Audlem locks and now at Market Drayton

We are now at Market Drayton and moored just before bridge 63. The last few days have been boating at its best - glorious sunshine with Anne's cousin Helen and husband Mervyn helping us through 13 of the 15 Audlem locks. Its now day 37 (not counting the trip back home) and we have covered 126 locks and 227 miles.

 

Audlem is a great boating village with all the facilities you require plus a very good craft, boat and train bookshop in the mill next to The Shroppie Fly pub. Market Drayton on the other hand still has many closed shops and was very quiet today (Saturday afternoon) but the coffee in Jones's was excellent.

 

Although I said the weather has been good it was a bit chilly this morning when we left our mooring just above bridge 76 which required fleeces on and off as the sun came and went.

 

 

 

Anne looked up from reading and was very concerned that Reuban was trying to get into the cratch
 

The culprit was in fact a narrow beam Dutch barge- it is in fact only 7ft wide

Another one of those strange craft on the canals- this time its a coracle.

This was our lovely mooring above bridge76/lock 3 of the Audlem flight- no road or train only birds-heaven

The next flight of locks going towards Market Drayton from Audlem is the Adderley flight which is in a lovely setting in open countryside.

Looking down Audlem flight from bridge 77 - 5 locks visible of the 15 in total

I just love these iron plates that protect the bridge brickwork from the old  horse drawn working boats. The ropes have worn these grooves over many years - just think how many boats must have passed by to produce this result .

The Audlem crew of Anne, Mervyn and Helen

Another lovely cottage as you go up Audlem flight

The bye washes on theses flights produce some very strong cross flows as you enter the locks. They make for some very hard work to get the boat lined up so that you don't hit the side walls. I am sure Thomas Telford who built the canal had future boaters in mind and purposely built them to keep us on our toes.

 And to finish with a couple of boat names to ponder over!

Left Tattenhall Marina and now at Hack Green and its Nuclear Bunker

Despite it taking 7 hours to get home last week the wedding of Mark and Maria on the 31 May was a fabulous day made even better by the weather.

  

The lovely bride and the now more relaxed groom

Anne and the mother of the groom Janet

Our other event at home was to celebrate the 60th birthdays of Bill and Clare on the Sunday. No rain but the sunshine was diluted with a very chilly wind but a good time was had by all celebrating them  joining the 60 club!

A much better journey back to the boat and after returning the car to Enterprise in Wrexham we finally restarted our journey by leaving the marina on Wednesday lunchtime. The weather has definitely got warmer as no fires in the evenings which compares to May when we only managed two evenings when we didn't light the fire.

We are heading back down the Shropshire Union and this is our mooring on Wednesday (5 June) evening just before bridge 104 at Calveley

The old warehouse showing its heritage at Bunbury Staircase Locks which is now used by Anglo Welsh hire boats 

Locks are usually brick built but Beeston Stone Lock is built from substantial stone blocks

Couldn't resist this old signal box on the Crewe/Chester line which appears to be still working. Most of these are now gone replaced by some remote super power box

This is Hurleston Junction where the Llangollen Branch of the Shropshire Canal leaves the main part of the Shropshire Union Canal on the right. We are heading south through the bridge 

A lovely canal house over looking Barbridge Junction 

An old working horse sculpture by bridge92 at Nantwich

We moored on the embankment near the aqueduct which takes the canal over the Chester Road.

We are moored tonight just past bridge 85 at Hack Green famous for its Cold War Underground Nuclear Bunker

It is some place and worth a visit if in the area if only to realise what might have happened and also how much planning and money went into the cold war.

A We177B 400 kiloton nuclear bomb. Reading the stark descriptions of what may have happened we wouldn't have had a chance of survival

Into Tattenhall Marina

The weather has continued to be bad with the occasional bit of good- but not a lot so we decided to go into Tattenhall Marina last Sunday. We have to go home for Anne's nephews wedding - Mark (Janet's eldest son) this Friday. The marina is in a lovely setting on the Shropshire Union Canal as it makes its way across the Cheshire Plain towards Chester.

 

I had made arrangements to hire a car from Enterprise on Wednesday so yesterday we decided to go into Chester by bus - although very wet it was still a very good day which included a walk around the city wall.

