The Macclesfield and Peak Forest Canals

Leaving the Llangollen canal we arrived at the Shroppie, turning left and the short hop up to Barbridge. The village moorings were very busy but we managed to squeeze into a spot vacated by a leaving boater. These moorings require a large gap between the boat and bank due to a shelf under the water.
Monday 13th May
Another fine dry day saw us setting off for the short hop to Barbridge junction, we had passed this on our way to and back from Chester, this time however, we made the right turn onto the Middlewich branch, taking us down to the Trent and Mersey canal, the branch is a short but delightful canal with 4 deep locks spread out along its length, a few years ago we traveled along here stopping at the delightful village of Church Minsul, today however we carried on crossing the large embankments with fine views across the Weaver valley. We arrived at the third lock, dropping down to the pound that suffered the major breach in March 2018. We crossed the site close to the aqueduct that carries the canal over the river Wheelock, the banks and embankment have all been repaired and apart from the new concrete edges there was little evidence of the devastation that had occurred.

The repaired breach site

An aerial view of the breach 

We arrived at the final lock of the branch and dropped onto the T&M, turning right to head south towards Stoke on Trent. We climbed the first five locks of "Heartbreak Hill" before tying up at the village of Wheelock for the night. This is a nice little place, now mainly a suburb of Sandbach. It was here that we received the depressing news that the Leeds Liverpool canal would not re-open until the 18th June, this meant that we would have to cross the Pennines via the Rochdale canal, something we had vowed not to do again as it is prone to closures and suffers from a lack of water over the summit pounds. All this was also subject to the lock at Marple re-opening on time scheduled for the 24th May.

Crossing the M6

Tuesday morning brought more fine weather, we had arranged to meet Dave and Anne Brice that evening at the Rising Sun in the village of Scholars Green so an early start was require as we had some 10 miles and 27 locks to negotiate. Our climb started immediately and carried on until we reached the service station up at Red Bull close to Kidsgrove. I covered our last trip up the hill in our blog www.kellyscapers.blogspot.com/2017/09/trent-and-mersey-canal.html.

The double locks of "Heartbreak Hill"

Leaving the services we climbed the last three locks reaching the summit of the T&M, between the last two locks we passed under the start of the Macclesfield (Macc) canal crossing overhead on an aqueduct.

Passing under the branch to the Macclesfield

Once through the top lock we arrived at Hardingswood junction, here we turned right to start our first time trip along the Macc.

Hardingswood Junction

Shortly after the junction the canal turns sharply to the right now running parallel to the T&M, another sharp right hand turn took us onto the aqueduct and over the canal we had just traveled up.
A mile or so further on brought us to the stop lock and the true start of the Macc, the stop lock was built as the two canals were run by separate companies and the T&M wanted to control access to their water, as they were concerned that the new canal would take trade away from them.
Evidence of the rivalry was indicated by the two different lock keepers cottages built alongside.

The stop lock at the true start of the Macc
Note the two contrasting cottages of the two companies

A short distance further on brought us to the moorings at Scholars Green just as Dave and Anne were arriving. We walked the short distance to the Rising Sun and had a great evening catching up with their news. Dave and Anne are currently exploring Europe in a motor home and it was interesting listening to their adventures and how they were also coping with life in a small space.

Scholars Green Moorings

We decided to stay put for another day so we could walk up to Mow Cop, an impressive landmark that had provided a backdrop to our recent travels we could see the imposing peak from the top of the locks at Hurleston. The walk from the moorings was a couple of miles climb and steep from the start, so we took our time as the weather was warm and sunny.
The views started to unfold as we made our ascent, soon arriving in the pretty village that lies just below the summit. The summit is capped by what looks like a castle but is actually a 17th century folly. The views from here were as good as any I have seen in this country, The 360 degree view looks over Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and North Wales. We could see a large portion of the area we had covered over the last couple of months with Beeston Castle and  the Welsh Hills prominent. Other features that we picked out were the large radio telescope, at Jodrell Bank and Manchester Airport.

Mow Cop Summit

                                      


Thursday morning arrived and we decided to make our way further along this delightful canal mooring above the town of Congleton. We visited the town that had almost become our home as I had briefly worked there, during a short career move, back in the eighties. The town is a quite a pleasant place and lies about a mile downhill from the canal. We managed to find another oatcake shop so loaded up with some of their goodies to take back to the boat. We had moored close to an impressive Aqueduct, another on designed by Telford, he surveyed the route of the canal but the engineering was undertaken by William Crosley, however, being a Telford canal this required large aqueducts, cuttings and embankments, remarkably there is only one flight of locks along its 26 miles.

