UK Canals - Journey reports

Oxford Canal:North section:Barby Moorings

I wasn’t expecting to do it in reasonable time but good free passage made it possible.  Had I been stopped with a slow boat, or excessive waiting at locks I would have had to stop short in which case I had actually planned to moor-up below Hillmorton Locks if even that was achievable.   There wasn’t much traffic about although bridge holes seemed to feature strongly including one with a repeat of the mud trap I experienced on the first day.  It seems to make the boat uncontrollable in the usual way, to it ends up all over the place.   Hawkesbury Junction was totally clear for me and the stop lock not occupied or promised, although the top gate would not open fully and I did just manage to squeeze out.  At Hillmorton the bottom lock was open for me with two volockies in attendance confirming the wisdom of going today when help was available rather than early tomorrow morning when I would be totally alone.  The next two locks were empty, so much easier to work.  The wind can be a problem at Barby, but worked in my favour today.  So lovely to see the alpacas keeping the grass short by the mooring.  looks like I shall get to the birthday party after all.

Coventry Canal:Anchor Inn Moorings

One advantage of leaving early is that you rarely meet other boats.  I bet that is what the guy thought before he shot out of Hopwas School bridge on a tight corner right in front of me as I had just left my mooring.  He tapped his watch at me, then laughed, only to get caught out behind a moored boat on the left hand bend.  By way of explanation, because boats keep to the right on the canal, (part of ship anti collision regulations world wide) left hand bends have to be taken carefully as to turn left the stern has to be pushed to the right and if your stern is too close to the bank you aren’t going anywhere.  It’s quite a difficult trap to get out of.  I carried on and reached Fazeley after about an hour, then next were Glascote Locks which I had to myself for the start, before a boat appeared below.  It turned out to be nb Cherie, known to me.  The boater who I had seen above, leaving the top lock, had kindly lifted a paddle for me, though it still meant walking up and back to have open gates ahead.   Next to come were the 11 Atherstone Locks.  I had to wait for one ahead to go up, then my turn, but by now there were two behind.  So intermittent help was at hand, then nearer the top, volunteer lock-keepers appeared and there were no more descending boats.  Finally, the moorings at Anchor Inn looked really busy, but I managed to get a spot on the end giving me pole position for start in the morning.   Ate at the pub, upstairs in the restaurant.  It has had a total makeover since Pat and I were last there and food good with friendly staff.

Coventry Canal:Hopwas Visitor Moorings

Raining again this morning and the weather forecast was for light showers on and off all day.  After Tuesday’s experience of the NoGo/Go, I decided to just go.  It was a good decision.  The rain lasted until about 9:00 am and thereafter was very light and mostly not.   At the Armitage Tunnel I was gong quite slowly and a boat came right up behind me, one that I had passed earlier moored up.   I reckoned that if they were going that fast I might as well let them go ahead and sure thing, slowly they pulled ahead of me and by the time I reached the straight leadingto Woodend I could just make them out in the distance.  By the time I got there they were just entering the lock and gave me the opportunity of getting a pork pie and some samosas bought at Morrisons in Stoke.  Fradley was manned and I had a free ride all the way and the swingbridge was open with other boats use so that I didn’t have to touch it.  I made good time from there. 7 hours 58 minutes.  I’ll get the fire going briefly tonight to help dry off the damp clothes, but it looks as if the forecast for the rest of the week is favourable.

Trent & Mersey Canal:Little Hayford

Wednesday 13th

A cold night and the canal was steaming this morning creating a local mist.  Not enough to be a problem though.  After the usual early start I made Meaford Locks only meeting a boat at the bottom to save me closing gates.  From there through Stone there was a lot of traffic affecting all the locks in one way or another either by needing to wait or getting help.  Single handing is not difficult but the need to close gates on the downward run can be a niggle, ref: my Bosley experience, so the best help is for someone else to close gates.  So I got through Stone quite quickly, but not Aston Lock.  There was a three boat queue due to the ground paddle being out of action and upcoming boats were sometimes over cautious when using the gate paddle, by taking this very slowly.  The wait took an hour.  After that there were no problems.  I stopped for the night in the same place as before coming up; just before Br 72 at Little Haywood.

