Middlewich to Kidsgrove

Sun 19^th July  Middlewich to Paddy’s Wood

The first lock, Wardle Lock, had one paddle out of action, so it was very slow. There were three boats in front of us. When we finally got through, we turned right onto the Trent and Mersey, and went up through King’s Lock.

Lock queue 

Wardle Lock 

Into the Trent and Mersey 

Fortunately we found a mooring on rings above the lock, and stopped for the Broughton Church Facebook broadcast. We had taken an hour and a half to go 1 mile and two locks. It should have taken 45 minutes.

After the service, we had coffee afterwards on Zoom with our life group, followed by a visit to the pub for a Sunday roast. It was very nice, but not as good as the Boat Inn, Audlem.

Kings Lock pub

When we came out of the pub, we saw that at least five boats were queuing from two directions to go through Wardle Lock. It is time they fixed the paddle.

 

Lock queue for Wardle Lock

 We didn’t stay on that mooring, as there is a busy main road alongside, so we set off heading south. We passed the large salt works. Most towns ending in -wich are salt towns, e.g. Nantwich, Northwich, Droitwich.

 

The busy road

 

Salt works

 The locks were all against us, and eventually, at the third, we caught up with the boat in front at Lock 68, just as the busy road separates away from the canal. We only had one more lock, Crows Nest Lock, where there is a fine converted mill building.

 

Moston Mill

 We found a pleasant and peaceful mooring on piling at Paddy’s Wood. There was a glorious golden light as the sun went down – a great opportunity for some photos.

 

Moored at Paddy’s Wood

 Some golden images

 

6 locks, 5 miles. Dep 0905, arr 1035 Kings Lock. Dep 1335, arr 1550

Mon 20^th July  Paddy’s Wood to Malkins Bank

 

We didn’t have far to go today, and the first stop was for the facilities at Wheelock. We needed everything.  We found they had recycling here, an unusual bonus on the canals.

 

Wheelock

 When we left, we encountered the first of the paired locks.

 

Paired locks at Wheelock

 

Leaving Lock 66

 

Lock 63

 

A side arm at Malkins Bank

 

A split bridge

When these are working properly it speeds things up well, like the locks at Hillmorton, near Rugby. When occasional ones are out of order, and you only have just one to use, it causes lock queues. This is what we had today, as one of the locks at lock 62 has been filled with concrete and made into a weir.

 

Lock 62 concreted

We stopped after lock 61, where there was piling alongside a golf course. There was a farm opposite, with chickens and a peacock.  We had purposefully stopped before we reached the M6 which we could see a mile away, but thankfully we couldn’t hear it much as the wind carried the noise away.

 

Moored at Malkins Bank

 A Trent and Mersey mileage marker

 

The view from the window

  

Water art

Sunset

6 locks, 2 miles. Dep 1015, arr 1315.

Tue 21^st July  Malkins Bank to Chells Hill Bridge 144

 Dawn reflections

We started by visiting the golf club, where we enjoyed a full English breakfast

 

Golf club breakfast

The first two locks of the day were locks 60 and 59 , and then we passed under the M6 at Hassall Green. We continued through the Pierpoint locks, which are not paired, and we stopped before bridge 144 at Chells Hill, beyond the sound range of the M6.

 

Lock 60

 Under the M6

 

Moored at Chells Hill

 

Some lovely woods by the canal

A few beautiful flowers

 6 locks, 2 miles. Dep 0935, arr 1100

Wed 22^nd July  Chells Hill to Kidsgrove

We had  heard owls in the night. Our plans were to go as far as Church Lawton today, but ended up travelling to Kidsgrove due to the weather. 

We crossed the aqueduct over Chells Hill Road and were soon in Thurlwood. Lock 53 here is unusual in that it has a gate paddle instead of the top right ground paddle. The other lock of the pair is no longer there, but at one time it was an experimental steel lock, designed to overcome the subsidence caused by salt extraction.

 

Thurlwood Lock 53

 A little further on we met Patrick and Angela Marks on Chouette. They are BCF members, but sadly it was a very brief passing moment, with no time to chat. We then arrived at our intended destination, mooring rings at Church Lawton.

 

BCF boat Chouette

 Moored at Church Lawton

 As we were consuming a cuppa, we looked at the weather forecast and realised that tomorrow was to be wet. We decided to do tomorrow’s boating today and move on up through the next five locks while it was dry. At least then we would be withing range of shops and buses during a wet Thursday.

 As we climbed through the locks towards Kidsgrove, we briefly met another BCF boat – Phlox, owned by Beverly Howard. No chance to find out more.

 

BCF boat Phlox

 Our final lock of the day was just after the aqueduct which carries the Macclesfield Canal over the Trent and Mersey.  We moored soon after on rings at Kidsgrove, where is a pleasant area of bushes, trees and wild flowers. The water colour is getting redder as we near Harecastle.

 

Under the Macclesfield Canal

Moored in Kidsgrove.

 13 locks, 4 miles.  Dep 0845, arr Church Lawton 1045. Dep 1145, arr Kidsgrove 1310.

 Next: A day without moving, then Harecastle Tunnel on Friday, before starting our journey down towards Stone.