Congleton Aqueduct

Leaving Congleton we crossed over the enormous embankment and aqueduct that spans the Dane valley. The canal meanders quite a bit here avoiding the impressive hill known as the Cloud.

The Cloud

This brought us to the bottom of the flight of the 12 Bosley Locks, we made good progress through even though we had to drain the first half dozen. The locks are easily operated, well built and in good order and it wasn't long before we met the three lock keepers near the top.

The bottom of Bosley Locks

The view from the top

Once on the higher level we made our way to good moorings just outside of Macclesfield, these are adjacent to the business and retail park just off the Leek road.
Sunday morning we decided to move a little further along, here the canal leaves the outskirts of the town through lovely countryside with views across Cheshire dropping away to our left and the hills of the dark peak to our right, this point is closest to the Peak District National Park.
The canal soon returns to the edge of Macclesfield and we moored up adjacent to the Puss in Boots pub, after mooring up we realised that there are now good pontoon moorings just beyond the bridge, however we stayed put and went off to explore the town. Again, as was the case at Congleton, the canal keeps its distance from the town on a ledge above the river Bollin. We walked the mile or so down to the town which straddles both sides of the valley so we had to climb the steep hill to reach the centre. We liked Macclesfield, although small it retains a lot of its original shops sitting alongside the usual chains, its impressive town hall is testament to the wealth the town must have enjoyed in its heyday as a center for the production of silk. It also has a lot of pubs ranging from the modern such as Weatherspoons to some old traditional establishments.

Macclesfield Silk Road

We decided to return to the Puss in Boots close to the canal and went to sample their very reasonably priced carvery, this exceeded all expectations and the landlady even provided a pick from carvery for Scruff , for a small fee, this was gone in seconds!
Back to the boat we moved on again reaching the boat yard at Bollington Wharf we received a very friendly welcome here and filled up with water and tipped out the Elsan for a small £2 fee.

Bollington Aqueduct

We pushed across the canal to moor beside the enormous Adelphi Mill now converted to offices and apartments.
We took a stroll into the village, a charming spot with its gritstone cottages, nestled in the valley, here the canal crosses on a very high aqueduct, another very impressive structure.
Monday morning brought bright and warm weather and we set off heading for our next port of call at Higher Poynton, passing the impressive Clarence Mill en-route.

Clarence Mill

 This area boasted 74 coal mines in the past but little evidence remains of them today. The canal has a number of wharfs and basins around here, these served the various collieries and tramways. We moored by the wide section of the canal overlooking the playing fields, a lovely spot with
a wide aspect to the southwest, its a very popular spot and the spaces were soon filled.
It was approaching time to change the engine oil as we were nearing the 250 hour point since leaving Mercia in March, I took advantage of the fact that there was a recycling point nearby and was able to dispose of the old oil and filters.

The wide at Higher Poynton

Tuesday morning and we decided to head for the Peak Forest canal at Marple junction, passing through more sublime countryside before arriving at the pretty junction with its charming wharf.

Approaching Marple Junction

At the junction we passed under the stone bridge, turning right to head towards Whaley Bridge, to the left is the first of the 16 locks that make up the Marple flight.  As we leave the junction the view to our left sees the land falling rapidly away to the river Goyt in the valley whist the hills climb away to the right, this pretty much sets the scene for this canal as it makes its perilous way along the side of the valley.

Views across the Goyt Valley
The Goyt eventually becomes the Mersey at Stockport

The views are stunning looking across the valley towards the South Pennine hills. Progress is slow as the water is quite shallow in places and is interrupted by several lift and swing bridges all adding to the charm of this old waterway.
We passed an interesting boat on our way.

What a" Plonker"

As we approached the town of New Mills, straddled across the valley, we arrived at the Swizzler factory, home of Parma Violets, sherbet dabs, love hearts and other such famous sweets, the factory is in an old mill, having relocated here from London during the blitz. The building sits right along side the canal and the smell emanating from here brought back many childhood memories, also tempting us to go and see if they had a factory shop. Alas all sales are now done online.
We carried on passing the long marina at Furnace Vale before arriving at a junction, the left turn leading to Bugsworth, we carried straight on passing the useful Tesco store before winding at the historic wharf in Whaley Bridge. Retracing our steps we moored up in the heavily wooded section between the town and the junction.
We walked back to explore the town, particularly the area around the basin, which was the western terminus of the High Peak railway. We had explored the other end of the line on the Cromford  canal, previously, the railway linked the two canals making its way over the Peak District by meas of inclined planes, a good website explaining this remarkable feat of engineering can be seen at http://www.pittdixon.go-plus.net/c+hpr/c+hpr.htm
There is an old trans-shipment warehouse where goods were moved from train to boat and vice versa under cover. Evidence of the old rails can be seen as well as the old incline making  its ascent up to the hills.

