Slow travel

Thanks to friend Donna, we have this photo of Santiago in the snow! Merry Christmas

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 ...

From Ellsemere Port we head east,  a chilly but sunny day. Only 8 miles, about 2 hours, no locks, an easy cruise, time to absorb landscape, fauna, and to make the Cap'n a proper coffee, using the Johnstone's beaut coffee pot. At the basin below the city, abutting the Roman walls, we top up our water tank, have lunch, then tackle the 3 staircase locks taking the canal 33ft up to the level of the city. One of the thousands of cheerful volunteers on the canal network is on hand, kindly filling the top 2 locks while the Cap'n empties the bottom one. The 1st mate is on the boat, keeping Santiago back from the uphill gate, with its cascades, and forward from the rear gate, as getting the rudder jammed is not desirable. Also an eye on gongoozling children, in case one takes a dip. With bottom lock empty, in we go, deep, stone walls towering, pigeons roosting inside the gates. The gates close  behind, the water from the middle lock is released, slowly, into the bottom lock. 300...

For a canal nutter Ellsemere Port is heaven. It was developed over 200 years, as a major port on the NW coast, enabling access from the Mersey to the Shropshire Union Canal, linking the midlands, Wales and the wealth of Cheshire. It was built to  enable Chester to compete with Liverpool, which from the port is visible across the far side of the Mersey. By the 1920s competition from the railways meant traffic through the port had declined. The magnificent warehouses, slipway, pumphouses, dry docks, all 7 acres of 18th & 19thC infrastructure, were saved because of a competing canal, the mighty Manchester Ship Canal. This company bought the port, as the ship canal is directly adjacent to the port. Its facilities were of value, even though the old Shroppie was not. The port is now a major canal museum, preserving the boats, stories, equipment of the canal age, in a magnificent setting. It has a library and archive resource in which we were engrossed yesterday, chasing down some d...

To our knowledge in the last couple of years, several people have drowned in locks. The usual culprit is getting the back of the boat caught on the cill of the lock.  The cill is a ledge on the base of the lock gates, visible in an attached photo. As water is released to lower the boat, the stern can catch, if one is not alert. Last year a man drowned after getting his mother and dog off the sinking boat, jammed on a cill. He returned to retrieve her handbag, then couldn't escape as the furniture was floating, blocking the exits. Or you can get the front jammed in the gate- which we nearly did 2 days ago. As the water was being released, the large rope fender on the bow jammed into a space in the gate. One of us went to stop the water release, but then the boat, engine hard reversed, unjammed. Phew. In an earlier lock, the lock keeper warned us of protruding stones, which had recently jammed a boat as water levels were rising. Can I add slippery ladders, tripping ropes, and poo...