Back Door Britain

In the 1970s Anthony Burton wrote a book and presented a TV series entitled Back Door Britain. It told the story of the English canals: their history and role in the Industrial Revolution. The title was particularly apt. Entering a city by canal always felt like using the Tradesmen' Entrance. Even in conurbations like Birmingham and Wolverhampton where ribbon development has merged these cities with all their suburbs,  on the canal each suburb and town was distinct, separated by parks, woods or allotments.  Those houses which did border the canal quite resolutely turned their backs to the water. Gardens, in those days, from the canal, resembled rubbish tips, each with a broken down shed, a fridge or oven and a bedstead.

Communal patio in Crooke, Lancashire

During the 1990s we started to see people wake up to the attraction of a canal at the bottom of the garden and the rubbish was replaced by lawns with open vistas. Sometimes chairs and tables appeared. During this time housing development started to imitate the ribbon pattern of the road system. But the houses still faced away from the canal.
Occasionally adjoining houses worked together to create a canalside patio.

Very welcome, but rare, are houses which face the canal, usually with a service road in  between.

This development alongside the Old Main Line on the BCN has gone further by removing all obstacles to incorporating the canal into the front garden.

Lock In

Apart from some issues with the depth of water at the first few locks our ride up the Wolverhampton 21 went well. We met a couple of descending boats which ensured that most of the locks were set for us and when we reached the last three another boater assisted us.

After grabbing some lunch we continued to the Black Country Museum to moor. We were too late to get fish and chips from the chippy in the museum which still used beef dripping to fry.


How things have changed here. Since the Dudley Canal & Tunnel Trust received funding from the Heritage Lottery  and others, they have built a  remarkable structure  which includes a cafe.
In the process they have built a new car park which is locked at night and a swing bridge which cannot be crossed after 5pm. The result is that boaters who moor on the side of the canal that we used are unable to get out of the area in the evening.

A man on the boat next to us had to catch a train back to London which he accomplished by swinging the boat over to the other side of the canal, and then we pulled it back and tied it up again.

10 miles / 22 locks

Chocky Horror Show

Weather is not so good today so we will push on to Brewood (pronounced Brood) which means we can climb the Wolverhampton 21 locks tomorrow, a little earlier than our original schedule.

At Knighton we passed the old Cadbury's factory where they used to make chocolate crumb which was shipped by canal to the  Bournville factory for conversion into Dairy Milk and Creme Eggs.

Cadbury's Knighton Factory 1925

This now belongs to Knighton Foods which is part of Premier Foods. It is still making powder products including Smash, Marvel,  Paxo, Angel Delight, Bird's Custard, Bisto, and Oxo in addition to many food products for other non-Premier brands.

Milk Churn Tower 1937

Since Kraft took over Cadbury's ( a deal that Warren Buffet called dumb) they have changed the recipe of several products including Fruit & Nut and Creme Eggs.  The CEO - Irene Rosenfield - became notorious for her high-handed management style:
-she stated that Kraft would keep the Keynsham factory open six days before they announced its closure and transfer of production to Poland
-she refused to attend a parliamentary enquiry as "not a good use of my time"
-she oversaw the avoidance of £10m of corporation tax by the company.
I have made a very good likeness of her from two creme eggs and am sticking pins into it.






21.5 miles / 6 locks

Market Drayton

First thing Sunday morning we completed the remaining twelve locks in the Audlem flight.

At the top lock we rested by the farm kiosk where we bought home-made pork pie, dry-cured bacon and DIY cream tea.

At bridge 68 we entered the hallowed realm of an angling tournament.  Fifty anglers evenly spaced over a mile of canal bank.  Had I known about this we could have cleared out the farm kiosk and sold 50 bacon rolls, returning at 4pm to sell the same number of cream teas.
Progress is understandably slow and when we reached to last angler I told him we had just trawled the course and did he want to buy our catch. This was no more successful than the missed catering opportunities.

We have not been to Market Drayton for some years and were interested to see how C&RT is improving Toms Wharf mooring since the previous tenant handed back the lease.

We were less impressed by the diesel spillage which no-one seemed to be clearing.

And we discovered another pill box by the canal









6 miles / 17 locks / 1 fishing competition

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

And boy did the sun shine today! To borrow an old hack's oft-repeated headline:
Phey ! What a scorcher!
Yesterday  it took us two hours to negotiate four locks through Middlewich because there were so many boats on the move so today we set off at 6am to get back on schedule.Nantwich was so busy with boats needing water that we decided to forego that exercise and proceed to Audlem. Now the sun started playing hide and seek and the wind picked up to make things difficult for us. 
 
What we were unaware of was this >

Boats were moored up nose to tail, sorry, bow to stern, for several hundred yards before the bottom lock and all space in town had been reserved days before. With seventeen miles already under our belt we embarked on the climbing the fifteen locks. 

However we did find a spot three locks up, right behind the Cheese Boat.

And right next to one of the outdoor stages.


At 8.30pm we had to move into a pub for our musical entertainment because all the outdoor stages were closed down for the night.




