Manchester

Friday 8th September 2017
We awoke to yet more rain so I decided to work during the morning before setting off down to Leigh by which time the rain had eased.
We had been told, by the lock keepers at Wigan, that the Canal Festival was due to start today so we decided to stop and see what was going on. We had a look round the town and again the general atmosphere was of a depressed place, with lost of huge mills that are now part derelict and part converted into business units, just down the cut from here is the last remaining headgear of the Lancastrian coal field at Astley Mine - now a museum.
We called at the Waterfront Inn where the festival was based and apart from a fairground being erected in the car park.not a lot else was going on even though the festival was supposed to have started. We had a meal at the pub and this was really good valve for typical pub fayre.The staff made a huge fuss of Scruff, giving her a plate full of treats and a bowl of water.
We had a quick look over the few boats that were moored there then decided to move onto Worsley, a place we have moored many times.
Worsley can be regarded as the birthplace of the canals in this country.
The Duke of Bridgewater had coal mines close by and the were served by 40 miles of underground canals, the different levels were over come by means of inclined planes and locks.

Worsley Delph the entrance to the mines
is in the centre of the picture

Access to the mines was via the portal at Worsley Delph, this can still be seen to day but is inaccessible. The mines were served by boats called Starvationers and it is thought that the name came from the appearance of the boats due to their having the ribs on the outside making it easier to load and unload coal using shovels.
The water emerging from the old workings turns the water a bright orange colour for a mile or so either side of Worsley.
The Duke engaged the services of James Brindley to link his mines to the centre of Manchester by building a canal between the two, this is now known as the Bridgewater Canal and is owned and operated by the same company that runs the Manchester Ship Canal. Worsley embraced its new canal and many of the half timbered buildings here were built as a direct consequence of its being there.

Saturday 9th September 2017
It had rained heavily all night and continued to do so as we set off on our way to Manchester, this stretch takes you across the Manchester Ship Canal across the impressive swing aqueduct.
Before the aqueduct operates, doors are used at either end to keep the water in place on both the aqueduct and canal.
The link below shows it in operation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwO-UZpKBUo

View from Barton Swing Aqueduct

We carried on past (thankfully) the temple to shopping that is the Trafford Centre, by now the rain was torrential, heavy than I have ever seen and it stayed with us for the next few miles before finally easing as we approached Manchester. I felt water leaking in around my neck and thought that my waterproofs had given up under such a pounding, it was only after I bent down to pick something up that I realised my hood (not used because I had a hat on) had filled with water and was over flowing!
After all the rain the sun finally came out as we made our ascent up the nine locks through the city, known as the Rochdale Nine.
We have done this flight of locks a few times and rarely is it a pleasant experience, some of the locks do not have a by-wash so surplus water (of which there is plenty at the moment) flows over the gates making them difficult to operate. The eighth lock from the bottom is situated under an office block and is the haunt of all sorts of strange people, there are discarded needles every where and the lock often floods so you have to carefully tip toe around when off the boat.

Typical Rochdale 9 head gate

Reaching the top we moored up in Ducie Street Basin (again in torrential rain) and congratulated ourselves on completing the climb saying that would probably be the last time we would  go through them.
We had  a walk into a very busy Manchester Centre, this came as a bit of a shock to the system as it had been a long time since we had been anywhere so busy.

Sunday 10th September 2017
A better day today, we set off at 7.30 to get through the Ashton flight, this is a series of 18 locks but they are narrow and therefore much quicker and easier to get through, the journey takes you through the Piccadilly and New Islington district, both of which have been redeveloped and form a nice backdrop to the canal. around locks 5 and 6 we passed the Etihad Campus, this was the site of the Commonwealth Games held here in 2002, the main stadium is now the home of Manchester City Football club and the Velodrome is the base for British Cycling.

Etihad Stadium

We progressed up to the top arriving at Portland Basin, the junction of the Aston, Huddersfield and the Peak Forest canals, turning right on to the Peak Forest, finding a mooring just along the way from the junction.By this time the torrential rain had returned so it was good to get inside by the fire.

