Oldies On Tour

We woke Sunday morning to the sound the rain coming down like stair rods and after a late breakfast it was obvious there wasn’t going to be any let up so we donned our wets and set off. Fortunately most boaters stayed moored so we had a reasonable passage heading towards Llangollen passing the site of the Froncysylite Lime Kilns,

Lime Kilns

serviced by the Ellesmere Canal (Llangollen Canal today) when it reached this point in 1802.   Passing a large Winding hole and around the corner we arrived at the “Jewel of the Canal”, Thomas Telford’s Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. The 18-arched stone and cast iron structure, taking 10-years to build was completed in 1805. It stands 126-feet above the river Dee, it is

Pontcysyllte Canal

336-yards long and including the tow path is 12-foot wide and it is the oldest and longest navigable aqueduct in the UK and the highest in the world.   With no passing

Pontycylic Aqueduct

places one has to start and hope one of the many “plonkers” (already mentioned) doesn’t try to join you from the following direction.

Today we were lucky as we followed a sightseeing boat across who no doubt has a lookout the other end.

Looking down from Pontycylic Aqueduct

The towpath was busy with visitors walking across admiring the view though some did look a little apprehensive, probably because of the height.

Off the Aqueduct and we arrived at the bustling Trevor basin Junction, and rather than head to Llangollen we headed to the top of the arm, passing all the hire boats waiting to be hired out and. We watched the Hungarian Grand Prix highlights and enjoyed a cosy and quiet night, well apart from the rain that is!!!!!

We left Ellesmere as the forecast wasn’t too good, the wind was getting up and black clouds were above us. We reversed out of the Ellesmere arm into the junction area where we were going to turn to head up towards Llangollen when this boat came charging down with only one thing in his mind; he was going to moor on the junction to visit Tesco. He cut straight across our stern, forcing us to go full ahead to avoid a collision, which then left us at the mercy of the wind, blowing us onto the canal side; not where we wanted to be and it also restricted our turning space. We were not too sure if it was a hire boat, but if not, he should have known better.

We were now on our way and again the first thing was to start our brand new shiny Honda Inverter Generator and plug the washing machine straight into it, so much easier and no frustration; how to please Christine.

The Llangollen canal is probably the most popular canal on the

Llangollen Canal

network, confirmed by the high number of hire boats about. There are the holidaymakers who regularly hire a canal boat and you know there won’t be any problems when you come across them, then there are the less experienced, but you can gauge what they are about to do and act accordingly, and that leaves the total “plonkers”, the ones when you see them the only thing you can do is stop, close your eyes, and hope for the best.   We have often wondered if there is any training or tips given before they set off, if nothing else, how to operate the locks would be useful!!!!!

The countryside continues to wind its way towards the Welsh hills; all very pretty but slowly we noticed the change in farming, moving from cattle to sheep. The heavens opened just after lunch, most sensible

Oh dear really!

boats moored up to see it out; not us, we ploughed on and eventually stopped near Chirk Bank, where we enjoyed a pint at the last pub in England. It is the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, and being Saturday, we needed a TV signal for qualifying; most important.

The Llangollen canal has a checkered history, first conceived in 1791, and the grand plan was to have an inland waterway connecting the Mersey in the North, to the River Severn in the South.   For numerous reasons this didn’t happen but the legacy of what was built is enjoyed today,

Chirk Aqueduct

especially the engineering feats. Firstly we  crossed the Chirk Aqueduct linking Chirk Bank (England) with Chirk (Wales) across the Ceirog Valley. This construction carries the canal through a cast iron trough, supported by 10-arches, 40-foot apart and 70-foot above the River Ceirog.   Once we had traversed the aqueduct we went into the Grade II listed Chirk Tunnel, built

Chirk Aqueduct

between 1794-1803; it is 460-yards long and it is only marginally wider than a narrow boat, and as the water flows south at 2-MPH, it was hard work making headway whilst going north.   The great shame is that most people only know about the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct yet Messrs.’ Thomas Telford and William Jessop were also responsible for both the Chirk Aqueduct and Tunnel; all extraordinary feats when one considers the tools and equipment at the time; mainly manpower.  Running 30 foot above and alongside the Chirk Aqueduct is a railway viaduct erected in 1846-1848 (though rebuilt in 1858) for the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway and the line is still very much in