 

The acts we did see were very good but we have to move on tomorrow so our prime mooring will be available again. 

And yes, there was some intrepid hay making under way in the hot and windy weather




17.5miles / 5 locks / 1 festival

Three Wiches

After topping up the water tank and emptying the toilet, we set off from Northwich to Nantwich via Middlewich. I have often been told that the suffix -wich - indicates the presence of salt mines but I believe it actually originates in the Roman term for a settlement outside the city walls.

Soon after setting off we passed through the former Brunner-Mond chemical plant ,which is now part of the Tata empire, where construction work is under way.

Not far from Orchard Marine, on the opposite side of the canal, there is a new marina also under construction -Park Farm.

Unusually, the only sunken boat we saw was not a plastic launch but a narrowboat. I think that boats seldom get scrapped: they are sold on and on at ever reducing prices, receiving inadequate maintenance, until they are of so little value they are just left to rot.

I was pleased to see Elizabeth on her mooring in Middlewich. Built in cast iron for Fellows, Morton & Clayton, she was a horse drawn coke boat until 1928 when she was sold for use in carrying gravel on the River Trent. In 1936 she was upgraded to sail and engine power  receiving a series of , mostly paraffin, engines  until 1988 when the current Gardner 2LN was installed. The mahogany and iroco cabin was also added in 1936 and she was named Elizabeth at this time. In 2002 she was given a double steel bottom.

3 Tunnels; 1 Stop Lock; 1 Salvage

On our way from Dunham Massey, where we spent last night, to Anderton  we did indeed negotiate three tunnels - Preston Brook (1239 yards), Saltersford (424), Barnton (572 )

-and the peculiar stop lock at Dunton which forms the border between the Bridgewater  and the Trent & Mersey Canals.

 I am not sure whether the maritime law of salvage applies to canals, certainly boarding a canal boat without permission is technically piracy .


As we approached bridge 204 on our way to Saltersford Tunnel we encountered two boats performing some kind of dance. We soon realised that the couple on a hire boat were trying to re-moor a boat which had lost its moorings.

Putting M ashore with a lump hammer to assist, I tried not to get  in the way.












Until it was my turn to assist by pushing the loose boat to the bank

Job done, the hirers proceeded to return their boat and I tried to unstick myself from the mud .



22 miles / 1 lock / 3 tunnels

Opening Time

Not much to say today because I have just deleted all the photos I took today and am gutted.
We set off just before 9am intending to arrive at Vicars Hall Bridge  on the Bridgewater Canal around noon when it was due to be opened. After three months closure we expected there to be a queue of boats waiting to go north to Liverpool or to escape south. As it happened the canal was opened yesterday afternoon so when we arrived spot on noon there were no boats. In fact we saw only four boats in four hours this morning. I know that those  of you south of Anderton don't believe this but since Sunday we have seen no other boats traveling. The custom of waiting in a broad lock for another boat to share it would result in boaters starving to death up here. 
So there you have it. The lovely picture of Gecko cruising through the (unfinished) bridge portals on the stroke of noon is not to see the light of day. And I can't start to tell you about the other more wonderful photographs I took.  
We have moored this evening near Dunham Masseyr with Anderton our target for tomorrow. 

23 miles / 0 locks

Welcoming New Readers

Today we were overrun by a lovely crowd of youngsters with enquiring minds.

We don't know their names but are sure they will become regular readers of this blog

Best wishes guys with your end-of-year exams

The Road to Wigan Pier

Up early today.  Filled up with water and emptied the toilet and set off on the dot of 7am.

Soon after setting off we passed the entrance to the Rufford Arm which links the L&L main line to the River Ribble. This has become popular since the millennium  link near Preston  made it possible to cross the River and travel up the Lancaster Canal.

At Glovers swing bridge a C&RT working boat was hogging the bridge landing so M had to cross their boat to  get to the tow path.

The old lock at Appley Bridge

Long before the L&L was built the Wigan coalfields were already using water transport to move their product.
The Little River Douglas was  partly canalised through to the River Ribble at Preston .



Along this stretch  we passed three of the old locks dating from the early 17th century

The Little River Douglas flows to the right of the L&L lock

From Preston, coal was  taken along the coast to Fleetwood, Lancaster and Liverpool .


When the L&L was finally finished over a hundred years later the Douglas link became redundant.

Pillbox near Parbold

During the second World War the strategic importance of the L&L was recognised as was its vulnerability. Along its route pillboxes were built and manned by the Home Guard (aka Dad's Army) much as the Kennet & Avon Canal was defended

And we must not forget that coal was not the only commodity carried along this canal.

Grain, and, of course, flour were regularly moved.
This old windmill near Parbold is right alongside the canal.

On arriving at Wigan we made two attempts to moor. Our first choice was too shallow and  so we moved over to the ex BW bollards. Here we were more successful until a pair of boats went down the lock we developed a significant list.

So we left Wigan centre and found a lovely spot alongside Scotman's Flash.



13.5miles / 8 locks / 2 swing bridges