Monday 11th September 2017
Today's schedule was to make our way to the foot of the 16 locks of the Marple Flight, taking us up to the Upper Peak Forest Canal. The rain was still torrential but had become intermittent and the sun actually shone in between. This canal is quite shallow and narrow in places so our progress was slow however we reached the foot of the locks by early afternoon.
We were sat discussing where we should go for a walk as an email arrived advising us that the lock flight was now closed due to subsidence at the second from the top lock. This decided our walk for us, it was to walk to the top and see if we could find out what the prognosis was.
The locks climb very steeply up approximately one mile and they are very picturesque, arriving at the top we located two engineers from CRT who were there to asses the damage. They pointed out that not only had the ground at the side of the lock had subsided but that the lock wall had shifted, narrowing the lock to an unsafe width as well as the possibility that it could collapse totally, not a place I like to be an the boat.
We set off back to the boat discussing our alternatives, should we wait for a final decision in the hope that there may be a quick fix, or bite the bullet and return back down to Manchester and go round on the Trent and Mersey canal.
Well the news is that we have to return CRT won't have a decision for a few days so back we go!

Marple Aqueduct

Had a trip over the impressive Marple aqueduct before turning round below the locks.

View from the top

We moored at Romley for the night and and took a walk up into the village, a pleasant spot with a few good pubs.

Tuesday 12th September 2017
Woke up for an early start to a sunny morning and the birds were singing loudly as if to celebrate a dry day for a change. We set off towards Portland basin again and the canal did really look beautiful in the early morning sunshine, we soon reached the basin and the junction with the Ashton Canal, turning left to head for Manchester. We were soon caught up by a couple of hire boats, they had too set off to go up to Marple and were having to retrace their steps to Anderton, the base for their boats.

Typical Peak Forrest scene

The two boats had a crew of fifteen between them so there were plenty of them to help us down the 18 lock flight and we progressed well with their assistance.
Reaching Ducie Street basin again we decided to moor up for the night whilst the other two boats progressed down the Rochdale Nine to Castlefields.
There was a lot of water in the system due to the rain and the basin had started to flood so we opted for a days rest to allow the water to subside before moving on.
We had a walk into town and came across a great place called Pie and Ale, had a pint of Northern Monk (a Leeds Brewery) and we opted for a sharer menu, this was a similar to a Tapas with lots of different dishes, again well worth a visit if your ever here.
The forecast that night was for the first storm of the autumn (Aileen) to arrive in the early hours so we tied up securely and strapped everything down on the roof.
The night passed without any issues apart from a lot of rattling and whistling from the wind but by morning it had passed.
The following day was spent catching up with work and a bit of shopping for Lucia, we then prepared for our trip down the locks the next morning.

Thursday 14th September 2017
A quick rekie of the locks showed that the water levels had dropped so we got an early start to make our way down. At the first lock we were joined by a group of Chinese tourists whom we had met the day before and they delighted in helping us through. I had to suppress laughter when they tried to push the gates open, they made that stereotypical sound that is often used by martial arts mimics when they realised just how difficult it was to open the gates, I was grateful all the same!

Serious Window Cleaning in Manchester

The second lock down is the one under the office block, the off side lock beam was covered in blood soaked antiseptic pads, needles, syringes and all the other articles used by the addicts that frequent this place. I am not sure whose responsibility it is but somebody really needs to sort this out, this is part of one of the most used cruising rings in the country with lots of foreign visitors hiring boats to do this route, god knows what they must think of Manchester, with its beggars and drunkards.
There appears to be a massive sub-culture here and it just seems to be ignored.
Halfway down we met a Swiss tourist who was exploring the more desirable parts of the canal, we hurried on and were soon at the bottom lock, Lucia was assisted by a group of friendly Belgians here and finally we were down at the bottom.

Lymm from the canal

We got underway, now back on the Bridgewater canal again and made our way past Old Trafford and on to Waters Meeting, here we turned left and headed down towards Stretford and Sale.
Following a quick stop for (reasonably priced) fuel at Stretford Marina we were joined by a group of Canoeists who were on a team building day from work and accompanied us down to the Kings Ransom pub in Sale. They hurriedly dragged themselves out of the canal and into the pub whilst we continued on our way to Lymm.

Reflections at Lymm Dam

There were lots of boats around today, and the canal became busier the further we travelled, it was nice to be back in open countryside with views right back to the Pennines above Wigan. We arrived at Lymm and managed to moor right in the centre. This is one our favourite places and is a delightful village with all amenities and makes a refreshing change form the bustle of Manchester, we are here until Saturday, when we move on to get back on to the CRT canals on the Trent and Mersey at Preston Brook, this canal will (hopefully) takes us to our mooring at Barton Turns.

Lymm Church