Having had a brilliant few days in Chester, we now have to retrace our steps until we get to Hurleston Junction, we stopped just before Beeston Locks for the evening, where we took a pleasant drink in the

Beeston Lock with the castle in the distance

Shady Oak Pub, and to my surprise we saw Sue Martin, I didn’t speak to her, as wasn’t sure it was her, sorry Sue, I did not expect to meet people you know, miles from anywhere.
Next morning we travelled on through the Bunbury Locks again, this time we had help from the lock keepers, so no problems, although they did warn us to remove all fenders, as the next set of locks are tight. We arrived at Hurleston Junction, removed some of the fenders, but were then told we had to remove them all, including our rope ones on the front, what a palaver that was, we eventually entered the locks, and with the help of the lock keeper we were soon at the top, where we stopped for water, and some lunch. After nine more locks, and two

Have to take a picture without the washing one day!

lifting bridges, we stopped for the night. One of the bridges, was electric, great, stop the traffic, push a button and we are through, the other was a wind up, and it was very difficult! We walked to the Dusty Miller pub, where Geoff was distraught, as he had no internet and he couldn’t make a phone call, I kept saying my phone worked but that of course made it worse! He had to talk to me! Ha ha.
I have to say the Llangollen Canal is lovely, the scenery is great, they

So peaceful

have rings all along where you can moor, they certainly make you welcome.
Next day we travelled on, through the Grindley staircase locks, where we got stuck at the bottom, because one of the gates would not shut, the lock keeper removed a big clump,of weed which was jamming the gate. At the top of the staircase we stopped for lunch, then onto Whitchurch Arm, where Geoff managed to manoeuvre round a very tight corner, we then turned and moored in a good spot, where we then walked into the town. Whitchurch is a fine town with some beautiful old houses of all periods in the centre, the streets are very narrow, the church is striking with very large windows, sadly it was closed. We did manage to get a drink at the local pub

Whitchurch church

though!
On this canal they have a lot of lifting bridges, which are very hard to do, I managed the first two, then handed the job over to Geoff, whilst we were meandering, we decided to try the washing machine out with our new Honda Generator, my washing machine worked fine on the mains electric, but for some reason, it was back to its old tricks of not finishing it cycle etc., etc.,very frustrating! Wow it works, so it is the inverter that does not want to do the washing, quite frankly I couldn’t care, as long as I get it done!
Ellesmere takes its name from the large and beautiful mere (lake)

Keeping cool

besides it, known as the Shropshire Lake District, and this is where we stopped for the night. We did our shopping at Tesco, before settling down for the evening, the wind has got up, and it looks as though we are in for some storms.

We arrived in Chester early afternoon on Wednesday 11^th July, mooring near the Indian Restaurant we were booked to visit with

Some of the beautiful buildings in the city

Leisha and Dave Burns that evening. They had returned home for a few days and the four of us took the opportunity to meet up for a jocular afternoon and evening; we caught up with all the news whilst enjoying a few beers and a couple of bottles of excellent New

Famous clock tower

Zealand wine before venturing into Leisha’s favourite Indian restaurant where our laughter continued over an excellent “curry”.

The following morning we headed towards the “Chester Basin” where the 2-original canals meet the river Dee.   The route passed along the base of a section of the old Roman wall before entering Northgate

Northgate locks

Old city walls

Locks, built in 1770’s, a grade 2 listed staircase raising/lowering canal boats 33 feet. Fortunately there was a CRT

One in one out!

Volunteer in attendance as we met two boats coming up as we were going down, so again we had to do a “shuffle” halfway

Looks scary when you first do it!

down the locks. I have to say we are now very proficient at carrying out this manoeuver.

We arrived at Taylors boatyard where we had booked in for a secure mooring and more importantly to have the engine serviced as well as a few extra repairs to be carried out whilst Christine was back in Spain.

Taylors boatyard is the only original building left on this canal basin and fortunately it is grade 2 listed otherwise I have no doubt it would have gone the way of all the others; it would have been pulled down and modern apartments built in its place. It’s a great shame so much heritage is being lost, much of it sold off by the CRT themselves to fund the rest of the canal network. The current leaseholders, “Pete and Yvette”, apart from looking after boats, are also renovating their facility.