Whaley Bridge basin

Just around the corner from here is the very old Goyt Inn, well worth a visit.
The next morning we cruised around the corner to Bugsworth basin to be amazed at what we saw here.
The restored basins are a mecca for the industrial archaeologist, once the busiest inland port in the country, the basin was built for the trans-shipment of limestone and lime from the surrounding area, opening in 1795 to serve the six mile Peak Forest Tramway connecting the quarries.
 It is a beautiful place with many restored wharfs and basins, a testament to the society that came together to restore this incredible place, back in the sixties. There are also the remains of lime kilns where limestone was processed into lime, a product used for mortar, whitewash and for improving acidic soils. The process involved the stacking of layers of coal then limestone, creating a furnace after firing the lime was removed from the bottom of the stack. Whilst today the area is a green oasis for wildlife, in its day it was a filthy industrial site with smoke and caustic fumes belching from the kilns.
Visit www.bugsworthbasin.org/  for further information and details about the organisation now caring for the site.

A view across the basins

A sample of the old tram rail

old sleeper stones

We spent the night here before moving back down the canal to moor at the top of the locks at Marple, giving us a day to explore before the long awaited re-opening of the flight.
We liked Marple, a much larger place than we anticipated with many local shops and a large and useful Asda. We walked down the steep hill below the town to reach Marple Bridge, another charming little place nestled in the valley alongside the river Goyt.

Marple Bridge

Here we enjoyed a good lunch with my brother John and his wife Tracy who were attending a country music festival nearby.
Climbing back up the hill we came to the point where the lock flight passes under the road, following the flight back up to the top. We noticed that a CRT workboat had passed through on a trial run testing the repaired locks prior to its re-opening.
Saturday morning arrived and we went to meet the lock keeper, he was busy briefing his volunteers before unlocking lock 16 at the top of the flight.
These locks are some of the most picturesque on the system, the top four dropping down along side the houses of the village. Details of the locks can be seen here http://www.marplelocks.org.uk/marple_locks_guide.pdf
The locks were opened in 1796 and are a civil engineering marvel dropping 210 feet to the aqueduct that crosses the valley 100 feet above the river.
It was at the aqueduct, nearly two years ago, that we received the news that the locks had closed due to the collapse of lock 15.

The rebuilt lock 15

Lock 15, last time we were here there was
a gaping hole where the grass is to the side of  the lock

The rebuilt lock 11

Old warehouse above lock nine

The trip down was a real pleasure and we were assisted by 2 lock keepers making good progress we arrived at the bottom in under two hours.
We continued along the Lower Peak Forest canal, crossing the Goyt valley over the impressive aqueduct. We traveled this stretch almost two years previously, details of this journey were written in an earlier blog.
We reached the end of the canal at Portland junction to moor up for the evening before our descent into Manchester.

The end of the Peak Forest at Portland Basin

The Wash Crossing

Tuesday 2nd July
It was with great excitement that we awoke to a gloriously sunny day and not a breath of wind. It was clear that the Wash crossing would go ahead as planned.
I had spent half the night lying awake thinking about the things that could go wrong and what I would do in such circumstances, but the excitement and adrenaline suppressed any tiredness.
We rose early and had our breakfast then readied ourselves for positioning outside the lock adjacent to the Grand Sluice that separates the Lincolnshire lowlands from the sea. The lock is unusual in that it operates in both directions.
 At low tide the lock holds back the river Witham and flow from the river is controlled by the giant sluice gates, this way the level of the river is maintained except in severe flood conditions. High tides bring a water level higher than that of the river so the sluice then prevents the tide from extending upstream.
Due to this arrangement passage through the lock can only be achieved when the water levels are equal, usually an hour or so either side of high tide. Passage has to be booked although on this occasion the pilot had already done this for us.

Awaiting departure at the Grand Sluice

There were four boats passing through, ourselves, Seren Rose, the two guys on the Broads cruiser who were going to France and a small boat heading to the Black Sluice, a short distance downstream.
We were all in place for 8.30 am ready for a 9.30 departure. Daryl, the pilot, arrived and gave us a briefing, stating that he would communicate with us via the radio, and advise along the way. My main concern was that we would be following the larger boat and that we may struggle to keep up but Daryl reassured me that there is no point in rushing as all timings were controlled by the tides.
With every one in place we were informed by the lock keeper that high water had passed and that the level was dropping. He commenced opening the upstream gates before finally opening the downstream pair and signalling that we could proceed via a green light. Seren Rose went first followed by us then the two other boats, we sailed straight through the lock and were quickly into the ebbing tide heading down the haven through the town.

