to allow another couple to read it. Amazingly, it turned out to be R's brother Chris and his wife Gay who were on holiday from their home in Dorset! Impossible to decide which of us was the most surprised!

What an amazing coincidence that we were all here on the same day and that we ended up standing next to each other - out of this huge garden area and out of thousands of visitors. Serendipity indeed. Huge hugs all round, followed by cups of tea and coffee and a catch up.

We slowly made our way back to the entrance and out to their car and they left to continue on to Wales  for a few days. In a bit of a happy daze, we walked back to MM and declared this to be one of the absolute highlights of this trip!

Today: 5 miles, 0 locks and 1.6 hours.

Trip: 230 miles, 161 locks and 124.9 hours.

A Very Quiet Day.

 Monday 13th  June 2022 in Leigh 

After the trials of yesterday, we had a very quiet day today. We cruised the five miles to Leigh (Lancashire, not the one near Reigate!), passing an innovative use of old lock gates on the way. The scale of them does bring home to you their size - and weight1

Sadly, the Waterside Inn had closed since we passed in May, but it meant that the mooring outside the Inn was very quiet. The white building on the left is the back of...

You guessed it! Not very far to go for a "few bits".

Gerry and Dean on nb "Polveithan", with whom we went down the two Poolstock Locks yesterday and who we moored next to last night, moored up opposite. The four of us went into the local shopping centre and had a coffee together. We had plenty to talk about, as it turned out that they live in Daventry, where M lived for fourteen years and worked in Waitrose there!

The rest of the afternoon we just relaxed - a real treat for us!

Today: 5 miles, 0 locks and 1.8 hours.

Trip:225 miles, 161 locks and 123.3 hours.

A Very Exhausting Day

 Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th June 2022 on the outskirts of Wigan.

On Saturday morning, we cruised down to the top of the Wigan 21 flight of locks in the hopes of finding another boat to go down the locks together. Sadly, no other boat appeared. Late in the afternoon, four narrowboats arrived and said that they planned to go down Sunday morning (tomorrow). We either had to wait another day in the hopes that a single boat might arrive or go very early on Sunday before the other four boats started. We decided on the latter course.

Sunday morning, up at 5.10! R had set the first three locks by 6:30 and we entered the first lock at 6:50. This is actually quite a pretty flight.

 

However, the locks are in a very poor state and there is no way of mooring between locks. Once R had driven MM into a lock, closed the top gates and opened the paddles to empty the lock, M would hold MM on the centre rope while R had to walk ahead to set the next lock and open a gate before walking back to the previous lock, climbing 10 ft down a ladder to get back on MM and then M opened that gate so R could drive MM on to the next lock while M closed the gate on the previous lock (if she could). Some of the gates were so heavy that M couldn't close them on her own. And repeat 21 times.Yes, an extremely laborious and time consuming exercise - and exercise it certainly was!!!

On either side of the top nine locks, there used to be a massive coal and steel works that once employed 10,000 people and mined a million tonnes of coal to produce 125,000 tonnes of steel annually. Next to one lock is an old slag heap that towers over the canal.

M scrambled up to the top and found these massive great blocks of slag embedded in the heap.

The view from the top of Wigan far below was spectacular. And what was in theory a massive pile of waste material was, after upteen years, carpeted with wild flowers and quite lovely.  It's wonderful how Mother Nature can reclaim things.

We finally left the bottom lock after 5 hours and 10 minutes. Unfortunately, our problems were just beginning as there was hardly any water in the pound below the bottom lock. The water level was a good 18 inches down and we immediately ran aground.

We were in good company as at least half a dozen other boats were also stuck on the bottom.

To add insult to injury, MM picked up a mass of hard plastic and detritis on her propeller, which took R an hour to remove. It is always difficult to remove large lumps like this as the water is not clear, so you cannot see what is there and how it has wound itself round the propeller. You have to work out what is there by feel and then try to get it unwound from the propeller all while your hands are in very cold mucky water.

Thanks to a very helpful C&RT volunteer by the name of Peter, more water was flushed down into the pound and, after two hours of being stranded, we were on the move again. Our original plan had been to turn right towards Liverpool but after all the problems we'd had today, we turned left toward Manchester and soon moored up for the night. More than a bit tired tonight!

Two Days: 6 miles,23 locks and 3.5 hours.

Trip: 220 miles, 161 locks and 121.5 hours.

Withnell Fold, a VC and a Feline Guide.

 Friday 10th June 2022 above the Wigan Locks.

A beautiful sunny early morning.

