Junctions and Thunder

By iangbell, Posted on June 10, 2016

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.

Adderley and Audlem Marathon

By iangbell, Posted on June 7, 2016

Supposedly it was going to be hot and there were going to be thunderstorms this afternoon. So far the thunder hasn’t materialised but the heat did.

I got an early start to what was promising to be a bit of a marathon. Today was really all about locks. First, another set of 5 at Adderley and then a flight of 15 at Audlem.

A lot of people comment about how hard it must be doing locks on my own. Honestly, it isn’t that much harder than doing locks with a crew when the weather is this warm. Yes, there is nobody to share the work with and everything takes longer. But you do get into a rhythm.

As a result, today was a bit of a blur. And we got finished by lunchtime, which surprised me. We did have help on the way down Audlem. More often than not, this was from friendly walkers and gongoozlers. One of the few times I actually had to work a lock completely on my own was when there was a boat waiting behind me and one waiting at the bottom. Both crews were more than happy to sit watching me do all the work, rather than come to offer any help. I hope they enjoyed the entertainment. The middle section of the Audlem Flight does get a bit relentless. Very short pounds with very fierce bywash flows. One of them sucked the boat so hard onto some silt , I thought I wasn’t going to get off. As usual, reversing off was the solution.

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Tonight’s mooring is a little way north of Audlem. Wide open views, just right for viewing dramatic thunderstorms. That’s if they really do happen tonight.

Trouser Failure Monday

By iangbell, Posted on June 6, 2016

Today was Tyrley Locks, heat and trouser failure.

We got an early start because it felt like it was going to be hot later. I would have preferred doing the Tyrley Flight before the hottest part of the day. Yeah, well that didn’t work out quite the way I planned. Teach me to nod off at lunch time.

It was another classic Shroppie stretch to the locks. Cuttings and embankments. Soon after Norbury Junction we entered Grub Street Cutting. This is the site of one of the Shroppie’s iconic oddities. Everyone takes photos of it. We have one somewhere, no doubt a physical print because it was that long ago that we came this way.

High Bridge - Grub Street Cutting — High Bridge – Grub Street Cutting

The cutting is one of the deeper ones. So, the aptly named, High Bridge is, well, high. So, to some canal engineer, the obvious solution to getting a telegraph line through the bridge, was an extra platform and a short telegraph pole. This looks like canal-era engineering feature creep to me. I think the answer to the question “Why?” was “Because we can!”.

Following the Grub Street Cutting, is the Shebdon Embankment. This is called “the great Shebdon Embankment” in the guide book. Perhaps it’s more impressive from below, but from on top, it was very similar to every other Shroppie Embankment. It does have an old chocolate factory at the other end. It used to manufacture chocolate crumb which was then transported to factories in Birmingham, with boats being loaded at a purpose built wharf. These days, it makes dried milk powder. And no longer uses the canal to transport it.

Somewhere along this stretch, I came across this pair of boats moored up. I managed to avoid shouting “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice”. But it was touch and go. Weird, the links your mind can make at times.

Woodseaves Cutting follows Shebdon. This is one of the most dramatic features. It is very narrow, very deep and was cut through solid rock by hand.

Woodseaves Cutting - cut by hand through solid rock — Woodseaves Cutting – cut by hand through solid rock

Shortly after Woodseaves, you get to Tyrley. This was where the plan started to fall apart. I stopped for an early lunch. I meant to just take 30 minutes then get through the locks before it got too warm. Then I woke up at 2pm. Now it was really hot.

Now the plan had fallen apart, my trousers followed soon after. I started down the locks, following another single hander. He was based on the Shroppie so had more local knowledge then me which helped later on. But he was moving along a lot slower than me. This was probably not a bad thing as now it was really hot.

The first three locks in the flight of five are quite exposed. The bottom two have an almost complete canopy of trees. I really wanted to get down there. We also had a bit of an audience for some of these locks. These spectators are commonly known as gongoozlers. If there are a lot of them, they can cause problems. You have to keep a watchful eye out for small children and “helpful” adults trying cross gates or standing on the wrong side of gate beams. These guys were no problem, just content to watch from a distance.