In its heyday this basin was an extremely active inland port, known as “Tower Wharf”, once a busy junction of the Chester Canal with the River Dee and the Ellesmere Canal (Wirral Line) and in 1846 they all became known as the Shropshire Union Canal which was in turn connected to the rest of the network thus enabling all sorts of Manufactured goods to pass through this city.

We met up with Leisha and Dave again, when Dave collected us and took us to their lovely home where we had a good time. During the afternoon, Dave and I popped out to visit the “Gladstone Library”.

Gladstone Library

William Gladstone, British prime minister four times between 1868 and 1894, left his collection of 32,000 books and a substantial financial sum to have this wonderful building created to house his collection of books. This philanthropic gesture was to share his books with people with financial constraints and was open to everybody. Today the library has in excess

Some people f the books

of 250,000 books and also has accommodation for people who wish to stay and enjoy a literary break, though I was reliably informed one could stay there and treat it just as a hotel.  I don’t think one could talk about Gladstone without mentioning his habit of walking the streets of London at night, hoping to rescue prostitutes from their lives of vice. In 1848 he co-founded the “Church Penitentiary Society Association” for the Reclamation of Fallen Women; he would, it is said, offer streetwalkers a place to sleep, protection from their procurers, and a chance to give up their way of life.  If that wasn’t enough, for relaxation he chopped down trees and two of his axes are on display as part of his memorabilia.   Of course he also had some spectacular political successes as well!!!!!

During the time here in Chester we have enjoyed walking around the streets and walls of this historically important city especially the

Walking within the walls

beautiful Grade 1 listed cathedral. Originally started in 1093 as an abbey and developed and altered many times during the course of History.     As with many ecclesiastical buildings, everything changed during the dissolution of the monasteries and in 1541 it became an Anglican

Chester Cathedral

Cathedral and the seat of the Bishop of Chester.

We have had a mixed bag of weather during our stay, sun of course but many cloudy days with a number of rain showers, unlike the south that has had wall-to-wall sunshine.

On the Friday I drove down to Gatwick to collect Christine, returning the same evening but being Friday stopped off for a meal to let the traffic clear before heading back to Chester. We avoided the M25, Tom Tom sorted us a good route driving through “rat runs” slow, but kept going and picked up the M40 at Beaconsfield; good decision. As the traffic was clear and to speed things up we went up the M6 Toll, so far so good but when we joined the old M6, the traffic was at a complete stop!!!!!!

Before leaving Chester we did the customary “Hop-on, Hop-off bus”, it

Part of the old walls of St.Johns

was very enlightening especially the history, starting when the Romans

Inside the grounds of Cathedral

arrived in 79 AD who built the first fort. Interestingly, when the Romans built the stonewalls surrounding the city, they dug a defensive ditch outside, and when the Chester canal was built, these defensive ditches became part of the Canal; my forward thinking by the Romans or what!!!

All the jobs and service completed by Taylors Boatyard; a visit to the cinema on the Monday night to see “Mama Mia, here we go again” very good and the cinema was one of the most comfortable we had been to. Tomorrow we are off and heading for Llangollen.

Up at the crack of dawn, not sure why, but every time we moved the boat went bang, so we are obviously on a rock or something, we decided to move off, (7am)and have breakfast later. We are now on Shropshire Union Canal, and with no locks, I was able to catch up with the washing, my machine has died altogether, not really surprised, it’s been a pain, one day it would work the next nothing, one day it would go through the whole program, next only half of it, I was beginning to think it was me, but now I know it’s the machine, hopefully we can get

Unusual bridge

it sorted when we get to Chester.
We stopped at Wheaton Aston Lock, took on water, and did the

Just enough for a boat to pass

rubbish and of course the Pooh! Whilst we were filling up we had breakfast, before moving off. We did 22 miles with just one lock, we then came to Woodseaves Cutting where it is very narrow, and not always room to pass, and of course we met two other boats. The deep rock cutting was cut entirely by men without powered machines, very impressive. After the cut, we came to the five Tyrley Locks, where we made our descent towards Market Drayton and stop for the night.
No rush today, we left about 9.00am after breakfast, we did about four miles, before doing the Adderley Locks only five and for once very easy, maybe I am getting fitter. We stopped for the night.
Next day we set off to do the next lot of locks, we decided to travel three miles to the bottom lock of the 15 Audlem flight, we did the first two locks, then stopped to watch the F1 qualifier at Silverstone, Hamilton is on pole, should be a good race, the England game was on, so we decided to do a few locks while it was quiet, we did another 11

