Icy canal at Cholmondeston Lock

Last night I got back to Zulu and initial prospects of re-starting the trip seemed quite good.  First of all I went to the winding hole and got round without a problem, whereas last week this would have been virtually impossible with the ice.  There was in fact no floating ice below Big Lock either, but the towpaths were virtually unusable with a highly polished ice rink standard surface.

Due to difficulties booking Harecastle Tunnel until the office reopens on 4th January, the first realistic booking I could have made would be 6th Jan, so reluctantly I decided to head down the Shroppie instead, even though this adds more than 20 miles to the journey.  It also opens up the option of going through Wolverhampton and Birmingham instead of Fradley – just think of all those extra locks – Wolverhampton 21 up, then Hatton down being just one of the options.

This morning after walking right up the Middlewich Locks I decided it was worth a try, so we set off and very slowly and carefully worked up the now fully re-opened Big Lock and then up the flight of three, where the bottom lock was the most difficult due to being unable to stand up without holding onto something along most of the lock side.

Normally when going up these very deep locks I step off the boat, boathook in hand, leaving the boat to enter the lock itself.  I then pick up the front rope with the boat hook and use it to pull the boat all the way in, which avoids having to use the ladder, which on icy days like today is an absolute no go.

The sixth lock, Stanthorne, was a real problem as there was so much ice in the lock that I couldn’t even get in with the engine, let alone with a rope.  Stuck solid and wondering what to do next, I reversed back to the lock landing and was very grateful for the appearance of another boat which came down the lock and flushed a lot of ice out, while also offering to work me up the lock.  Thanks again if that was you!

The ice was actually a lot worse than I had hoped, with long stretches of thick soupy ice blocks rather than fresh ice to break, but still quite hard going in places.  Particularly thick between Church Minshull and Barbridge.  The weather was alternately bright but freezing cold, and rain/sleet/wind while also being freezing cold. 

Nevertheless I made quite decent progress and am writing this at Barbridge where we are ready to start heading in the right direction in the morning.  Although theres still an option of going back if the weather deteriorates this could indeed be farewell Middlewich!

11 miles and 8 locks in 6 hours – not too bad considering the conditions.

Taken half an hour ago - now its a blizzard!

On Friday night the canal began to freeze over at 4pm and by next morning it was solid ice up to 3/4 inch thick, but despite this the ground was of course solid but not at all slippery.  It was like walking in the dry cold of an industrial deep freeze, and gloves would freeze to anything you touched.

Last night it was not quite so cold, and the canal only has a thin covering of ice this morning in most places.  But it is almost impossible to walk without falling over.  I don’t know who fell over more this morning – me or the dog (actually it was the dog and he hurt his leg too!!), but after a lovely walk through the frosty fields it was actually quite scary on the towpath through the centre of Middlewich.  Crossing the footbridge at Big Lock had to be done an inch at a time, in a semi crouching postition ready to sit down at any stage – lethal!

This is therefore the decision point.  If the town centre public footpaths are like ice rinks, the remote Cheshire Locks are going to be far too dangerous for single handed working, so with regret I have decided to abandon the trip south until after Christmas.  The only problem is that the snow is now so heavy I rather fear we are going to find it hard to get anywhere by car too!

Good job we have this….

Theres nothing like a warm fire to keep the cold away

Big Lock being cleared for opening this morning

Well the Big Lock re-opening has been delayed until 23rd, but despite the 3/4 inch ice on the canal here in Middlewich, and minus 7 degrees at 7am, a whole team of BW men have turned up and worked the first dozen boats through already.

Its open until 3pm, then again tomorrow from 11 to 3pm but having spoken to some boaters who had arrived here this morning, the ice has halved their speed, and with modern powerful engines, all have been stuck somewhere en route. Theres no way Zulu is powerful enough to break ice like this, even following another boat, so I am almost resigned to the fact that we wont be setting off this side of Christmas.

Our target was to be through Braunston and Buckby by 11th January, so this is still achievable without risking the ice today.  I also dont fancy doing the Cheshire Locks single handed today and I normally hauling the boat with a solid frozen rope, whilst a little safer than climbing icy ladders, still doesnt appeal.

First boat through the ice this morning

I’m keeping an eye on the weather, and now that several boats have gone through the lock, its tempting to set off through the already broken ice, but I know if it freezes as hard tonight as it did last night I could end up literally frozen in.  Probably safer to wait until Christmas is over and enjoy a day’s Christmas shopping in Manchester instead!

Middlewich Big Lock Stoppage - should be completed on 18th December

Very soon I will be warming up Zulu’s frozen insides and setting off Southbound.  In fact I should be there right now, queueing up for the stoppage at Big Lock to be cleared tomorrow so we can get on our way south to our new moorings in Uxbridge over Christmas and New Year.  Now I hear that the work, including fitting new gates, will not be finished until at least 23rd, so that is really going to spoil things, because after the New Year, new stoppages begin and some don’t finish until the end of March, so this could be an even longer trip than planned.

