Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS IIYEARS

FELIS CATUS II IN NORTHERN WATERS, 1998

Part 1 – Birmingham to Trevor, Queen's Head & Chester

We collected the boat from Sherborne Wharf, where they'd done a few maintenance jobs for us, shopped, and were away just before noon, heading along the New Main Line. The latter was very weedy, and the combination of this and the usual polythene caused us to boil our engine, so we tied up by Catchems Corner bridge for a couple of hours to let it cool down (after bow-hauling backwards for a way to find somewhere that we could get near the bank).

All hope of getting down Wolverhampton locks in daylight had now gone, so we moored at the top lock, as we have often done before. There is a new night-club in one of the old warehouses next to Broad Street bridge, which kept us awake until 2 am. Then we were woken up at 3 am by another boater with the news that we (and his boat) had been cast adrift. Somehow we'd drifted round 180º. There was no way we could get back the right way round with the other boat moored: the drifting must have happened with both boats in the middle of the cut. So we tied up the wrong way round.

Sunday morning saw us winding in the mouth of the arm just beyond Broad Street bridge, then heading down the 21 locks, through Aldersley & Autherley and into the Shroppie. That evening we made an early stop at Gnosall, as we were tired after the previous night's disturbances. This was a pleasant mooring, but Orinthia was much more concerned about staking out territory on the boat vis-à-vis Tilly than in going hunting.

Monday brought a lazy start. While Ian was cooking breakfast on the move, we ran out of gas in both cylinders (Oops!). Fortunately this was just before the boat yard at Norbury, where we also took on coal and water and had a pump-out. Wendy inquired about local vets, as Tilly was due for a booster jab. She was told of one in Market Drayton, so we decided to shop there as well to save an extra stop. We were there by mid-afternoon and found that the vet only sees cases by appointment, so we had to wait until the morning,

We were away by mid-morningafter Wendy had taken Tilly to the vet while I did some last bits of shopping, including buying a compact camera as my SLR had gone on strike. In Adderley locks we fitted in very efficiently with boats coming the other way, bit it was quite the reverse at Audlem, where there seemed to be queues at all the locks, despite traffic going both ways: slow and frustrating. Why does this always seem to happen here? We stopped for the night by Nantwich aqueduct where there was good hunting again for the cats.

Away by about 8 am next morning, and into the Ellesmere (a.k.a. Llangollen) Canal. We'd forgotten just how fierce the by-washes are on that canal because it's also used for water supply. We stopped at quite a nice village shop in Wrenbury for odd bits of shopping we'd forgotten the day before. We had a long wait for the staircase at Grindley Brook, although we were told it wasn't as bad as expected for the next day: apparently on this canal there are definite weekly peaks (as opposed to weakly pekes) of hire-boat traffic. It was too late to go much further, and we found a very attractive mooring shortly after the locks: yet another good hunting ground.

Soon after 9am next morning we stopped at Whitchurch boatyard. There's no rubbish disposal here, and they were rather grudging about us using the elsan disposal point "It's really for the caravans". They charge for water, and charge too much for diesel, so we decided to get both elsewhere.

Where the canal is narrow one really notices that the current is slowing one down: so much so that Wendy checked the weed-hatch to be sure, and found the blade clean. The current is because this particular canal is serves as a feeder for domestic water. We moored immediately before Chirk tunnel and I went for a stroll before supper to take some photos. Orinthia had a good exploration. Tilly showed a lot of interest in some mallard considerably bigger than herself.

Next morning we saw a lot of rabbits in the fields, and Tilly was restless: any connection? We stopped in the arm at Trevor (which was originally going to be part of the main line going across the hills to Chester) to look for some bits of shopping: not a lot of use. I strolled down the side of the valley to get some photos of Pontcysyllte aqueduct from below. We decided not to continue up the cut to Llangollen as there was a lot of traffic and we envisaged some long waits to pass in the narrow sections. We had to wait for a pair of hotel boats to wind before we could get out of the arm and set off back across the aqueduct..