The Haven, Boston

We made good progress as the tidal flow soon picked up taking us past the fishing boats that had recently moored up on the incoming tide.

Fishing boats moored in Boston

The channel widened as we approached the Wash, however we remained in the channel for sometime staying close to the north shore line.

Leaving the channel from Boston

The channel gradually began to relinquish its grip on the shore as we started to head more of a south easterly course heading out to the middle of the Wash, now following the buoys marking the channel.

Looking back towards Boston

We were now starting to feel at sea with the land around us fading into the distance. We started to feel the gentle swell of the sea and noticed a boat heading out at great speed, we learned later that this was a fisheries protection vessel.
The wash from this boat reached us shortly afterwards with several waves over three foot high, I quickly maneuvered the boat to  face these head on to minimise the rolling effect and thankfully got through to calmer waters.

A screenshot showing our route, the dark
line is the plotted route and the red arrow is our position.

Our course was now set southerly, crossing the deep waters of the middle Wash, here we waved goodbye to the adventurous chaps on the broads cruiser as they took a more easterly path out into the North Sea.
We could make out the village of Hunstanton on the south shoreline and sand banks to our right with seals sunning themselves in the lovely weather.
To my surprise the pilot took a more easterly turn heading across the channel that would take us into Kings Lynn, we found out later that this was to minimise the effect of the swell on Seren Rose. We eventually made a right turn into the channel then headed over to the sandbanks.
We ran the boat up onto the sand alongside Seren Rose, there was no need to use the anchor as the ebbing tide left us sat firmly on the sandbank.

Running up onto the sand

I got our ladders out and climbed down onto the sand carrying Scruff down with me. She enjoyed her time here running around exploring and digging with a whole new range of smells for her to experience, I did have to keep a close eye on her as there were a few Jelly fish around. We returned to the boat and ate a late lunch as it was around five hours since our departure.

Waiting for the tide
Photo by Cherryl Holliday

Strolling on the sands
Photo by Cherryl Holliday

After a couple of hours or so the tide turned and we could feel the boat starting to move, I started the engine and held the boat against the sand until Seren Rose also started to lift. I backed away to give the bigger boat room to maneuver off the sand, once a float again we headed off to see the large number of seals gathered on the north side of the channel, they were popping up all around us curious at the strange craft invading their territory.

The lovely Seren Rose

Distant seals

We spent almost hour with the seals before turning round and heading back into the channel to join the swift tidal flow taking us in towards the Great Ouse estuary and Kings Lynn.
The channel narrowed and we were joined by a couple of fishing boats that kindly past us with a minimum wash.

Kings Lynn

We were now in the mouth of the river and the pace quickened as the estuary narrowed, we shot past the wharfs of Kings Lynn before heading into the last 16 miles of the trip up to Denver Sluice, this part of the trip was the most challenging as we were now struggling to keep up with Seren Rose, Daryl, using his experience, was finding the fastest flow and we tried to follow, eventually we caught up. Daryl radioed us pointing out the few difficult stretches, the first being passage under a large bridge built on a bend, we were told that it is important to take the correct line here as the flow can push the boat into the bridge piers and it can be difficult to get off them, fortunately we got through ok. The next hazard was a sharp bend with a very shallow inside edge, we followed the pilot round and again following a bit of rolling in the flow, got through unscathed. This left the final approach to the lock at Denver, we were hoping this would be set ready to accept the large boat but it was still closed on our arrival.
The approach here is tricky, as there is a large sand bank on the approach, it is necessary to circumnavigate this before pulling up onto the lock landing. Seren Rose hit the landing head on before turning broadside onto the pontoon, unfortunately this left me little room to get round and the tide started to pull us round towards the mouth of the New Bedford river, this could have been a real problem as it would have been difficult to turn and stem the tide. Again fortunately I managed to recover the control and with great relief  crept up to the pontoon.

Entering Denver Lock

Seren Rose locked through first, followed by us. Luckily there was space on the moorings so we tied up and jumped onto dry land for the  first time in 11 hours.
That was it, another bucket list item fulfilled, and I have to say it was a great experience, we finished the day off with a celebratory drink, in the Jenyns Arms with Cherryl and Ian before retiring early to recover from the excitement of the day.

Safely moored on the river

We intend to explore the Great Ouse and some of its tributaries before returning back to Denver and a short tidal trip across to Salters Lode and the river Nene.
Useful contacts Wash pilot - Daryl - 07909 880071  - washguide@gmail.com
Ian on Seren Rose videoed the crossing we appear as a small dot in several places you can watch the video using the following link https://youtu.be/PO6N3zTkXkE
I took a short video in the deepest part of the crossing https://youtu.be/OCQ5_SXEIYo

Looking back out to the Wash