Market Drayton

We decided to stay put at Market Drayton today, taking the dogs for a walk through the woods, and then mooching round town as it was market day.

Our mooring by bridge 62

The walk in the morning took us under an impressive aqueduct crossing both the River Tern, and the access lane to the Peatswood Estate, whose lodge was the size of a small manor house ! The estate is made up of a number of tenant dairy farms apparently,  and used to supply milk in churns, loaded onto boats at Tyrley wharf near Market Drayton, for onwards transportation to Cadbury’chocolate works at Knighton.

The aqueduct – the canal crosses above

The town has a bit of history and its most famous son is Robert Clive, later to have a career in diplomacy and military leadership becoming better known as ‘Clive of India’, after he established British rule in the Sub-continent.

Several of the town centre buildings appear to be half or fully timbered tudor in style, and were apparently built after a fire swept through the town in 1651. Indeed we came across one with an engraved date of 1653 on it :

Sandbrook Vaults dated 1653

Some more Market Drayton town centre properties :

This evening’s dog walk took us down the canal where we came across massive fields of what looked like bamboo, although we couldn’t figure out what anyone would do with it.  All was revealed a little later when we spotted a sign explaining it was Miscanthus (never heard of it before).  It’s more common name is Elephant Grass, and grows up to 10 ft in height, and is used as a biomass source for energy production. The sign claimed the crop planting we saw was the largest of its kind in Europe !

 

A Nice Pair

Today we’ve cruised to Market Drayton in Shropshire, having got caught earlier in a sharp shower – this despite planning not to ‘do rain’.

On the way we spotted a pair of boats – a boat with an engine (the ‘motor’), towing a boat without an engine (a ‘butty’), are known as a ‘pair’. From the 1920s they were a common site on canals, the motor carrying its own cargo, as well as taking the place of the horse which could have originally pulled the butty.

‘Clematis’ and ‘Ilford’ the butty (nearest the tow-path)

Both boats were originally part of the ‘Fellows Morton & Clayton’ fleet. ‘Clematis’, was built in 1935 by Northwich boatyard Yarwoods, and fitted with an Armstrong Siddley AS2 engine, whilst ‘Ilford’ was built in 1912 by West Bromwich yard Braithwaites, making her 103 years old.

We later managed to catch them on the move passing through a bridge-hole and shot a video. Hopefully you can see it (I think you have to click on the image below).

 

Audlem Gathering

Red flag is where we are, blue is where we’ve been

We’ve moved on a little and are now moored at the top of the Audlem flight of locks. Audlem is the most southerly village in Cheshire, and is a nice place to visit from the canal.  There is a pub right on the wharf called the Shroppie Fly – named after the horse-drawn boats that used to run up and down the canal a hundred years ago or more, working 24 hours a day.  The boats used to operate at speeds quite a bit higher than ‘ordinary’ boats, pulled by more than one horse which were changed at regular intervals. The boatmen also used to change,  although reputedly less frequently !  The cargoes were cheese and other more perishable goods that needed to reach the market as soon as possible.

The only fly boat still in existence is ‘Saturn’ – she was at the gathering of historic  canal boats at Audlem yesterday. Below is a selection of some of the boats we saw – dating from the late 1800s to late 1930s :

Saturn

Swallow – a Coburn and Cowpar boat

Tench

An interesting boat – originally converted for living on in 1936 – hence the rather art-deco styling !

Tomorrow we plan to move on to Market Drayton.

 

 

Stage two

Red flag for where we are, blue where we’ve been

Following a relaxing few days in Pembroke with the family, we’re back on the boat and on the move again – this time travelling generally South (or that’s the plan).  Whilst in Pembroke we did some coast walking, and near Solva came across the remains of a large six cylinder engine amongst the rocks.

An interesting rock formation

As usual being unable to resist a little research, Mr Google informed that it was an engine from one of three tugs wrecked in 1973. Apparently they’d been sold and were on their way to Greece, one of them towing the other two. The engine in the towing boat failed, the tow line caught in the propeller and all three ran on to the rocks. What’s the link with our canal adventure ? – well, each of the tugs was fitted with a Ruston & Hornsby engine.  Our Brutus Maximus is fitted with a Ruston & Hornsby – hope we don’t end up wrecked on the Welsh coast.

Brutus’ power house – a 1951 3 cyl Ruston & Hornsby

Now for a little bit of heritage. Near where we’re moored tonight are a number of bridges, each with a cast iron corner protector as in the photo below :

A closer examination shows that each is deeply grooved. Before diesel engines started to become more commonplace in canal boats (around 1920 or so), this particular canal (Shropshire Union) saw 100 years of horse drawn boats ply their trade up and down, and the grooves were made by the towing lines. These lines were cotton and around 70ft to 100ft in length.  Think how many had to run round the cast iron bridge protectors to cut in so deep !

 

 

Interlude

We’ve brought the boat back to the Llangollen Canal and left him at Swanley Marina near Nantwich.  This is so we can nip down to Pembroke for a few days to celebrate Tom’s birthday (eldest son – 30) with him and the family. The plan may be to do some surfing – the dogs will need their lifejackets. We’ll be resuming the canal travels from next weekend (July 25). Below are some ducks that told us yesterday they hadn’t managed to eat for days.