Pub on canal side at Audlam

before stopping at Audlem. A couple who were coming up, left most of the gates open, so we had quite an easy trip down.
Audlem was hosting a “Party in the Park” so we tried to get tickets, but sadly they were all sold, never mind, we stopped and had a drink at the bar on the canal, which had a mock up of a narrowboat as the bar, we then walked all around the

Shroppie Fly pub

The bar inside the pub

tiny village, and where ever you went you could hear the music, which sounded quite good. It was a very tiny

Audlem Mill shop and workshop

village, yet they sold 3000 tickets! There was a massive 15th century

15th century church

church set on a hill, it looked very splendid. We walked back to the bar had another pint, then went back to Meg. The music stopped before 11.pm so we were able to get our beauty sleep.
Next morning we were off to Nantwich, we had the last of the flight (2 Locks) to do, number one was easy, but there was a queue at the second, as everyone was leaving from the party, we were fourth in line, plus others were coming up, I went to help on the locks, we got three boats through, everyone was helping, then it was our turn, well everyone had left, accept the one waiting behind me, I started the lock, then asked the guy if he would help me, well the man just lost it, he was a nutter, there were other people around, who listened to him ranting and raving, and just didn’t understand what his problem was, anyway, eventually I finished the lock and we moved on, but he was a nasty piece of work.
We travelled onto Nantwich where we stopped, we were very nervous as we knew the other boat was following us, he was quite scary, we also think he had been drinking, anyway we stopped, and he passed us, with no problems. We then settled down to watch the Grand Prix, which was very exciting.

The Bumble Shuffle

From Nantwich we travelled onto Banbury, where there is a two staircase lock, which required a bit of thought, especially as someone was coming in at the bottom as two boats were coming down, I shouted at them, and she said it’s ok, we are used to doing this. They called it the Bunbury shuffle, so another different experience. We travelled onto Rowton Moor, not much here, but we did find a nice pub where

The Cheshire Cat Pub

Geoff enjoyed a couple of pints, tomorrow we will be in Chester.

Tuesday 3^rd we left our mooring on the Severn quite early and headed straight into the first double lock of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal; we were through it with no issues and headed straight into the second double lock; here we had a problem. There was a boat waiting to come down and the chap left his boat and came to help Christine by closing down the sluices on the top lock whilst I was waiting patiently in the bottom lock chamber for the middle gates to open. Time marched on and nothing seemed to happening and I noticed Christine and the other guy struggling to move the lock gate. I scrambled up the lock ladder to gave them a hand; nothing. Christine had seen a couple of CRT men earlier and went looking for them to report a problem, in the mean time I asked the other man if he had let both paddles down properly, yes he said emphatically; but looking down into the chamber there seemed to be too much water swirling around so I casually walked over to look; what a plonker, he hadn’t closed them off so we could have been there all day!!!!! Oops and he went and dropped the paddle, now all was well and we were now in the top basin.

Interestingly there was no town or village in this area before the canal was built; Stourport-Upon-Severn was a “New Town” of its day. When the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal was completed in 1768, and joined the River Severn here, the area blossomed around the basin with trade, and once the Birmingham Canal link was complete, prosperity in this area followed.

Whilst in the basin, we made use of the domestic facilities before we were off, heading towards Kidderminster.

We moored right outside the Kidderminster TESCO, very convenient

Engine letting of steam

but we didn’t head for TESCO, no we headed for the “Severn Valley Railway” station. Naturally it couldn’t be near the canal; no it was the other side of the town, uphill all the way!!!!!

At station with old toilets, milk churns and fire buckets

The Severn Valley Railway is one of those heritage lines that have sprung up after that “Infamous Doctor Beaching” closed down all the un-profitable branch lines, this one closed in 1962.   The Heritage railway society was set up in 1965 and today the railway runs from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth with 4 regular stops and 2 halts (request stop) in between.   We arrived at Kidderminster station with time to get our tickets, board

One of the carriages

and source a compartment for ourselves, fortunately for us (but not the train society), we had the pick as the train was very empty.   It was very nostalgic sitting in the old style individual compartments that

No comment!

were common back in the day, we even sat in the first class compartment for a short while, but didn’t stop as we only had 2^nd class tickets and there was a ticket inspector on board!!!!