I have done everthing I can including booking a trip through Harecastle Tunnel on Monday, in the hope that British Waterways manage to let some boats through the stoppage over the weekend.  I have to phone them tomorrow to see if this is going to be possible.

Meanwhile I am still down south watching the temperature drop to a forecast minus 7 tonight and wondering if planning such an ambitious trip over such a short window was such a good idea after all.

Still only 182 miles and 163 locks to go!

Middlewich Narrowboats Elm - New Year hire

Today the Times lists their 20 best new year party places, and a boating holiday from Middlewich takes third place; only Scotland and Oxford rate higher. 

See the whole article here:  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/where_to_stay/article6933328.ece

3 Narrowboat cruise in Cheshire

Make a splash at new year (though, not literally) and rent a narrowboat, which sleeps 12, to explore canals and rivers.

For example, hire the 70ft Elm for four nights from December 30 starting at Middlewich in Cheshire, which is at the junction of the Llangollen Canal (sic) and the Trent & Mersey Canal. It costs £845 for four nights including diesel, from Waterways Holidays (0845 1271020, waterwaysholidays.com).

I’m not so sure about the new extension to the Llangollen reaching Middlewich before Christmas, but at the time of writing the Elm is indeed still available for hire as described above and you can use the Middlewich Branch of the Shroppie – or better still for this occasion, why not head into the centre of Manchester!

You may well pass Zulu making our way from Middlewich to Uxbridge, although we hope to be considerably further south by New Year’s eve.  In fact it looks like we could be in the Stoke Bruerne area by then, and I’m sure there are worse places to spend it.

Wonderful evening on the Middlewich Branch

But despite the thunderstorms, flooding and general doom and gloom we braved the M6 and sat in the car until the rain stopped in Middlewich for long enough to load up Zulu with provisions and hit the road.  Mental note not to try shopping at Waitrose when hungry resulting in £108 bill for only 4 carrier bags full of stuff!

Down at Big Lock was the usual chaos of a Sunday afternoon, one of the popular turnaround days where as usual out of 6 boats which arrived from Preston Brook direction, three failed totally to negotiate the bend, pranging the concrete edge behind Zulus mooring.  One managed to bounce off behind Zulu, hit the bank opposite, and then ride up the bank infront of Zulu’s mooring too.  I often wonder how they have managed to get here at all when they seem to spend more time in reverse than forwards!

Anyway with break in the rain we turned round and headed for the water point before setting off up the locks.   The heavens opened again, but by the time we had worked through Big Lock things were looking less rainy by the minute.  It was half past five by now and the queues had died down, so I was able to work up the flight and turn into the Middlewich Branch without any further delays.

The sun came out as we went up Stanthorne Lock and I put Zulu into the slowest possible tickover and really enjoyed the last hour of sunshine – lets hope the bad weather is behind us, and tomorrow we will head up the Shroppie towards Chester.

Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival

Reading or Middlewich?  The decision was easy and I had a pleasant drive up to Middlewich taking the long way round to avoid the Silverstone traffic on this British Grand Prix weekend.

I won’t attempt to write a review of the festival as I didn’t go to see any particular band, and anyway the main acts take place in the town centre, away from the canal.  However I did find the “Fringe” to be worth going for on its own - so many pubs put on a full program of free music anyway, not to mention numerous Morris Dancers and ad-hoc sessions, that the whole town was alive with music regardless of the main stages.

The boats take second place to the music, as this is really a music rather than a boaters festival but there was still a good turn out and lots to see for the visiting public.  The number of trading boats was particularly high.. The Cheese Boat, The Fudge Boat, Teila the floating shop, Mountbatten and Jellicoe, Constance Irene to name but a few.  The only problem, if that is the right word, is that with such a lot of trading boats (many of whom arrived up to two weeks ago and remained on 48 hour moorings throughout) there is no room for more than half a dozen visiting boats which mostly had to remain above the Kings Lock or below Big Lock.  Mmmhh….

Working boats at Middlewich Festival

The working boats on display included Saturn, Gifford, Sweden – of Middlewich ancestry, Shad, Thea, Anne, Bittell and Lindsay all looking very well turned out but sadly static, unlike say Braunston where this weekend coming there will be an ever moving carousel of boats.

In fact Middlewich through the day was comparatively devoid of passing boats – some crept through at first light and some braved the daytime crowds, but on a good day a hundred or more boats can pass through town and I would estimate only twenty or thirty came through today.

Big Lock during the festival

Back at Big Lock, where Zulu lives, was a major hive of activity around the newly redecorated pub.  Several bands played on the stage, as always located on the other side of the lock, while the Trent and Mersey Canal Society manned the lock throughout the weekend.  It was a pleasure to see that despite the dreaded words “health and safety” , the event still went ahead without anyone even being remotely in danger, or being forced to protect us from the lock with fencing or worse.

