This is all for now

It's been a challenge to keep up with the blog with sketchy internet, but it too has been fun. When I get home I'll add a page or two about bridges and locks, but for now it's get ready to travel to London for several days.

 

One last thing - for many who travel the canals of England one of the biggest challenges is to catch a good picture of a kingfisher. This year I took along my big camera for this reason. With three days left on the canals I spotted one. From about three dozen shots I got one good one!

 Aloha for now

Off the boat

Over the course of our travels I've shown several additional non-boat things we've done and would like to point out a few others we did this year or last year.

 

 Trentham Gardens

Which has become almost an annual stop

Middleport Pottery

This is the first time here. Tied up right on their doorstep. Often we will stop at Wedgewood Pottery, just down the canal a mile or so.

 Shugborough Hall

A working living history estate, which we passed twice, but didn't stop this year.

  Tamworth Castle

We visited the town market here this year. Last time we saw part of the Staffordshire Hoard in the castle.

 Joules Brewery

Rhymes with moles and 

the home of Green Monkey larger 

So this year in an effort to meet Charlene's desire to hike I found the Castle at Mow Cop [Mau Cop]. The castle is a folly; a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose. It was built in 1754.

The castle sits on a hill above the village of Mow Cop on the border between Staffordshire to the south and Cheshire to the north.

 

To the south

 To the north   

Viewing the castle across the top of the hill.

So how do you get to the castle? From the Macclesfield Canal you go up the hill. 

Here is a view coming down the hill.

Maybe this gives a better perspective. 

The roof line and windows are level - it's the street that is angled.

From the canal to the top is a little more than one mile and rises almost 700 feet. There is an annual race on this hill. Google "Killer Mile" and I'll guaranteed the first several hits will be about this hill and the race.

Actually it was fun - walking, pausing, walking, wheezing - anything BUT running to the top!

The Peaks and Forest Canal

We traveled on the Peaks and Forest Canal from Marple Junction to the end of that section, at the town of Whaley Bridge. At Whaley Bridge there is a basin for services (water and refuse) and a winding hole. The purpose of a winding hole is so you can turn and reverse direction. By the way, it is winding, as in "Blowing in the Wind", not winding as a watch. In horse drawn days turning was often accomplished by turning the boat's bow and allowing the wind to blow against the side of the boat and complete the job.

The winding hole at Whaley Bridge, this section of the canal ends just beyond our stern.

Several views along the canal.

 

 

I saw this sign along the canal - It caught my eye, then I read carefully.

 

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As we approached Marple Junction on the return trip the canal got a little crowded.

Access to the the Macclesfield Canal is through the bridge arch to the left; which is the location of the warehouse from a post or two ago. To continue on the Peaks and Forest Canal, there are a series of locks beginning in front of the buildings straight ahead.

Also at the junction is a sign post showing the canal names and canal-side towns in several directions. At the top of the sign is a circle that reads "Cheshire Ring". Canal rings are circular routes that use several canals to complete a circuit so you do not have to backtrack to return to your starting point.

The Macclesfield Canal - part 2

Last post went a little long, so I will keep the verbiage short and let the pictures speak this time.

 

 

Did you ever wonder where the expression, "Don't drink downstream from the herd!" comes from?

Quickly, moving on - 

A deep cut near the town of Macclesfield is buttressed against collapse. The town of Macclesfield was the heart of English silk production for many years. Although the industry is gone it is the home of a wonderful museum on silk cloth production and the history of silk the area.

 

 Happy Days on the Macclesfield.

The Macclesfield Canal - part 1

The Macclesfield Canal, in American that's Mack-els-field, is one of the last canals to be built and was completed in late 1831. Its original purpose was to provide a short cut from Manchester to London, but ended up serving the mills, mine, and quarries of the area. The original canal extended 26.5 miles from the stop lock at Hall Green to the junction with the Peaks and Forest Canal at Marple Junction. All of it dug by hand!

This is our boat approaching the Hall Green stop lock mentioned above and the lock was the last image in the previous post.

As you can see below, there isn't much difference between water levels from the "high" side to the "low" water level. (High on the left)

Stop locks served exactly that purpose - It stopped traffic so boats could be measured for toll purposes. Also, it stopped the flow of water from one company's canal into the other if a loss of water or low water supply occurred on the other canal.

At the Marple junction end of the Macclesfield Canal is this warehouse. The roof may have extended partially over the canal as cover for unloading cargo. Notice the narrow passage, again we are moving from one canal system to another, so stop and get measured.

At the far-end of the building (from previous image) there is a doorway where narrowboats could pull into the warehouse to unload.

This is one of the many mills mentioned in the opening paragraph. Some stand abandoned, some have been converted to apartments or mixed use of offices and shops.

All the locks on the Macclesfield Canal are in one flight of 12, the Bosley Locks.

In the locks you notice the side walls are large blocks of rock, as opposed to the brickwork inside many locks. 

The hill above is The Cloud or Bosley Cloud. It is the southern end of the Pennines, the mountain chain that forms "the backbone" of England. The notch cut in the brow of the hill is the quarry that was used to obtain rock for the building of this flight of locks and canal.

Here we are moored just below the Bosley Locks, around the canal corner in the distance. From this mooring we took a short hike and discovered the views below.

Looking back toward the canal you realize the canal is above you, and not just a little bit. 

Through the miracle of Photoshop, here is what I mean.

We also took a ground level image of the aqueduct that carries the canal over the River Dane.

More on the Macclesfield Canal in the next post.

Stone and to the North

We stopped in Stone for the food and drink festival before heading farther North.

There were plenty of all kinds of foods, from Sticky Toffee Pudding, to hand-made Ginger Root Cheese, and including all kinds of meats and sausages.

 

Plenty of wine and beer to sample and whole pints to purchase - including Green Monkey from Joules Brewing. Sorry you missed it Daniel, and there were plenty of ciders too Tiffany.

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Heading north from Stone on the Trent and Mersey means encountering the end of the canal!

NO, it just looks that way! To the right of the picture is the opening to the Harecastle tunnel.

The original Harecastle Tunnel was built in 1777.

A second tunnel was dug in 1827. This is the latter of the two. It is 8,779 feet long; goes down to 7 feet 6 inches high in the middle, leaving very little headroom. Generally takes about 45 minutes to traverse end-to-end. It took us 34 minutes.

 

This is a flash photo in a taller portion of the tunnel. 

This is what it looks like normally. It keeps your mind focused. The small red light is near the front of the boat. Oh, and it drips water constantly and can be cold in here too.


But it is easier than the original method of traversing the Harcastle Tunnel and many of the tunnels on the canal system. The original narrowboats were horse-drawn and used for transporting goods and materials, "trucks/lorrys on water". There was no provision for a towpath for the horse through many tunnels. So leggers were used. As a legger you laid on your back on a board that extended from the boat and walked the boat through the tunnel. As below -

Just north of the Harecastle Tunnel the Trent and Mersey goes straight and a left turn under a bridge takes you to the Macclesfield Canal.

 

The Trent and Mersey go through the locks on the right; to get to the Macclesfield turn left under the arch and after a short distance you crossover the Trent and Mersey.

Here we are crossing over. We have not changed water level. The Trent and Mersey drops down through the locks under the section of canal we are on.

At this stop lock the Macclesfield Canal begins. More about stop locks and canals meeting later.