We got off at the Hampton Loade stop and

A couple of the many engines on show

visited the “Engine House”. Naturally this only really appealed to me but we were pleasantly surprised. Of course there were Engines of all sorts and sizes to look at but the two interesting displays were the post office carriage and the royal train.   We first visited the post

Me sorting the post

office carriage which is original and set up as it was before postcodes with all the “pigeon holes” for the various cities, towns and villages etc., so that the sorters could deal with all the post as the train thundered through the night.

The next carriage was built for King George

Kings lounge

6^th at the start of the war. Very interesting, unlike previous royal trains it was very austere, reflecting the issues at the time, but had very modern communication systems as he went around the country boosting morale etc. This carriage was also different to

Kings bedroom and office

others, being extremely heavy due to the “armour plating” it had an extra set of bogy wheels and springs.   We were guided around this carriage and apart from being “austere” it had everything the King needed. There was also a duplicate carriage made for The Queen, her carriage is now in the York Museum.

Back on the train and we continued up the beautiful Severn Valley and

Geoff enjoying first class

arrived at Bridgnorth. We had spent a few hours in Bridgnorth a few years ago so decided to get the next return back but this allowed us sufficient time to enjoy a drink at the station bar. Everything was very nostalgic except the prices, what a shame!!!!

The return trip was uneventful but enjoyed seeing everything from the opposite direction. We lingered at Kidderminster station and visited another small museum full of assorted railway memorabilia before walking

One of the pretty stations

back to the boat, downhill, hooray!!!

England was playing Colombia this evening and we didn’t feel being outside TESCO was a good place to be so headed off towards the Kidderminster lock.   The lock gates were open so in I went, Christine closed the bottom gates behind me and went to open the top ones; I waited patiently but nothing happened, eventually I climbed the lock ladder to see if I could help but we discovered we needed a special key, which we didn’t have so I had to go back down this slippery, algae covered ladder and reverse out. I had to keep going backwards, under the road bridge until we found a straight bit of canal to moor against, nearly back to where we had started.   We didn’t watch the match but heard the screams and cheers from the town’s people of Kidderminster and knew we had won. The rest of the evening was noisy as just behind the brick wall we were by, we had swapped TESCO car park for a outlet centre car park with a couple of fast food places that serve alcohol, still everything seemed good humoured and we slept.

I walked up to the lock early next morning and low and behold there was a boat just pulling up and he kindly let us in the lock first. The chap also explained what key we needed; it was called a “Conservation Key” and it is used in town Centre’s where there has been vandalism. Now we had a challenge to get one!!!!

We came across a CRT workshop at Stewponey Wharf, hoping to get a key but there was no one at home. We were just about to set off again when the CRT workboat turned up so we asked if they could tell us where to get a key, they did better than that, one of the kind gentlemen gave us one.

One of the three locks

We then came to the “Bratch Locks”, a

Halfway up

flight of 3 interconnected locks raising the canal over 30ft. To operate these locks requires special skills so the CRT people man them with their volunteers. They control access and send boats through in batches of three to preserve water but more importantly to avoid a boat going up at the same time as a boat coming down and trying the impossible, to meet in the middle.

Through the lock and we continued up the Staffs and Worcester, a very pretty canal passing through gentle countryside and many period

One of the many lovely properties on the canal

cottages, most no doubt originally associated with the working canal. We passed the Stourton junction where the Stourbridge canal branches off towards Birmingham and after one more night we passed Aldersley Junction where there is another link into Birmingham. The Staffs and Worcester canal is 46-miles long with 43 locks though we only did 25-miles and went through 33 locks.   When we arrived at Autherley Junction, we headed up the Shropshire Canal.

Boat yard on route

The first lock at the start of the Shropshire is only about 6-inches but this was a method, when built, to keep their own water in their own canal, strange or what.

We had a gentle, lock free run up to Brewood arriving early afternoon. Tonight we had booked a table at the “Shropshire Grill” as it has fond memories for us and it serves excellent food.