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.