Middlewich Branch Archives - Wandering Bells

Today, it rained. No I mean it really rained, proper rain. But we’ll get to that later.

I woke to a misty morning. It was also a little cooler. Decided to get a reasonable early start. I needed to do some shopping in Middlewich for fresh stuff. Getting on to the visitor moorings in Middlewich can sometimes be a challenge. They can often be full. So getting there by late morning would maximise chances of getting a spot.

It’s a gentle cruise past yet another one of those random personal landmarks. Yes, we are back on familiar territory. At Weaver Bank there are some former canal horse stables that have been converted for residential use. I have never quite worked out whether it it one dwelling or several. If it is several, they are pretty small. Perhaps they are for holiday lets?

Soon after the stables, we passed another formal mooring spot. The ground falls away very steeply into the valley, giving you impressive views down over Top Flash on the River Weaver. We’ve never moored there, but we really will have to try it soon. The only problem is, it looks popular.

Before getting to Middlewich, we had to negotiate Stanthorne Lock. The CRT Volunteers were out in force, with 3 of them already at the lock and a boat load just arriving below. This was a working party intending to repaint the lock. It certainly looked like it needed it. But by now it hadn’t started to rain. This wasn’t proper rain. It only lasted 10 minutes. Just long enough for them to work me through the lock. Thanks! The locks on the Middlewich Branch are all pretty deep, and this one leaks quite a lot.

I pulled in at Middlewich before Wardle Lock, and did the necessary shopping. Then I took advantage of being close to one of the best canal side Fish and Chip shops around. A bit of an indulgence, but they don’t do pudding and chips in the south. Heathens!

After lunch, I sat there for a few minutes trying to decide whether to stay there or to push on. The Middlewich visitor moorings are OK for urban moorings, but it was sunny, so I decided to go. That turned out to be a bad mistake, but not immediately.

First we went through Wardle Lock, again helped by volunteers who were actually painting (not for long). There is a plaque next to the lock to commemorate Maureen Shaw, who lived in the lock cottage. She would often be seen leaning on her fence, acting as an unofficial lock keeper, giving passing boaters advice. As she lived most of her working life on canal boats, she knew what she was talking about.

The tiny section of canal below the lock, but before the junction bridge used to be known as the Wardle Canal. Exorbitant fees were charged for boats to transit the Wardle Canal. All part of the rampant competition between canal companies. This junction is often really busy. Today wasn’t any different. Boats coming north and south, and one taking on water by the junction. Having just descended Wardle Lock, now heading south on the T&M, I had to ascend Kings Lock. As the chip shop is right next door, you get some enticing aromas at lunchtime. Not a problem for me as I had already indulged.

Now, the clouds started to look quite ominous. Of course, now I was on a section of canal that you don’t really want to moor on. It’s right next to a main road. I was now committed. And now it really started to rain. I started to get quite wet, so the phone and camera got put away, so no pictures of this deluge. It was the sort of proper rain that made you wish you’d put shorts on because its easier to dry skin than it is to dry clothes. It was the sort of proper rain that makes you stop bothering with the umbrella because you’re so wet it isn’t worth it. It was the sort of proper rain that soaks through everything except your underpants. And then it rained even harder, so hard that you need the umbrella again just to see what you’re doing. It rained so hard that Sam the roof dog begged to be let back inside the boat. And every time you thought it was going to stop, it didn’t. It did let up briefly at Crow’s Nest Lock so I could take this sad photo.

And then the hardest rain came down just as I was leaving the lock. I needed to get another half mile down to get to a reasonable place to moor.

Of course, as soon as I pulled over, the rain stopped.

The promised Wednesday evening thunder, sort of, materialised. The rain had impressively large drops. And we had one roll of thunder. I think it was very localised and I was moored right on the edge of the storm. Apparently, Middlewich had flash floods.

By Thursday, the need for services was becoming more urgent. Especially water. Even with just one human on board, doing the washing and having a shower can use up a good amount of it. I decided to do the short trip through Nantwich and onto the Middlewich Branch.