We were now heading for what is popularly called the "Mont" (Montgomeryshire Canal), although the section that's open from this end was originally the Llanymynech Branch of the Ellesmere Canal. At Frankton Junction we tied up to wait our turn through the staircase (only open at certain hours and BW-operated). By the time we were down Frankton locks the earlier rain had cleared up. It was interesting seeing the restored line of the canal. The new Graham Palmer lock and aqueduct were good. There is a long straight section where the banks are made out of gabions (large wire cages filled with rocks), so straight and featureless that it gets quite boring: a bit like Netherton tunnel without the scenery. I can see why it has generated a lot of discussion. After Rednal the cut was very weedy indeed. We found good, well-dredged moorings at the current head of navigation at Queen's Head, where we stayed overnight. We were one of three boats moored there, one of which belonged to a local and was staying there for a few days.

I walked round the Aston Nature reserve, which was built by WRG. It has settled very well as a wildlife habitat. Frustrating to see Aston top lock fully restored (as is the whole flight) but barred off so that it can't be used. Some excellent flowering hedgerows between Queen's Head & Aston top. The Queen's Head pub itself is very food-oriented but serves a good pint.

Next day was Saturday, and a nice sunny one. By 9:40 am we were waiting at the foot of Frankton staircase for BW to let us up. Back on the main line, we continued back towards Hurlestone and turned into the Ellesmere Arm, where we found a mooring very close to the end of the basin, which is very close indeed to Ellesmere town centre. Shopping was slow and took even longer than the launderette. For the latter, turn left when you reach the main shopping street. There's a good free-range pork butcher almost next door and a good greengrocer the other way (the one in the posh building). Vermuelen's delicatessen has an excellent cheese counter. No large supermarket (that we found): just a couple of poky little ones. That all being done, it was back to the main line, and the evening found us before Tilstock Park bridge: another nice mooring. Orinthia caught & demolished two large mice before dinner.

On Sunday we had hardly any queuing at Grindley Brook staircase, then on to Hurlestone where we took on water (slow tap!), and round the corner onto the Chester Canal section of the "Shroppie", to moor for the night opposite the Barbridge Inn. Ian & I went to the pub & chatted with an acquaintance, "Clarkie" (of an eponymous boat). He tells us that since his wife's death he uses the tidal Trent a lot more than previously to avoid all the swing bridges on the Leeds & Liverpool when he's single-handed.

Monday brought a leisurely start and a stop at the boatyard at the foot of Bunbury locks (having crossed 2 boats in the staircase, a manoeuvre that is only possible in broad staircases). We stopped there for a pump-out and to buy gin (cause and effect?). They weren't selling diesel at the moment, as their pump was out of calibration, so we went on to Chas Harden's boatyard at Beeston, where we filled up with diesel at a good price.

The long pound between Wharton and Christleton was very shallow and also very full of moorings. Altogether it was a day of very slow cruising. We reached Chester by about 6 pm and moored by Cow Lane bridge in the middle of the town (grabbed the first spot we could find). Orinthia renewed her acquaintance with a cul-de-sac with a nice garden at the end which she had discovered last time we were here for the 1995 "National".

Next day Ian left for home after breakfast. We shopped. The Tesco here is good, but had run out of humane (as opposed to human!) sausages & bacon.

By mid-afternoon we were ready for the off and locked down Northgate staircase for the lock-free run along the Wirral Arm to Ellesmere Port. We moored at the top of the locks there, and then discovered that we could have locked down to some pleasant-looking visitor moorings in the lower basin: too late, as the cats were exploring ashore. I went for a photographic walk, then we barbecued on the towpath.

In the morning Wendy felt a bit under the weather, so I spent a long time on my own exploring and photographing the museum. There was a lot of new stuff since our last visit. The new buildings (flats & a hotel) around part of the complex is of the right scale & rhythm to re-create something of what it must have felt like before most of the warehouses were demolished.

By mid-afternoon we set off back to Chester, mooring this time close to Northgate Bridge. At this point I needed to go home overnight to pack my computer into a WRG van for transport to Salford for the "National".