Flying Scotsman

Our reason for stopping at Stourport for a couple of days was to visit the Severn Valley Railway, for a trip from Kidderminster to Bridgenorth and back. They’d put on a ‘Pacific Power’ event with two famous old locomotives – ‘Tornado’ and ‘Flying Scotsman’.

Tornado pulled us out to Bridgenorth, and Flying Scotsman hauled us back. At the changeover point at Bridgenorth, we were waiting for Flying Scotsman to appear so that the carriages could be coupled up for the return journey. With much hissing of steam, the enormous locomotive crept round from behind the carriages apparition-like.

It was surreal – Deb thought it was like a monster appearing through the mist.  I was lucky enough to get a video – click below to play …..

On the way back we were sat at the front of the front carriage just behind the engine, and listening to it chuffing away with the windows open. There’s a tunnel on the way back, and a couple of women standing at the end of the carriage didn’t realise the smoke and steam would come in – much to everyone’s amusement ! (click on this one too) :

Finally here’s my attempt at fancy photography on a phone !….

 

…and on to Stourport

We’ve cruised on to Stourport, where the Stafford & Worcester Canal meets the River Severn. The locks on this part of the canal tend to be spaced apart by one or two miles which is a ‘nice’ distance. What we mean by that is they break the journey up comfortably. When locks are all grouped closely together in a flight, if you’re lucky you can get into a rhythm, otherwise they entail a lot of knackering running backwards and forwards. If there are no locks, your mind tends to wander and you’re inclined to miss interesting things along the way.  Locks every quarter of a mile or so, are just too far apart to walk between, so it means stopping to drop a crew member off to operate each, just after you’ve picked them up from the previous lock. However on being one or two miles apart, there’s time to make a cup of tea in between – ideal !

What we have noticed this time is the number of locks whose bottom gates leak so badly that the water filling the lock only just reaches the canal level above, making the top gate some times tough to open.  The gap between the gates can allow a lot of water out even when they’re shut ……

The architecture around some of the locks is fascinating – it almost looks like they made the design up as they went along during the construction. Here’s one with a tunnel which would have originally been required to move the horse down below the lock – obviously the tow rope would have had to been disconnected first – an additional hassle the boatmen of old would have seen as slowing down their journey ….

One of the locks just uphill from Kinver is situated beautifully – Hyde Lock. With the sun just right, it makes a great scene …

The garden gates to the lock cottage are miniature lock gates !

Kinver is a lovely place to stay for a day or so. We decided on a walk up on to Kinver Edge, a dramatic sandstone escarpment which was apparently once sand dunes on a beach !  The views across the Shropshire countryside are far reaching (Kinver incidentally is actually still in Staffordshire at the tip of a thin ‘sliver’ of county – see below) :

The route we chose from the village up to the escarpment this time took us up past St Peters Church, which has great views back down over the village and Stour valley ….

View over the village from the churchyard

 

Later came the view across Shropshire (toward the Long Mynd – Hi Simon !), from Kinver Edge

After stopping for wine and beer replenishment at Sainsbury in Kidderminster, and taking the opportunity to photograph the ubiquitous Kidderminster shopping trolley and traffic cone in the canal….

……our lunch stop was by the Severn Valley Railway viaduct over the canal. We’d timed it so that we could stop and get a picture of Flying Scotsman – as did a surprising number of other people…

Flying Scotsman – we’ve managed to get tickets for a ride on Monday.

… and so on to Stourport.  This is a town whose very existence came about as a result of the canal in 1771. Until then, there was reputedly just a farm situated where the River Stour joined the River Thames.  We posted a bit of a history of Stourport when we last visited, so this time there’s simply some views to enjoy :

Tontine Hotel

 

 

The wrong clothes

We’ve left the Shropshire Union Canal at its southern end in Wolverhampton, and turned right on to the Stafford and Worcester Canal. Tonight we’re tied up below the Bratch Locks.

This is an older canal having been opened in 1771, and the three Bratch Locks are quite a feature. Originally built as a ‘triple staircase’, ie the first lead straight into the second, and second into the third, they were modified to incorporate side pounds a few years later to save water, and speed up passage.  Whilst the instructions as to how to use them are not really complicated, they do have colour coordinated paddle gear, to help you get it right !

There’s a full time lock keeper to help during working hours, however if you arrive late – make sure you read the instructions !  The lock keeper maintains them well, and has a little office at the top in an original toll office..

Looking back from the middle chamber

Later in the afternoon we took the dogs on a five mile walk along a disused railway line, and underneath one of the bridges found some really good ‘graffiti’, each mural around 10ft high :

The artist is apparently a guy who goes by the name Steve Edwards.

The walk started off in nice dry weather, however someone once said “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes”.  An hour from the boat, in the middle of nowhere, the heavens opened – we had the wrong clothes !

Shropshire Union Canal and Locks

Apologies for not posting over the last few days. We’ve been on the Shropshire Union Canal, and at each place we’ve stopped overnight there hasn’t been any 3G signal !