But first, there were the two locks at Hack Green. There’s a handy information board there giving even more detailed information about the Secret Bunker. Turns out it was originally a radar station and was only converted to be a Regional Seat of Government in the 1980’s, before being decommissioned in the 90’s.

The canal passes through Nantwich on a significant embankment, dotted with the occasional wooden sculpture. This sculpture trail either begins or finishes with this large horse, depending on which direction you are going. It looks like it is the new fashion to have big sculptures of horses next to canals. At least in Nantwich and Falkirk.

At Nantwich we took on water, and got rid of some “stuff”. Quite a queue developed. My water tank was quite low, the tap was slow and there was only one of them. The guys who pulled in to use it after me were getting quite frustrated. At least they had a secure mooring on the wharf, the other 2 boats had to wait over the other side of the canal due to the limited space.

Nantwich Services - before the queue developed — Nantwich Services – before the queue developed

Shortly after leaving Nantwich, it was time to resist, seriously resist, the temptation of the Llangollen Canal. It begins at Hurleston junction, with a flight of locks the ascend up the hill from the Shropshire Union. This canal is one of our favourites, and the first canal that Heather fell into. No, that’s not the reason that it’s a favourite. I think it is the way it combines climbing from the Cheshire Plain into the Welsh Hills, with an impressive canal icon in the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. There’s even a steam railway at the far end if you are into that sort of thing.

I resisted, but now Heron is going to be based up here, we won’t be resisting for long. We have travelled this stretch, from Hurleston to Barbridge junctions, many times. The large mound or hill next to the canal is actually the dam for the Hurleston Reservoir, which is fed by the Llangollen. The canal is fed by water from above the man-made Horse Shoe Falls, and it brings that water all the way to Hurleston to supply urban centres in this part of Cheshire. Seeing this view was always a good sign that the Llangollen was just around the corner.

Barbridge Junction turned out to be quite busy, with boats taking on water, boats turning out of the junction and boats coming south towards me. Here it was time to turn onto the Middlewich Branch. A little bit of wind meant I almost didn’t make the turn. Not sure that Sam was too impressed. Then we presented with a very familiar view, with boats lining both sides of the cut down to the junction. If you ever plan on mooring on the end of the Middlewich Branch, next to the junction, forget it.

There were two more locks to do before I planned on pulling over. First at Cholmondeston, next to Venetian Marina. There was a very helpful CRT volunteer there. Which was handy, because this is the deepest lock I have done so far. Venetian was one of the possible mooring locations we considered for Heron. It is quite a bit larger than I remembered it, because they have expanded. We tackled Minshull Lock on out own. And boy is it a deep one too. Over 11 feet. Thankfully for the vertigo susceptible, there are little bridges over the downstream end (like on the T&M). Sam did not know quite what to make of a lock this deep.

In the past, approaching this lock from the other side could cause a little frisson of fear. One time, early in our boating career, we rounded the corner and could see the stretch between the bridge and the lock completely lines with waiting boats. It took 3 hours to get through. There has often been a queue waiting to go up here, and whilst the lock still fills very slowly, there was nobody else around.

There are a number of very attractive mooring spots along this part of the Middlewich. The canal passes over the infant River Weaver on an embankment and aqueduct, then contours along the valley looking down onto the river. There a number of formal mooring sites with mooring rings to make life easy. I chose the first one, by the aqueduct. I was all settled in before I realised that phone signal was almost non-existent. It was too hot to bother doing anything about that.

I left that until today. There’s a number things I need phone and internet to sort out, so I shuffled a mile along to an even better view of the river and Church Minshull, with the added advantage of decent phone signal. (Little hint: try mooring just off the end of the official mooring, after the 48h mooring limit. You will need to use spikes, but there isn’t a stone ledge under the water line that makes for a bumpy night).

This is a busy canal. We’ve only been moored here about 4 hours and at least 15 boats have gone past in both directions. And we’ve finally had a proper thunderstorm.

Middlewich Branch

Misty Morning & Proper Rain

Junctions and Thunder