Trent and Mersey Canal:Barlaston

All the plans etc.!  It was raining hard at first light.  It's unpleasant and I was not anxious to expose myself to that since there is no emergency as such.  So I thought that it might just be a rest day.   Then the rain abated and I needed some groceries to make the planned evening curry meal, so researched nearby supermarkets and found a Morrisons about 20 minutes walk away.  I do enjoy Morrisons.  So much fresh food on display that it is impossible for me to come away without something I had’t planned.  The rain forecast was basically all day, but my walk had been just some drizzly stuff, so decided to change my mind go for it.  However as I had now delayed the start I reduced my target to Barlaston, instead of Stone.  There was a volunteer on duty for the first two locks, but he insisted on proceeding very slowly, like 1/2 hour to empty the top lock, saying that there was an issue with the weir.  I suggested he filled the lock below as the first lock was draining down, to reduce the overspill which he did.  Going down the next pound I saw why.  C&RT was rebuilding the bank behind some new piling and were in the process of pouring concrete using a concrete pump situated in a yard behind the hedge.  A huge surge of water coming down would have been disastrous as the concrete was only an inch or two above the waterline.  I was left to myself for the other locks, but had an opposite at Twyford Lock, so that was helpful.  Then a straight cruise to Trentham Lock, where, once I had filled it a boat appeared below and I had a free ride from a charming couple.   Barlaston was reached at 2:15pm.  I could have gone on I suppose, but there was more rain in the forecast and I thought I can now get to Haywood Lock as a reverse of my upward journey tomorrow and pick up some time gradually, still aiming for a Sunday arrival at Barby.  I did the curry and with the right ingredients it was worth the wait.

Trent & Mersey Canal:Stoke Top Lock

All very straight forward today.  I wanted to be sure of getting  through Harecastle Tunnel so booked the 2pm slot, otherwise there is no guarantee of getting passage in the afternoon, although I suspect the tunnel keepers are good guys and I am sure will be as helpful as possible if traffic is light.  I was wondering how things worked if I arrived in the morning when I had a phone call from the tunnel keeper to say that if I was around, there is no need to wait for the booking time, but just come.  I arrived at 11:30 just in time to see a boat enter the tunnel and no-one waiting.  So I just needed 5 minutes to get the briefing and re-arrange the boat and I was off.  The original plan was to moor for the day at Westport Lake, but I was now early and decided to go for Stoke Top Lock as that is about 1 hour away and would give me my notional 7 hours cruise for the day.  I was tempted to carry on, but Barlaston is the next cosy mooring and that is 3 1/2 hours away.  It does mean that I will have to do all the deep locks myself in the early morning.  I’m glad now that I have stopped.  There have been a couple of heavy rain showers since.  The lovely weather has broken.

Macclesfield Canal:Bosley bottom Lock

I left early on Sunday.  Landmarks came quickly. Broadhurst swingbridge was for me to do this time and was very easy.  The Royal Oak electric bridge is inevitably going to generate a small traffic jam being single handed.  However one motorist had the sense to offer to press the button once I had got the boat through and traffic was resuming as I returned to the control box.  I got to the top of the locks just after midday and thought it best to go down, otherwise I would lose a day and I had already booked the Harecastle tunnel for Monday afternoon.  There was just one volunteer on duty who kindle helped with the first lock, but after that I had the flight all to myself, not even an opposite direction boat.  I tried all sorts of ruses to reduce the work.  Basically there is no quick way of closing the exit clock gates except for the two locks with associated bridges, so it’s either mooring up below or going straight into the next lock having previously walked down to set, then walking back.  I tried the fold up bike, but got a puncture so that died.  However, I wasn’t convinced it was a benefit.  There was one exception at Lock 7 (if my memory serves me correctly) where one bottom gate would not stay open.  It had to have several attempts at pulling the boat through with the rope to jam it.  As it was going to close after me anyway, I popped a rope on the other one and pulled it shut after me as I left.  I’m logged as walking some 6Km.  Moored at the bottom.

