Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE YEARS BETWEEN BOATS

THE FOUR COUNTIES RING ETC.

August 1983

Part 5 : Chester to Ellesmere Port & back to Calveley

Peter started solo at 06:51, although Wendy had been woken earlier by a squirrel on the roof. Ian did coffee & breakfast while Wendy had a lie-in as we went down the Wirral Line. The approach to Ellesmere Port made Wendy think that there will, after all, be interesting bits of the 20th century to interest future industrial archæologists. At one point we were boating through continuous lines of anglers on both banks, who raised their roach poles above our heads like a guard-of-honour at a wedding. We visited the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum, which had changed, expanded and improved almost beyond recognition since we were there in 1978. We noted its friendly staff. The Grosvenor Arms across the road from the basin provided us with a pleasant lunch.

More views at the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum

There was fierce rain for some of the cruise back to Chester. We watered at Tower Wharf, then continued, suffering from some dangerous behaviour by nb Interlude (from Wolverhampton BC) in Northgate staircase locks. They emptied a full top lock into a full middle one, just as I was steering our boat into the empty bottom lock, to be faced with a major waterfall in front of me. I nipped in quickly and backed up to the bottom offside gate, which was closed. It was a good job we had a shortish boat! We moored at 20:00 in that part of the cut that follows the route of the old Roman moat of Chester, near King Charles' Tower, and ate dinner on deck in the light of municipal floodlights, & with fairy lights in the bushes opposite.

In Chester

The fairy-lights didn't go off until 08:00, by which time it was sunny. We breakfasted, then went for some shopping & sight-seeing before making a start. at 11:55. We met lots and lots of boats At Calveley we were halted by time-restrictions. The turkey round we'd planned for dinner hadn't lasted, so Wendy cooked a "wot-we-gots", reminiscent of her production of Twelfth Night for our Drama Club which struggled with limited availability of cast. . (Those of you who have seen me will be able to guess who played Sir Toby).