Despite having cruised this particular waterway a number of times, it is still enjoyable – easy locks, impressive embankments, and sometimes deep and damp cuttings. The ‘main line’ of the canal runs for 66 miles from Ellesmere Port on the River Mersey to Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, and was the last trunk narrow canal to be built in England. Completed in 1835 it was the last major project of Thomas Telford. 

The name “Shropshire Union” comes from the amalgamation of a number of canals, and the various component companies came together to form the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company. The main line however was apparently almost built as a railway although eventually it was decided to construct it as a waterway (thank goodness !)

Rising from the Cheshire Plain into Shropshire, there are three groups of locks – the Audlem 16, Adderley 5, and Tyrley 5 flights. All of them are a delight to work through – easy paddles and gates.

Audlem flight of locks

Below the Audlem flight there are another three locks, and below those an old boat-horse stable, converted into a cottage.

Converted stables at the bottom of the Audlem flight

The canal company ran a fleet of boats on regular runs, collecting and delivering around the system, a number of which were run as ‘fly boats’. These used to operate 24 hours around the clock to tight schedules, and needed to change horses at regular intervals – the horses were often looked after better than the boat people !

On the Adderley flight of five locks.

Some of our readers who know Woodseaves Cutting, may be surprised that the sun does penetrate the depths sometimes …..

Woodseaves Cutting

Many of the shallower cuttings are in very attractive settings :

Above the Audlem and Adderley flights, the Tyrley flight is no less attractive.

Just going in to Tyrley bottom lock – note the horse tow-rope grooves cut into the cast iron bridge protector

 

Tyrley top lock

Now, here are some interesting bits and bobs along the canal.  Firstly, whilst it’s not easy to see, there is a depression in the coping stone located by the end of the lower lock gates on each side of each lock. There are two gates at the bottom of each lock, and with one open it’s possible to step across. Your foot naturally always falls in one particular place, and you find you always swivel on that spot. How many millions of swivelling feet does it take to wear a depression in hard stone ?

Are these sheep training for trampolining after the GB success at the Olympics ?

…..?

Here’s an interesting back garden over-looking the canal….

Another successful day

Tonight we’re tied up just south of Nantwich, on our own in the middle of nowhere it seems

A good day all in all – we stopped just before Nantwich, at the bottom of the Llangollen Canal so that our friend Mark could undertake the four-yearly Boat Safety Examination. It’s a bit like an MOT, and Mark is a qualified examiner.  We passed !  The only thing that needed changing was a flame-proof diesel tank vent – we managed to get one in Nantwich.

The new brass vent fitted

The weather is warm this evening and the view lovely…

Bramble Cuttings

We spent today hanging about in Middlewich. It started off OK; we left our overnight mooring (of which more in a bit) at a reasonable time, passed through ‘Big Lock’ in Middlewich, and tied up for a visit to Tesco – all before lunchtime. The plan was to climb the next three locks, and turn on to the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union before the rain started. In distance terms this is only about 400m. Well, with all the messing around with queues of boats going up and down the locks, we eventually got through after three hours, by which time the rain was torrential ! Still, it’s not a race, and we could dry things out afterwards in our cosy engine room.

Before stopping last night, we cruised on southwards along the Trent & Mersey Canal again crossing ‘salt’ country. Brine extraction has been taking place on a large scale here for around 150 years, and near Wincham, the canal passes right through one of the factories.

Tata Chemicals Europe works

The overnight stop was at a place called ‘Bramble Cuttings’, just north of Middlewich.

It was originally the site of a clay pit, the clay being used for ‘puddling’ the canal in the area when it was built in 1770. Puddling clay is used to line the canal and render it waterproof. During the building of the canal it is said that herds of cows were driven along the canal bed in order to consolidate the clay.

The pit has been turned into a boaters picnic spot and overnight mooring – there’s room for around two or three boats. Being on the ‘offside’ (ie the opposite side to the towpath), and with no access other than by water, it’s a lovely secure spot to stop for the night.

Bramble Cuttings

 

Moored on our own

It’s maintained by a local boat club on behalf of the Canal & River Trust, and still retains the narrow gauge rail that was used to move the clay to the canal, to be loaded onto boats for use further along the canal as building progressed.

The picnic tables (or their manufacture ) were interesting :

We first stopped here on a trip around fifteen years ago – for some reason I remember eating saugage sandwiches for lunch.  I also recall we made good use of one of the picnic tables too…..

Another of the ‘Wonders of the Waterways’

There are seven ‘Wonders of the Waterways’, but we’re not sure who chose them, however considering that most were constructed in the early years of the canal era without access to modern construction plant, in our view they’re all worthy of the accolade.

The latest we have travelled over is the Barton Swing Aqueduct carrying the Bridgewater Canal across the Manchester Ship Canal.

This route of the Bridgewater Canal between the coal mines at Worsley (where we were in our last posting) and the centre of Manchester, is all on one level needing no locks. However it did involve the construction in 1761 of an aqueduct across the River Irwell at Barton. The canal was carried on high embankments and across the river, 38 ft below, on three sandstone arches.

In 1885, both the Mersey and Irwell navigation and the Bridgewater Canal were bought by the Manchester Ship Canal Company. Much of the Mersey and Irwell was incorporated into the Ship Canal but the planned larger vessels wouldn’t have fitted underneath the original aqueduct, so an alternative was sought.

