Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS II YEARS

A LONG SUMMER : May to October 1995

Part 2 : The main Summer cruise
(a) Stoke-on-Trent to Bingley

We resume the story with the boat at Stoke-on-Trent Boatbuilders' yard, Longport.

I didn't start photographing this trip until we were nearrly on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

A FALSE START

Wendy, our friend Ian, & the cats arrived about tea-time on Friday, followed by me about an hour later from a meeting somewhere. The boatyard (Stoke-on-Trent Boatyard at Longport) had sorted the problems we'd left with them. The engine trouble was that the glow-plugs had somehow become disconnected.

On starting, as soon as Wendy put the engine in gear, there was a horrible noise and not a lot of power, so we stopped straight away. There were no problems when out of gear. The horrible noise stopped after a few moments in gear, but so did the prop-shaft. It appeared to be some sort of transmission problem. So we pulled back and moored outside the Duke of Bridgewater to go back to the boatyard in the morning.

Next morning we learned that nobody was available over the weekend to look at our problem, so we went home in the afternoon. During the week the boatyard contacted us to say that the problem was the drive plate. It took them a few days to get hold of a new one and replace it.

THE REAL TRIP

Wendy, the two cats and I arrived from home to pick up the boat. All seemed well - even the fridge lit first try. We set off at 14:08 and at Harecastle we had hardly any wait before we were into the tunnel with me at the helm having great trouble with my eyes getting used to the dark and bouncing the boat from side to side of the tunnel until they'd done so.

At Harding's Wood , Kidsgrove, we joined the Hall Green Branch, leading to the Macclesfield Canal. We bought gas and a new cat tiller-pin at the boatyard at Red Bull Basin. A sign in the shop here says "Do you want to see the man in charge or the woman who knows what's going on?". Then at Hall Green stop lock we joined the Macclesfield canal itself, continuing until we reached Congleton wharf at 18:25, where we found a good dredged mooring with rings. I went to The Wharf for a drink (very friendly pub) and to find out about shopping etc. The launderette here had closed. This, it turned out, was indeed the best mooring for the shops, although some way outside the town centre. There is a big Safeway, as I was told be one of its staff who was drinking in the pub.

Wendy went to Safeway very early, about 20 min walk downhill. On her return she got a minicab who backed right up onto the towpath for her to unload. As we weren't sure of Ian's time of arrival we decided to move the boat on to the moorings by the railway station before I did the booze shopping. Luckily there is an off-licence close by the mooring here. The cats were very interested in the steps up a bosky bank to the Queen's Head. I followed them and enjoyed the pub. Ian joined us after lunch.

We set off again at 14:15 and were well within the time-limit for Bosley locks, but had a slow run up them because of a disorganised crew a couple of boats ahead of us. At the top (18:14) the lock-keeper let us moor overnight on somebody's long-term mooring slot: again good depth and mooring rings. There were pleasant scenery and a good hedgerow for the cats to explore. We barbecued. Orinthia caught a mouse before dinner …..

... and another for breakfast, after which she was reluctant to leave, and showed a determination to go gunnel-walking once we were under way at 09:02. At Bollington boatyard we stopped for a pump-out and got a lot of gossip as a bonus. We were recommended to do the Ashton canal locks early of a morning to avoid vandal problems.

My ex-boss, Mark Stedman, and his wife, Jean, had retired to Bollington a few years before, and we moored outboard of their nb Margaretta for a chat with them. Jean was on the boat clearing up after their recent cruise to the K&A. Mark arrived back shortly from a trip into the town and we had a long chat and mutual inspection of boats. They have settled in here very comfortably and happily and involved themselves in the community. Mark was then on the Parish Council and has since been Town Mayor.

Soon after leaving Mark & Jean's, Dido jumped ashore in a bridge-hole, but was grabbed back aboard without delay. At Marple junction we joined the Peak Forest Canal. Marple locks were as lovely as ever, despite a bad road with no up-hill traffic to help us. At the top lock I chatted with a local resident who is also a boater we had met at Congleton on Sunday. Past Hyde Bank tunnel we found a nice sylvan mooring at 19:26, finding decent depth at the second spot we tried.

Wendy had to take the knife to rope & plastic down the weed-hatch before we started: she found a combination of blue nylon rope & adherent plastic. For once we managed an early start at 06:18 and passed through Dukinfield junction onto the Ashton Canal at 08:29. At Fairfield junction we stopped for water & elsan disposal, then we picked up BW's anti-vandal / lock-wheeling service : they themselves said it wasn't necessary this early in the day as the kids weren't out of bed yet.

Ducie Street junction brought us to Dale Street Wharf at the beginning of the Rochdale Nine. We found the usual poor mooring here (no lock mooring, no dredging, awful bank) for lunch before we paid our Rochdale licence (exorbitant as ever) and set off. The nine locks were still in rather a tatty and dangerous condition, but the towpath had been tarted up with wine-bars etc. At some locks, insecure fittings made crossing the gates feel quite dangerous. Here we were advised that the vandals are an evening problem.