Braidbar Open Day

Saturday September Sept 9th

A number of amazing boats on display including the latest Crick winner, “Reginald”.  Many visitors, some looking for ideas, some already in the pipeline for their new boat.  A good number of current owners were there too as part of the 40th year celebration.  It’s a tribute to the Braidbar brand that so many past owners attend and attests to the close personal relationships that are engendered with the new owners during the construction phase and of course to the quality which was on display for all to admire.

Macclesfield Canal:Higher Poynton (Braidbar Boatyard)

Very short cruise this morning.  My luck was in , in that a mooring was available right before the Lyme Road bridge, so as near to the boatyard as one could get.   It’s Braidbar Boats Ltd 40th anniversary.  So there is a gathering of owners, past present and future by way of celebration.  However, I thought it useful to turn the boat round and get a diesel fill at the "Trading Post" by the boatyard entrance.   Whilst waiting I had a really nice welcome from Donna (Braidbar Sales)  who had spotted me there.  There's bit of a gethering orgained by other boat owners in the evening with a chinese take-away booked ahead.

Macclesfield Canal:Fourlane Ends

A short run today.  Reached the outskirts of Bollington, but the housing seemed to go on for ever, then a boatyard and all the time I was expecting to see the iconic Clarence Mill.  Eventually I did, but then that was the end of Bollington.  The aqueduct is certainly impressive, or should I say it’s height over the building so low below.   I wanted to stage the last part of my journey to Higher Poynton, by stopping short for the night as I imagined that there would be a time limit on moorings for the weekend.   So stopped at Fourlane Ends on the 48 hour mooring before bridge 18.   I thought I would visit the “Miners Arms” after lunch, and got there to find it closed, looking very sad and dejected.

Macclesfield Canal:Macclesfield

I learned this morning, when checking, that Bosley Locks are now open with no restriction.  So I set off sharply at 07:45.  Today is promised to be another hot one and the cool of the morning is not to be wasted.  I had already opened up the cratch fully to enable easy crossing from side to side when exiting the top gates.  The plan was to always have the next lock open before leaving the previous one which meant walking up, sorting that and then returning.  Having monitored the behaviour of the boat in the lock when operating top paddles I decided to just use one Side and deal with the next lock whilst the boat was slowly rising.  This worked out well.  On leaving the lock the top gates are easily closed with the stern in the lock throat.  Lock 12 was empty already, 11 was full, but the remainder as far as 6 were already empty, so that speeded things up.  A volunteer lock keeper appeared, saying that all the next locks were full but that she and a colleague would see that the bottom gates would be open for me when I got there.  I noticed that they were not rushing to empty the next lock until I was well through filling the one I was in, thus saving water in the bywash.  The whole flight took 2 hours 20 minutes.  Stopping for water by the bridge was next on the agenda and with this accomplished I set off for Macclesfield.  Royal Oak Swing Bridge is the next obstacle.  It is an electrically operated affair worked from a console on the offside, but there is a footbridge as well, so technically easy, except for the traffic.  Once I got the boat through I realised that there was nowhere to moor up on the other side due to maintenance work, so just whipped a stern rope around the nearby fence post, leaving the stern very close to the bridge swing.  That saved some time for motorists in the now growing queue.  Next obstacle is the Broadchurch bridge which is manually operated from the offside.  My luck was in as another boat appeared opposite and the crew kindly let me through.  I got to Macclesfield at 13:00 hrs and found a space on the pontoon moorings.   The casserole which I had in the slow cooker all morning was ready for a cooked lunch.