The bottom two locks are counted by some as the prettiest location on the network (sorry Heather!). They are cut into the red sandstone rock and covered by a canopy of trees. Dappled light on the water, green leaves and red stone. Looks gorgeous but is incredibly hard to capture in a photo.

Lock 4 and 5 - cut into the sandstone — Lock 4 and 5 – cut into the sandstone

You can't moor here — You can’t moor here

There is a wrinkle with the pound between the bottom two locks. Despite it being a beautiful location, you cannot linger in a boat. My single-hander companion reminded me that, due to large rock ledge you cannot moor. You have to get the bottom lock ready ahead of leaving lock 4, so you can go straight from one to the other. My companion, very thoughtfully, lingered below the bottom lock to set it for me. It was as I was thanking him that I realised that my “nether regions” were feeling unusually cool for such a warm day. On checking, I discovered I had suffered an almost complete trouser failure. The seam had come undone apart from an inch or so at each end. I was effectively wearing an odd shaped skirt. I have no idea how long it had been like that. Nobody said anything. Typical British reserve!

Soon after the Tyrley Flight, you pass through Market Drayton. The only things that stood out to me were some odd “sculptures” and the the random canal-side accordion player. I didn’t feel drawn to linger, so pushed on.

But not for long. I’m now moored up just before the next flight at Adderley, the trouser failure and the heat had taken their toll. And then discovered I had chosen one of the places where there is no mobile phone signal to speak of.

So, whilst I am typing this now. You won’t see it until tomorrow. As consolation, here is another gratuitous picture of Sam, the Roof-Dog, feeling relaxed.

Tomorrow promises to be even harder, 5 locks at Adderley and then the 15 locks at Audlem immediately after. The weatherman says there might be thunderstorms too.

Straight but not Narrow

By iangbell, Posted on June 3, 2016

It is so long since I have been on the Shroppie, I forgot how straight and not narrow it is. This canal really doesn’t care about the details of the landscape, it just pushes its way through. Embankments alternate with cuttings, and today there was even a tunnel. I think the only straighter thoroughfare could be the Roman Road. Like Watling Street (aka the A5) that we passed over today. Yes, over, not under. Very weird feeling, gliding serenely over lines of traffic. Actually that’s a lie. There was roaring of engine as I stopped the boat to take a photo. You know me, I like that juxtaposition shot. I took a few, they are all useless and boring.

The day started bright and clear, and despite weather predictions saying rain should be moving over from the east, it hasn’t happened yet. But I will admit it has clouded over now. In fact, the weather we had today was my sort of perfect, sunny but with a light breeze. It was warm enough, that the roof-dog eventually fell asleep on the roof. For about 5 minutes.

Only one lock today at Wheaton Aston, but this was the first proper lock on the Shroppie. We’re going down again. Yet again, my luck held, a hire boat was just entering to come up. Two very helpful crew stayed behind to get me started in the lock.

There are water points below the lock, so I took the opportunity to fill up with water. And then just after the next bridge, I took advantage of some of the cheapest red diesel I have seen. Unusually, it was being sold by a garage and not a boat yard. Very reasonably priced and very friendly. I can recommend Turners Garage.

The Cowley Tunnel was on our route today. This tunnel was cut through solid rock and was going to be longer, but the roof proved to be unstable. Most of it, apart from a very short section, was removed. What remains is a long, very steep sided cutting through the solid rock.

Embankments can make a canal vulnerable to losing a lot of water. Breaches are not unknown, there were even concerns about this during wartime in the 20th century. As a result, most of them are protected by gats like this one. If well maintained, they should close automatically when there is a significant water flow through them.

I arrived at Norbury Junction in time for a late lunch. Probably good that I arrived when I did. Most of the Wolverhampton Boat Club arrived shortly after me, taking most of the available mooring spots. They are out on their annual Commodore’s Cruise. One WBC boater warned me about the potential for traffic jams at some of the lock flights further north. He said they had experienced some challenges. I decided not to point out that when you travel in a group of 12 boats, you are taking your own traffic jam with you.

Looking forward to meeting up with Heather tomorrow, provided she can find Norbury Junction. It may be a bustling centre of canal activity, but for the rest of the world it is in the middle of nowhere.