Church Minshull

Red flag is where we are, blue where we’ve been

Last night, we moored above the little village of Church Minshull.  Unremarkable in a sense, but important in canal circles none the less.  In 1939 a couple cruised a good part of the system on their boat Cressy. The couple were Tom and Angela Rolt; Tom recorded their impressions at the time and eventually in Dec 1944 had a book published. It was written in a captivating style and in many ways highlighted the demise of the working boat peoples’ way of life.  During the fateful autumn of 1939 they moored for a while on the canal above Church Minshull, whilst Tom was working for Rolls Royce in Crewe.  One of the early readers of his book was a London-based writer and campaigner by the name of Robert Aikman. The account fired his imagination to the point that he wrote to the Rolts and subsequently travelled by train with his wife to meet them, whilst they were moored south of Birmingham at a place called Tardebigge.  It was as a direct result of that meeting that the ‘Inland Waterways Association’ (IWA) was formed in 1946. Much subsequent campaigning and lobbying of the authorities in a successful attempt to reverse plans to abandon a major part of the canal system is largely accredited to the IWA.

Church Minshull is pretty although the B-road through it seemed quite busy at rush hour.  We met some lovely people who moored nearby overnight – Bob and Pam on nb ‘Jam Pudd’ and hope to meet them again sometime on the cut.  Below are some pictures of Church Minshull, including the church :

The young River Weaver passes through the village

Role reversal

We’ve always agreed that taking broadly equal shares in a relationship is important, but where appropriate we should make use of our individual personal skills.  The following is designed to illustrate this :

As a time-served engineer, Nick is good at using tools. Here we see him operating the pasta maker (only up to level 5 though)

Deb is quite petite and can squeeze into small spaces – useful for cleaning the oily bilge under the engine

PROCEED

Like many aspects of life, there’s always a bit of history behind things that get to the end of their own life.  Before we left the Weaver Navigation, we passed a couple of interesting boats (well I thought they were).  The first, tied up by a boatyard was an old tug called ‘Proceed’.  Although obviously not used any more (read derelict), she had that lovely robust hardworking tug shape I find appealing.

Tug PROCEED

Tug PROCEED – view of the stern

So – a bit of history :

Built in Belgium in 1954, for the Belgian Navy, she was fitted with a 450 bhp, 7 cyl MAN engine, and first named ‘Hendrick II’. She worked for two owners in Antwerp before being sold to company in Poole, Dorset, and renamed ‘Pullwell Bravo’. Below is a picture of her at that time (1975) – (pinched from the internet).

Named ‘Pullwell Bravo’

She was them sold to a company in London, and then sold on to a dredging business in Plymouth. A second Plymouth owner renamed her ‘Coastal Man’, before selling her on to firm in Jersey. Her next owners used the tug on Tyneside, before selling her on to a business in Northwich (on the Weaver Navigation) who renamed her ‘Proceed’. Perhaps someone plans to restore her.

The second boat that appealed was an old cruiser named ‘Owaissa’.  A little bit of research revealed the boat was built in 1934. Certainly still looking good.

Owaissa

 

Wash day on the cut

Here’s the essential equipment (excluding the operator)

The washing ‘machine’ is a ‘Swiftsure’ from the ‘ British Vacuum Washer Co’, first patented in 1915, and slightly updated in 1921 :

The second bit of kit is a 1955 ACME wringer (or mangle).  Some boaters have automatic washing machines on board which can consume lots of electricity and water, but not everyone has one. Perhaps other boaters don’t wash – we’ve not seen another mangle.

Other than a bucket, an operator is also required.

Evidently the operator has been practicing the grip

The operator welcomes comments regarding her technique, particularly following some finger mangling after not paying attention – ouch !

Tudor Northwich ?

Red flag is where we are, blue where we’ve been

We’ve moved a bit further up the Weaver Navigation, through two more locks – Hunts Lock, and Vale Royal Lock, and we’re moored for the night on Vale Royal Cut. Really peaceful. What we can’t understand is why so few boats bother to visit this river – it is enchanting.  Mind you the nice weather helps – the sort of day you have to lock away in your memory to bring out those times  in the winter when there’s horizontal sleet, the canal is icing over, and the central heating boiler has just packed up !

Vale Royal Cut

We had a look round Northwich earlier today, and were impressed. The town has made great use of its assets – the river frontage, its heritage, and the legacy of its industrial past.  The only sad bit was the sight of a number of empty shop premises in the town centre.  Interestly at first sight the main street leaves you thinking that much of it dates from Tudor times.  However the story is bit different in reality. Northwich’s main industry was the mining and production of salt, and a consequence of the industry is that subsidence is commonplace where old mines collapse.  This was becoming a big issue in the mid 1800s and they realised that by using a timber-framed construction, they’d be able to combat subsidence by lifting a whole building if it started to sink.  Over a period they refined the timber framing design to make it even easier to ‘jack’ them up !

View towards Town Bridge

 

One of the newest liftable buildings (1913)

The library. Built in 1909 to replace the earlier (1885) library, which sunk due to subsidence

 

The largest liftable building in Northwich

One of the liftable buildings is Webb & Sons butchers – a real traditional butcher with an impressive array of meat cuts available, and genuine sawdust all over the floor. Well worth a visit.

Webb’s butchers. In its 120th year.

 

We took the dogs for a walk around one of the reclaimed lime waste sites (a by-product of the soda ash industry which uses/used much of the salt), and came across a number of trees which had been planted at least 10 or 20 years ago.  What was surprising was that the plastic that the original sapling would have been planted in all those years ago was still there at the base of each of the trees ! So much for environmental rejuvination.

Which will outlive which ?