 

There will be a short break whilst we go down south- the journey will continue next week. Totals to day 32 are 108 locks and 205 miles

 

 

A view from BB moored in Tattenhall Marina- Beeston Castle on the left

This lovely Thames style launch is moored next to us in the marina

Some willow work on the side of the canal

A close up of the outcrop of rock on which Beeston Castle is built

 

A view of the Shroppie which follows the wall into Chester. The narrowboat has just come up the Northgate staircase locks. It shows the Bridge of Sighs near the North Gate entrance to the city

A view of the Northgate staircase locks

Telford's warehouse at Tower Wharf now a restaurant. Northgate locks are through the bridge on the right

A view of the old Shropshire Union Canal's steam powered saw mill which is on the site of Taylors Boatyard.

Covered dry dock. The whole site of Taylors Boatyard is Grade 2 listed and the current owner is in the process of restoring it. It will be a very long project but well worth the effort as it will really enhance the area and provide a real link to its industrial past. The bridge on the left leads to Northgate Locks and the lock on the right goes down to the River Dee although the branch is currently closed.

Beeston Castle on the Shropshire Union Canal

Day 28 and we have now done 107 locks and 195 miles and we are moored just above Wharton Lock on the Shropshire Union canal going towards Chester. Outside our port hole is the impressive Beeston Castle which stands on a 500ft sandstone hill 

 

As they say the weather over the last few days has been a game of two halves- Thursday and Friday  has been a mixture of cold, wind, rain, sleet ,heavy rain, hailstones and really really strong winds. Today Saturday has been the ideal Bank Holiday boating weather- warm and sunny. In fact yesterday was so bad we only managed 2 miles and 2 locks before we moored above Cholmondeston Lock after being helped through by the Shropshire Union Canal Society who were fund raising for their work in keeping their moorings in good condition. Anne rang her cousin Helen and husband Mervyn who came over and took us out for the afternoon which was very good of them thank you

 

 

View from Beeston Castle towards the Welsh Hills

View from bridge108 by Wharton's Lock, our mooring is in the distance on the right.

Beeston Castle from the canal

Tilstone lock which is in a lovely setting. The round building is where the lengthsmen used to keep their equipment

A replica Bridgewater "Little Packet" steam tug (built 1998 but not steam powered)

Bunbury staircase lock( 2 locks joined together in that they share the middle gate) with the lock keeper on duty getting the boater going up to dance around the two smaller boats coming down. It does speed things up but you do need to have somebody around to organise it.

Barbridge Junction, we have just come under the bridge from Middlewich and are now going up the Shroppie towards Chester

The locks on the Middlewich Branch are deep this is Minshull Lock at 11ft deep

Middlewich Junction - The Shroppie's Middlewich Branch leaves the T&M under the bridge on the left

This was our mooring last Thursday evening -in strong wind, just past Wheelock on the T&M

Going down lock 58 on the T&M ready to go under the M6. The lock has it in for us as last time we went through it in 2008 we hung in it -that's when the boat gets stuck. We had to close the paddles and make sure the boat was free before continuing to empty the lock. This time a bolt holding the gate in place was sticking out and tore a hole in the cratch cover! 

This picture should be with the Middlewich junction one- you enter The Wardle Canal under the bridge before going into the first lock on the Middlewich Branch. It was one of those things between two rival canal companys to ensure they clearly knew who owned what

Lack of water in Heartbreak Hill Locks

We set off early this morning to tackle the locks and made good progress to start with despite the cloudy/misty weather. We arrived at lock 47 to find one boater waiting with the news that the pound below lock 48 was completely empty. A call to CRT and the water man arrived very quickly. The committee of boaters now collecting  thought that the cause could have been a boater who went through late last night who probably left a paddle or lock gate open. A hour and a half later we were allowed to start going through with a fifteen minute delay between each boat to allow further water to be run down the flight, otherwise we would have emptied the pound above lock 47

 

 

 

The empty pound below lock 48 which used to be double but the one on the right although still there is not now used. and the exit is all silted up.

The next lock down No 49 which is a working duplicated pair of single locks

One and a half hours later there is enough water for the 8 waiting boats to start going down

Anne has just brought BB into lock No51 which has had the other lock filled in, lock No 50 behind is a working pair of locks. All the locks were duplicated under instructions from Thomas Telford in the 1830's although some have now been singled

Houses in Rode Heath look over the canal by lock No 53