It was replaced by a unique swing aqueduct that was opened in 1893, that swung round on a pivot, situated  in the middle of the Ship Canal. It comprised a channel that could be sealed off at each end to form a 235 ft long and 18 ft wide tank, holding 800 tons of water. The swing aqueduct was built alongside the original stone aqueduct so apparently it was impossible to test whether it worked by swinging it open with a tankful of water until the original aqueduct had been demolished!  However, the designers and engineers got it right, and the aqueduct has been swinging successfully ever since, although it didn’t need to when we crossed.

This is a view from within the aqueduct channel itself

 

It’s controlled from the island in the middle

For the night, we stopped in Lymm in Cheshire, having travelled the very straight sections of the Bridgewater Canal through Sale …

… and having passed the old Linotype factory, originally opened in Broadheath in 1897. At the height of its success, the firm apparently employed more than 10,000 people to make typesetting machines for the newspaper industry. Between 1897 and 1901 the Linotype Company built 185 houses for its employees and provided two football grounds, four tennis courts, two bowling greens, a cricket ground, a playground for children and allotments !

Largely demolished now

 

…however one gable end was being supported by scaffolding with nothing behind it – perhaps going to be incorporated into a new development ?

Our overnight stop in Lymm was very pleasant – interesting in that the canal cut the existing village in half when it was built in 1761.

Lymm moorings

Pressing on to Preston Brook the next day, this was the view from the boat early the morning after….

Mist rising on a quiet autumnal canal

 

Return to Worsley

To canal boaters, Worsley (in part of the sprawling Greater Manchester area) is synonymous with the ‘birth’ of the modern (post 1760) canal era. See our blog of 23 July ‘Where it all began‘ for a bit more on that.

The completion in 1761 of the Bridgewater Canal allowed Worsley to expand from a small village of cottage industries, to an important town based upon cotton manufacture, iron-working, brick-making and extensive coal mining. Later expansion came after the First and Second World Wars, when large urban estates were built in the region. We did find a couple of interesting 19th Century buildings near the canal though …

1879 Court House

 

Former 1834 gunpowder store, originally built without any timber. Now converted into ‘luxury waterside homes’

 

 

The ‘Packet House’, at which passengers could travel by boat to Wigan or Manchester – early 1800s. The alternatives were either on foot, or by horse (if you owned one)

There were some nice houses around Worsley Green too :

Houses around the green

 

 

Escape from Wigan

This morning we awoke to a picture perfect scene; a sense of hope for the day ahead perhaps – we had to tackle the Wigan flight of locks !

Well, at least it didn’t rain today, but that didn’t stop the water getting in the boat.  The short 60 ft locks mean that as some locks empty (those with leaky gates), a 60 ft boat like ours ends up under Niagara Falls at the back !

We set off at 7:15 am this morning, and got to our planned mooring this evening at 5:00 pm, having completed all the remaining locks from the summit.

1816 – the date captured on one of the Wigan lock bridges, meaning this year marked its bi-centenary

The time we spent up in the Dales was like having a holiday abroad, in that the return journey back through into Lancashire is like coming home from one – it has to be done, but you’re not necessarily looking forward to it.

The holiday is great (up in the Yorkshire Dales), but on the way back the taxi to the airport is late (Barrowford locks).

There’s the inevitable delay at the airport with crowds of people and no air conditioning (the Blackburn locks).

Once out of Heathrow you get stuck in a traffic jam on the M25 (the Wigan locks), just wishing the journey would end !

The trip from the summit however has been made so much more pleasant having shared nearly fifty of the locks with Gerry & Sandie, a lovely couple who are brave enough to cruise on their boat all year round !

We all went out for a celebratory drink at the pub tonight.

 

 

Dodging Refrigerators

Let’s go back 150 years – mid 19th Century. The canals were in their heyday with boats carrying a variety of cargoes, and banks lined with mills and factories, reliant on the boats for getting raw materials in, and finished goods out.

There’s a balance to most things in life, and whilst the canals provided a livelihood for a lot of the population, they were also seen as a useful ‘dumping ground’ for rubbish, unwanted chemicals, and other undesirable items. Indeed, the Bradford Canal was forced to close by 1922 as it was so flammable it frequently caught fire !

As a result, while the factories faced the canal as their very existence depended on them, houses turned their back…

No one wanted a view of the canal !

The canals were apparently places to avoid – particularly in towns and cities. How things have changed.  Factory and warehouse canal frontages became bricked up many years ago, however what you do see is adverts for ‘Luxury Waterside Apartments’ (by the way as an aside, whatever happened to ‘flats’ ?).

Lorries have taken over the role of boats (round the back)

You could argue that the canals have been ‘gentrified’ and the original character lost. One can only wonder what it was like back 150 years ago. Well, the good news is that you only have to go to Blackburn !

Remains of a fridge ?

Talking of fridges, we met someone today, who regularly boats through Blackburn. He claimed know where all the underwater fridges are, and can now successfully weave a course through them !

This guy unfortunately fell in to the canal while cycling, and dissolved

Anyway, on to Wigan tomorrow…..