Macclesfield Canal:Bosley Bottom Lock

Another warm and sunny day, though for most of the cruise today shaded by many trees and with a good breeze building up it was really very pleasant.  Left an hour later this morning, not wanting to get to Congleton too early, although as the initial progress turned out rather slow due to moored boats scattered about, it might not have been right move.  As it turned out I arrived at Congleton in reasonable time.  The canal passes through the foot of the Pennines and as such the views are gorgeous.  There are many bridges all of a consistent design built in local stone, so although the bridge holes are narrow one can have reasonable confidence in getting a clear passage even though the offside is often totally obscured at water level by vegetation.  I moored up at Congleton to find the Convenience store mentioned in my Nicholson’s guide book.  I had researched it on Google maps because there is a road bridge, a railway bridge both over the canal at more or less the same place, the road on top.  There is a set of steps near the first bridge up to the Queen’s Head pub, cross the car park to get to the road.  The store is not at all obvious from the road as it is situated up a side street a few yards and not visible from the main road.   It had what I needed.   Continuing on, the railway is crossed two more times before reaching the locks.   In the strong sunshine I have observed some fascinating optical illusions with the sun directly behind causing reflections of bridges in the distance giving the impression of a wall across the canal.   Today, once moored, I had promised myself I would bake a Genoa Cake, having quietly acquired the necessary ingredients over the last few days.  In spite of the fact that the gas oven is only controllable using an oven thermometer needing ‘manual’ adjustments and I forgot to set the timer and left the cake in the oven possibly too long, it actually turned out fantastic.  Very pleased.  Put the fan up again, only the third I’ve this cruise and was getting some useful amps.  Needed as the fridge is struggling in the heat and I think the batteries are going to be punished by the morning.

Macclesfield Canal:Red Bull Aqueduct

After yesterdays mammoth cruise, today would be shorter and getting the tunnel out of the way leaves just one major obstacle to achieve my objective - Bosley Locks, but that’s on Wednesday.  Shortly after leaving Barlaston I reached Trentham Lock.  All the locks in the Stoke area seem to be deep, and not feeling too happy having to climb long ladders, I elected to use the beautiful offside staircase at the entrance to the lock and just let the boat coast in slowly without me.   These lock are fairly docile, so not having the boat roped up is not a problem.  Then there’s a longish cruise to the deep Stoke bottom lock, so same again, no problem.   The next lock is approached from under two adjacent railway bridges, the first actually being out of use but much lower than the other.  It’s actually rusting away gently.  Water levels were low today, but before I have been very concerned that the wind generator on the roof would get a strike with disastrous results.  Plenty  of room today.  Likewise the next lock, Twyford, has a similar low bridge.  Then the two locks at Etruria both had volunteers in attendance.  Excellent.  I was getting concerned about fuel.  My last fill up was at Fenny Compton.  Unfortunately the wharf at Black Prince was occupied.  I could have stopped at Longport, but didn’t.  I’ll dip the tank before the tunnel I thought.  As I arrived it looked as if I was going to be able to go through straight away, and got my knickers in a twist trying to get everything together that I needed with the boat going all over the place.  However, as it happened there were still more boats to emerg and I did have time (all internal lights on, torch for roof, red light for control pannel, big hat - because it can be wet, warm coat and finally life jacket).  Then as you go in - from bright sunlight to pitch black there is all manner of confusion, then slowly the eyes adapt to the new conditions and you can see which way the tunnel is.  Coming out there arn’t a lot of opportunities to moor up for the supermarket, so I just turned off onto the Macclesfield Canal and consigned shopping for tomorrrow.  Moored just beyond the aqueduct over the Trent and Mersey Canal and in the shade, for it has been another warm day.

Trent and Mersey Canal:Barlaston

Usual start.  Haywood Lock was almost empty on inspection so I decided to go for it, but a boat appeared up top just at the last moment, so I let them come down.  A good run up Hoo Lock and Weston Lock, then just as I was clearing the village, guess what?  A slow boat pulled out in front.  Same issues arose as yesterday.  No point in racing because now there will have to be a delay at the next lock.   CRT was on hand at Sandown Lock removing an obstruction in front of the top gate.  Then a boat came down, so I was well behind the slow boat and was not aware of seeing it again.   I had the GPS out and they were doing 2.7 mph, whereas I tend to be at 3.2 mph.  Really no big deal in the scheme of things.  It had been full sun all day, so by now it was getting warm and quite humid.   The Star Inn at Stone is my formal end point for the day abut I thought I would move on as I am ahead of time here.   Three of the Stone Locks were worked for me by opposite direction boats and the third, the one with the towpath tunnel, was achieved with a perfect opposite direction move, the skipper of that boat giving a blast on his horn to signal to the lockside crew not to shut that gates on me.  Clever guy!   The fourth was the full single hander slow job.   Having had a bit of luck, I went for the Meaford Locks as well and again had good luck with opposite boats.  So I am now in Barlaston moored near the Plume of Feathers.  Can’t be bad.  9 hours today.