We stopped off at Withnell Fold, site of a huge former paper mill since demolished, but in 1841 a model village was created to house the paper mill's workers and those cottages still survive grouped around a central square - and with the old wooden village stocks still in situ!. On our way up to the village, we were greeted by a local resident, who then escorted us throughout our visit. He was so gorgeous; we wanted to take him home!

The factory chimney still survives, plus a series of outbuildings, now used by small businesses. The narrow road up from the canal, and on through the village, is cobbled all the way. The village has no shop, no pub and no church.

The mill once had a large lake to store water for the papermaking process. This has now been turned into a memorial garden, dedicated to villagers who died in the two World Wars. The sundial is the centrepiece of the memorial.

The plinth of the memorial lists villagers who died in the First World War on one side and those who died in the Second World War on the other.

A plaque in front of the memorial records the name of Private James Miller VC who, despite being mortally wounded, delivered a vital message during the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. Our local guide paid his respects to the brave young man.

Running through the village in a tunnel is an aqueduct built by Manchester Corporation in 1894 to carry water from Thirlmere in the Lake District to Manchester. Local villagers can still remember walking through the tunnel as children when it was drained for maintenance in the 1950s.

The world famous contralto, Kathleen Ferrier, grew up close to here and used to play the piano at the village workers' club in her youth. In 1935, she married Bert Wilson, who lived in the village.

Our guide continued to escort us until we returned to MM.

Further on, we came to the seven Johnson's Hillocks Locks and were very pleased to see two C&RT volunteers who kindly helped us down the flight in record time.

As ever, almost all the top gates leaked badly and, as MM is 60ft long, it is necessary to back into the waterfall to give enough room to open the bottom gates, which often ends up flooding the back deck. Today we managed to get away with only one bucket full in the engine room!

These are very pretty locks surrounded by open countryside.

At the bottom lock we said farewell and a big "Thank You" to our two C&RT volunteers.

Along the towpath we saw several groups of Duke of Edinburgh students, each with colourful rain covers on their packs. They said that they have a six hour trek today and the level of enthusiasm varied considerably! The pony was taking a great interest in procedings.

Shortly before we moored up, we saw this unusual boat name, can't quite make out what it really means?

We moored up a couple of miles before the top of the Wigan 21 flight of locks. Tomorrow we will go to the top of the locks and wait a while, hoping to find a second boat to go with. R has put a post on the Wigan Flight Facebook page to see if anyone else is planning to go down.

Today: 10 miles, 7 locks and 4.1 hours.

Trip: 214 miles, 138 locks and 118.0 hours.

Help from a Fire Crew.

 Thursday 9th June 2022 at Riley Green.

This is a lovely open mooring near Norden in Lancashire.We had stopped here overnight on the way up and resolved to do the same on our return.

The clouds were mirrored in the canal in the early morning light.

The mooring is next to a bridge crossed by a very popular footpath but we still can't work out where people are coming from and going to! There is not much in the way of buildings in either direction and our maps didn't indicate any dwellings other than one farm.

This handsome building is Imperial Mill and was a cotton spinning mill built in 1901. It originally housed 70,000 ring spindles but, like other mills in Blackburn, it was badly affected by the First World War. It was eventually taken over by Courtaulds but stopped production in 1980.

Graham & Brown manufacture wallpapers and have covered this old telephone box outside their factory with one of their patterns. Good marketing!

Another former cotton spinning mill is now used by Granada Television as offices and studios.

M was surprised at the number of Ox-eye Daisies growing beside the towpath; they have followed us in profusion for many miles!

The wharf in Blackburn is very similar in design to the one in the Weavers' Triangle in Burnley.

Half way down the six locks in Blackburn, we were surrounded by firemen (and firewomen) who were on a practice exercise. Apparently there is a large tip next to the lock that frequently catches fire, so they were practicing getting water from the lock in preparation for the next conflagration. They were very interested in MM so M had lots of help, including one fireman who wanted to operate the paddles: he said "This a first for me - I've never done this before". M couldn't resist the inevitable reply - "I bet you say that to all the girls". He did blush a bit!!!

The fire crew had two C&RT volunteers helping them and they very kindly helped us through the rest of the flight.

Some of the lock gates are very heavy and are provided with winding mechanisms - but they are still very heavy to operate. It wasn't helped by the fact that M still had a sore upper arm from yesterday's  vaccination!

We moored up about four miles further on near the small village of Riley Green.

Today: 9 miles, 6 locks and 3.1 hours.

Trip: 204 miles, 131 locks and 113.9 hours.