We moored just below Castlefield junction, at the beginning of the Bridgewater Canal. A construction site opposite was very noisy until work finished for the day, and railways continued the noise thereafter. Moorings on the Bridgewater towpath weren't open yet, so we moored in the middle of the tourist bit, under an unfinished footbridge that at one stage was swaying all over the place under the impact of a squad of exercise-freaks running back and forwards over it. We did not let them, or the tourists, or the lovers, put us off barbecuing after we'd both had showers and pre-dinner drinks. I walked around the new development round the Staffordshire basins: very attractive. After dinner I tried the new pub by the bottom lock: very juvenile-yuppie.

Despite not very promising territory, one of the cats brought us an overnight present of a mouse. Setting off at 07:51 and turning right at Stretford Waters Meeting onto the Stretford & Leigh Branch, we then had to wait for Barton swing aqueduct to open for the day's business. The Branch was shallow and slower than we remembered it. We later found out that the whole of the Bridgewater was 14" below weir and they had closed Pomona Lock to save water, thus cancelling the planned Ship Canal convoys to the National. We had a "hearse-race" behind another boat before Worsley. They did not like being overtaken.

At Leigh we stopped for shopping at Kwik-Save and Pioneer (Co-op?), the latter having Freedom Foods. While we were shopping, my cousin Barbara, who lived in Leigh at the time, joined us for the afternoon's run. We found we had passed within yards of her house a little way back. We were now on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal's Leigh Branch and at Plank Lane Bridge the bridge-keeper gave us a useful leaflet about the Leeds & Liverpool and a restriction notice saying that the locks on the Lancashire side were working 08:00 to 16:30.

We stopped just after Wigan junction at 18: 29 and Barbara left to get a 'bus back home. Wendy found the rubbish point at the lock below the junction. Since we had lost those few days at Longport, we realised that we were in difficulties with time to complete our original plan. So we decided to head east on the L&L and only do the western end in the unlikely event of having made up the lost time.

At 08:14 we moved up to the foot of the first lock in the flight. We had booked BW assistance, which was very much in evidence at the scheduled time of 08:30. We locked with an experienced crew on Isabella May and crossed the Lymm Cruising Club's club cruise on the upper half of the flight. The locks are now much easier than they used to be with low-geared paddle-gear everywhere, but still the need for anti-vandal locks. We reached the top of the locks at 11:21 and continued to L&L Cruisers, Heath Charnock for a pump-out and water. This is a company from whom we had hired a boat in 1977.

At the foot of Johnson's Hillock locks we had expected to share locks again with Isabella May, but they weren't in sight. We learned later in the week that they had been delayed behind a slow broad-beam vessel. Instead we locked with Veritas from White Bear Marina. They were heading for, and recommended, a new pub at Riley Green, so we decided to follow their example. We cleared the flight just within the 16:30 time-limit. At Riley Green we moored at 17:26 opposite the pub : another good deep mooring. I went to the pub (The Moorings) for a drink with the people from Veritas. Nice pub with a good menu. Unfortunately it was karaoke night, which rather disturbed us later. But the cats liked it here.

We started at 06:38 in a thin mist with the sun beginning to cut through it. At the foot of Blackburn locks at 08:01 we found ourselves waiting for the locks to open. There seemed to be some confusion about which set of time-restrictions apply to which locks. While waiting, we were re-joined by Veritas. The locks opened at 09:00 and we were on our way again.

At Rishton, having been slowed by a shirt and some plastic on the prop, we stopped to go to the launderette (at last). We had great problems finding a mooring where we could get anywhere near the bank

We set off again just before 14:00, through Burnley in pouring rain (the of first this trip and the only for many days to come). We reached the foot of Barrowford locks at 19:26, where we were seventh in the queue for the locks next morning.

The lock-keeper opened up at the top first, so arrived here just after 08:00. We set off at 09:13 as tail-end Charlie of the queue, with no partner. We watered at the top of the locks and Ian left to walk back to Nelson station. He had a telecom engineer coming at home the next day. Foulridge tunnel now operates with traffic lights on a time-schedule with entry from this end for ten minutes after the half-hour, from the other end for ten minutes after the hour. We had about a quarter-of-an-hour's wait. It was very slow through the tunnel, the whole queue being delayed by a very slow hire-boat from the Sowerby Bridge fleet that had started one of their one-way trips from Burnley the previous afternoon.

At the top of Greenberfield locks we found that the locks this side of the summit were supposed to be working 09:00 to 18:00, but who knows? We locked through Greenberfield (assisted by a pleasant lock-keeper) with the hire-boat who had delayed everybody in the tunnel, and which turned out to be crewed by a very pleasant family. At Banknewton locks we were locking with a different partner.

At 17:09 we reached Priest Holme aqueduct, and an old favourite mooring on the off side right next to the aqueduct itself. We had hoped to be a bit further ahead, but the lock working times had stopped us. The Sowerby Bridge hire-boat moored opposite us and we invited them on board for a drink.

We set off at 08:59, locking with our new friends on the Sowerby Bridge boat, and then leap-frogging them at the swing bridges. At 12:10 we reached Skipton wharf where we planned a minor shopping stop. The shopping was slow & crowded. We found an excellent butcher whose meat was from animals locally grown & killed, free range. Wendy thought she saw a Tesco as we left Skipton early in the afternoon, which we thought would come in useful when we do a major shop here on the way back.

It was a slow run on this stretch, not only because of the many swing bridges, which we had expected, but also because of shallows. We later learned from Barry (the Wigan lock-keeper) that the Skipton Pool is about 11½" below weir. We moored immediately before Bingley 5-rise at 19:20.