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.

Nantwich to Middlewich

Thu 16^th July  Nantwich to Sykes Hollow 

Moored in Nantwich

Before we left, we made an online booking at Aqueduct Marina Café for breakfast on Friday. We went there two years ago, and it was excellent, so we are looking forward to a treat. 

We saw a pair of coal boats come past – the first ones we have seen since we left Aylesbury. 

Coal boats rounding the bend

Our first stop was at the facilities, where we emptied cassettes and disposed of rubbish. The water point was in use, so we decided to fill up elsewhere later. There were a lot of boats moving as we left Nantwich, passing the basin where the old canal used to terminate. 

A busy time in Nantwich

Looking back at Nantwich Basin on the right. We came through the bridge on the left

We passed the entrance to the Llangollen Canal, where the lock has been repaired and widened. It used to be the narrowest lock on the system as the walls had leaned towards each other over the years. Several boats have been unable to pass through, but this year they should be able to. 

Llangollen Canal entrance

 

Signpost at Hurleston Junction

 

The cricket season has started

We turned into the Middlewich branch at Barbridge Junction. Apparently there used to be a transhipment warehouse here, straddling the canal. 

The site of the old warehouse

 

An old picture of it, displayed at Sykes Hollow

Barbridge Junction

Midway Boats

It was a pleasant cruise through rural scenery, until we came to our only lock of the day, by Venetian Marina. We discovered that there was a queue of six or more boats, so we moored up and had a bun and a cuppa.  We moved along later, and used the water point before taking our turn on the lock.  The boat behind us was Monica Isabel, skippered by BCF member Barry.

The lock queue

Barry on Monica Isabel

Cholmondeston Lock

 We moored soon after at a place called Sykes Hollow, which used to be a clay quarry. It has now been turned into a pleasant picnic and BBQ area, with mooring rings. 

Sykes Hollow

 1 lock, 6 miles. Dep 0925, arr 1400 (including 45-minute wait)

 Fri 17^th July  Sykes Hollow to Clive Green

After our lock queue experience of yesterday, we decided to leave early to avoid being late for breakfast at the marina. The locks on the Middlewich branch are quite deep, and take a while to fill, and if there are several boats there can be delays. 

Minshull Lock

There is a pleasant grassy visitor mooring for Aqueduct Marina, which we had to ourselves. While we waited, Barry went past. The café was spaciously laid out, and all the precautions were in place. The breakfast was a very nice treat, and we do want to support businesses that are trying to recover from lockdown. (That’s our excuse!) 

The visitor moorings for the marina

 

Barry going past

 

Aqueduct Marina

 

Passing some wildlife 

The yellow ragwort is prolific this year and as we passed some by a bridge, we saw lots of butterflies, so we stopped for some photos. 

Comma butterfly

 

Tortoiseshell

 

Gatekeeper

 

Even seed heads can be beautiful

 Some converted stables

We stopped for the day at Clive Green Moorings between bridges 21 and 22, where there is a view overlooking the river Weaver and Winsford Top Flash. 

Clive Green Moorings

Hazel sat out for a while in the bows, and was bitten by a small weevil or beetle. It felt like a wasp sting. To give an idea of size, the two lines in the photo are on a standard notepad. 

The biting beetle

 1 lock, 5 miles. Dep 0805, arr Aqueduct Marina 0850. Dep 1110, arr 1255.

 Sat 18^th July  Clive Green to Middlewich

A wet day. There was an early gap in the weather, so we set off in the hope of reaching Middlewich in the dry. 

The view from our mooring

As we approached Stanthorne Lock, we had just met two boats, so we hoped the lock would be in our favour. As the lock came into view, there was a boat on the bollards, but no-one in sight. Then he moved. He had been up against the hedge, and he was wearing a brownish green coat, so he was camouflaged. Apparently, another boat had gone down before him, so he had had to fill the lock, and it was slow. The bottom paddles were restricted, so it took a long time to empty, and it was a deep lock. 

Stanthorne Lock

So we took our turn in the rain which had by now started. We put the hood up as we left the lock. 

Soon after the lock we saw the site of the breach two years ago, now with new concrete edges, and some mooring rings. 

The breach site at the Aqueduct over the River Wheelock

We moored on rings between bridges 29 and 30, and spent some time drying things out.

We walked into the town, hoping to buy a walking stick for Hazel as her leg has been swelling up. The charity shop we visited said they weren’t allowed to sell walking sticks at the moment due to the pandemic. Some logic has gone missing here somewhere. They can sell all sorts of other things in the shop, just as risky, but not something that is helpful medically.

We visited what used to be Tesco, and discovered that it is now Jack’s. There was nothing like the range, and we were disappointed. They are still owned by Tesco. Next time we will go to Morrisons and Lidl, both at the top of the town.

We walked back to the boat via a different route. All the bridges over the canal in Middlewich have steep steps down from the road, so there are no ramps, making trolleys difficult. 

Steps from the bridges

Moored in Middlewich

1 lock, 3 miles. Dep 0725, arr 0850. 

Next: starting our journey south via Stoke-on-Trent