Slow travel

The past weeks we have been blessed with good weather (mostly), cold, crisp, sunny. The autumn colours, a visual feast.  Bare trees reveal rookeries, dark clumped nests against the pale wintry sky. The canal traces the Pennines, largely rural, with old mill towns of Congleton, Macclesfield  and Bollington, some of the large mill buildings re-purposed for apartments, offices. A special time at a silk mill and museum, with my cousin whose mother, like mine, worked in silk mills in the 1930s/40s. As our journey comes to an end, we have visited cousins in Yorkshire and Lancashire, using car and train. Motorways and crowded trains don't appeal as much as slow travel on the canals.

Travelling today east on the Shroppie- the Shropshire Union Canal, from the Chester direction, towards Birmingham, then a turn left onto the canal branch leading north to Middlewich, on the Trent & Mersey Canal. We had moored last night above Wharton Lock, where a right of way crosses farmland, under a railway, to the foot of Beeston Castle, built on a rocky outcrop. Built in the 13th century, but there is evidence of pre historic use of the  rock, unsurprising given its defensive possibilities. We last climbed to the castle with Nick, James and 2 of Jeffrey's nieces, 4 children, 11 to 14 years old, in 1999, also having walked there from a canalboat. A photo attached of the views, which reach for miles in all directions. A landholder who owned the castle in the 19th century, John Tollemache, wrote about the responsibility of a land owner, which should be in the hearts of every leader, in respect of their business, land or elected duties:      ...

From the western fringe of Cheshire, at Ellsemere Port on the Mersey,  we have travelled east back through Chester, walking the walls, visiting museums,  shopping. In a fotunate accident of history, Roman grave stones were used to repair the interior of the walls in the latter period of Roman occupation. This preserved  the inscriptions from weathering, and provides fascinating glimpses into who was there, where they were from, their wives.... From Chester the Shroppie took us further east, and we moored up near Beeston Castle, a medieval pile built on a crag affording 360° views, handy when watching for nasty attackers. A short walk from the canal, across fields on rights of way - the right to roam is an enormous asset to this country. We were last there with the children in 1999, again visiting from a boat. The castle was defended by Royalists in the Civil War, but after capture by the Parliamentarians, was 'slighted', partially destroyed. From the Shroppie we ...