The sun shone for at least some of the time, and the rain mostly held off, making it a very pleasant weekend for wandering around from pub to pub taking in the atmosphere and I would certainly say it makes a very nice day out.

Middlewich so badly needs events like this to boost its image.  The Middlewich Guardian local paper churns out headline after headline relating to graffeti, stabbings, broken windows, dog poo, fights, robbery, car crime, accidents, the Incinerator, Tesco and so forth.  It paints a hugely negative view of the town.  So did they promote the festival atmosphere to compensate? Sadly not.  They carried a small online article just before the event and then nothing.  Come on guys – this is the biggest event of the year and you should be talking it up big time!!

UPDATE 29 JUNE
OK so the Middlewich Guardian finally wrote Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival hailed a great success on the Wednesday, followed by the more predicatable Five arrests for disorder at Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival on the Friday.  I think this means it was an official success.

Reading on the other hand promoted the Waterfest to the fullest, with posters and banners all around the town and the local paper will print a souvenir this week.  Meanwhile the Mayor can be seen online, presenting the best dressed boat award and generally writing up a very good report of the event, the twentieth Waterfest since the reopening of the Kennet and Avon in 1990.  I’m still glad I drove 400 miles rather than staying local though.

Finally I was not the only blogger there.
Narrowboat Starcross wrote a very well written and objective report.  Its interesting to see what a visitor to the town observed – see their article At Middlewich Festival .

Evening departure from Middlewich

I realise to today how lucky we have been with the Easter weather compared to the South and East and today has been no exception - 10 hours of warm sunshine again.  Moored up below the Big Lock I gave up counting the number of boats coming through and at 5pm I decided to join them, so turned around and lined up with the umpteenth boat of the day to entertain the crowds at the pub.  It is so nice to see the Big Lock pub all lively and full of diners and drinkers again.

Above the Big lock, the new moorings look very smart and the playground was full of families enjoying themselves.  Suddenly bang crash and silence.  Oops - there went the bedroom window as a carelessly kicked football missed its target and scored a bullseye on Zulu – the kid that kicked it was in shock and I can’t believe this was anything but an amazingly bad time to be passing by.  A small queue at the next lock allowed time to pick the shards of broken glass out of the duvet thankful that it was only the top, opening pane of glass and not the main window itself.

So up the locks, keeping up with the hire boats despite being on my own, and turning right into the Middlewich Branch, greeted as always by Maureen in the lock cottage at Wardle lock then on into the setting sun to moor a couple of miles out of town in the middle of nowhere.  Lovely.

Kings Lock, Middlewich, Trent and Mersey Canal

Good news!  Middlewich’s Kings Lock pub re-opened on Thursday after a closure of about 3 months.

This pub has a marvellous lockside location, and overlooks the junction between the Trent & Mersey and the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union which can provide hours worth of gongoozling on a summers afternoon as boats of all shapes and sizes take their turn to negotiate the tight turn into the branch only to find they get flushed back out again when someone drops Wardle Lock.  The 20 or so yards from the junction to the lock  is the Wardle Canal, claimed to be Britain’s shortest canal.

I wish the new tenants every success in making this pub into the great canalside pub which it deserves to be.

Middlewich Tip

The forecast was awful but the day has been fairly nice despite a couple of light showers along the way and almost perfect for cruising.

Zulu’s first port of call was the local tip Public Amenity Site - very conveniently situated canalside at Croxton on the outskirts of Middlewich, and it has its own mooring too, albeit permanently occupied by a CM.  I offloaded oil, oily water, batteries, duvets, blinds, plates and much more too and Zulu’s slight list to port has now been cured.  It strikes me that it would be very useful to know where other canalside tips are, so I will start a new page adding the few I know and hoping you will tell me where the rest are!

Anderton Boat Lift linking Trent & Mersey to the River Weaver

The canal was getting very busy when we moored up at Marbury Country Park, just before Anderton and had a lovely walk through the woods to the Mere and back.  Curiousity led me to walk the extra mile up the towpath to Anderton lift, expecting to find it fully booked over easter, but having expressed an interest in going down I found myself added to the booking list and due at 17:00 for the 17:30 slot.

Zulu Warrior on the Anderton Lift

Events moved quickly after that and being the only boat going down the whole thing was over in minutes.  Last time I came down the boat lift it took hours of waiting while a technical problem was investigated, followed by a horrendous time on the Weaver in driving rain and such strong wind that when it came to turning round nothing at all happened with full tiller and full power.

Today is much nicer with no wind and no current so here we are down on the River Weaver, moored in Northwich town opposite the boatyard, overlooking the sad boarded up remains of the unique Floatel which closed earlier this year.  I suppose this is the end of the Floatel, which I have to admit was in a bit of a state when we stayed there last year – yet another victim of these strange financial times and probably too costly to renovate for re-opening.#

Northwich Town Bridge