Trent and Mersey Canal:Little Haywood

It took about 1 1/2 hours from the overnight moorings to Fradley Junction.  I stopped to open the swing bridge and by the time I had returned to the boat a volunteer had appeared with CB radio to close the bridge for me and, no doubt alert the volunteer on the middle lock of my approach and intentions.   So that lock was ready for me and the volunteer kindly did the works for me.  I was informed that there was a boat coming down ahead and when that was clear I could go in to the second lock.   This too was a free ride.  Thank you guys.  No such luck at the next lock, Woodend.   However this is an easy one and again a boat was coming down, so the gates would be open for me.  That was cleared PDQ and I was on my way.   At Kings Bromley marina a boat appeared ahead, going really slowly.  It was inevitable I would catch up.  The risk is, in this situation, of getting too close perhaps with the secret wish it would speed up a bit.  The problem is that if the boat comes to a sudden stop things can get a little ‘complicated’.  They did.  Two boats in a bridge hole ahead.  I reversed a way back and let things settle down and found that this boat ahead had moored up.   I have a theory, that if one goes really slowly there is much more time for untoward things to happen, but of course one has to go very cautiously when you cannot see clearly where you are going or what might come at you from the opposite direction.  The worst bridge for this is 62.  Anyway I got to Rugeley at 12:00 midday, in good time for the promised shopping experience.   There is plenty of useable mooring now which is good, and it was busy.  I decided to continue, feeling full of energy in the warm sunshine (I know that I am ultimately solar powered) and carried on to Little Haywood.  The locks around Great Haywood can be busy, so hopefully I will be there early tomorrow and miss out the queues.  Still ahead of plan.  It would be good to get Harecastle Tunnel out of the way on Monday, remembering that I have to arrive at the bottom of Bosley Locks on Tuesday afternoon.

Coventry Canal:Kings Orchard Bridge

Some rain later yesterday evening and slightly misty first thing today.  Set off early as usual.  There are always one or two intrepid souls about at this time, perhaps hoping for an undisturbed passage up the locks, now behind me.  Then very few until around 11:00 when it gets busy.  For me this was at the time I arrived at Glascote Locks.  There are just two, going down and the first lock was busy with one coming up, so that gave me time to grab a drink and change into lock operating mode, then of course the lock was ready for me, so no trouble there.  However, the lock below had obviously previously been used by a boat ahead, so was empty.  There was a boat waiting to come up so that takes priority.  Nothing for it but just to wait, although it is helpful to give a hand if you can which is appreciated (and can make the process faster).   Now there was a boat coming behind, and because I was having to wait, they had time to descend the lock I had previously left.  By the time the upcoming boat in front had done its thing I was able to enter the lock but now found another boat waiting to come up.  So I had crew from the boat behind and crew from the boat waiting below to help me and I got a free ride.  All that took 30 minutes.   Pressing on past Fazeley, the section nearing Hopwas had serious vegetation issues with the canal being reduced in width by reeds, the worst on a bend in front of a bridge hole (DunstalI) was so grateful nothing was coming the opposite way because it would have been a right mess. There were similar problems in the Hademore area.  Then suddenly entering Whittington everything is pretty with domestic property and gardens on the offside.  The Plough “Country pub and Dining”, just past the canal junction and railway bridge, looks to have had some investment which is paying off.  Nice car park, attractive outside dining, and colourful umbrellas and really busy looking.  I’m moored just past the entrance to Kings Orchard Marina a little further on, for the only reason that I have stopped here before and I can get to Fradley before it gets too busy.