We left the Llangollen Canal today with mixed feelings. We've been on it since October 21st last year, except for a couple of weeks over Christmas and the New Year, when the stoppages were lifted. It's been a great place to spend the winter, the only downside was the breach which severely curtailed our cruising.
But now ever onwards to new experiences, places to see, people to meet, adventures to have! (I was brought up on Enid Blyton, there's always an adventure round the corner!) So we went down the last four locks at Hurleston Junction and turned left on to the Shropshire Union. We've been up here before, as far as Bunbury, but after that it's all new territory. At Bunbury, Anglo-Welsh hire cruisers have a centre, and their boats were all over the canal. The canal is very narrow here any way, and there is a staircase lock, and in the end I asked one of the operatives to move a boat, I couldn't get through.
It was very rural and rolling countryside and we saw Beeston castle. Sadly it's a ruin now, but it must have been a wonderful sight in its heyday. It was built in the thirteenth century by the Earl of Chester and is set up high on an outcrop of rock and can be seen from thirty miles away.
THE CHESHIRE COUNTRYSIDE
Trev went ahead to set the locks and we made good progress. We had hoped to moor up soon after the locks, but there was more than a mile of boats moored on the offside, and we couldn't moor opposite them or we would have restricted the width of the canal. After the line of boats finished, we tried to moor, but the water was too shallow, and we had to go almost to Chester before we found somewhere to get in.
Saturday, 19th March
Another beautiful Spring Day, glorious weather, for the first time this year we didn't need jackets. Today we are hoping to get through Chester and on to Ellesmere Port, our final destination on the Shroppie, and the end of the Canal. We would like to have stopped overnight in Chester, but had heard too many stories of problems to do so. We went on through the locks to Chester. All of the locks on this stretch of the canal are double width, and they're hard work. We've been used to single width locks since last September.
The hairiest bit is the staircase locks. There are three of them and they're very deep. They take ages to fill and empty, and I didn't enjoy being at the bottom of them in the boat one bit. There was no way I could have got out if I'd needed, except by going through the boat, I couldn't see or hear Trev, or indeed see anything except the cavernous walls of the lock looming above me. Eventually it was all over, and I brought the boat out under a gloomy railway bridge and in to the sunshine again.
CHESTER STAIRCASE LOCKS
There was a vast quantity of rubbish in the canal, mostly plastic bottles, bicycle wheels, polystyrene and plastic bags, many of them full of rubbish. We went past the outskirts of Chester and once more in to countryside, some of it very attractive, but in the main, the trip up to Ellesmere Port isn't very nice. The rubbish grew worse as we approached our goal, and the countryside gave way to huge factories and chemical plants. There were several Travellers' Camps, where the rubbish was spilling in to the canal. The debris was unbelievable. It looked as though they just threw everything on to the ground or over the fence in to the canal when they'd finished with it.
Eventually we arrived at Ellesmere Port. There were three locks and we went through the first two and then arrived in a basin where there was a variety of boats--big ocean going vessels, narrowboats and glass fibre cruisers. There was also a funnel sticking up from just below the surface, which appeared to indicate that:a) there was a large boat under there and
b) it must be jolly deep!
I don't like deep water under me--I like to know that in an emergency I can get to the side!
LIBERTY BELLE MIXING IT WITH THE BIG BOYS!
(You can just see us in the centre peeping out behind the funnel of the big boat.)
There was no one around and we couldn't work out where to moor. The guide book seemed to indicate that we should go through the third lock, so I got off and went to look. However, we DEFINITELY didn't need to go through the third lock! That led straight in to the Manchester Ship Canal and the sea!!! Fortunately it was padlocked, and one had to seek permission to go through it. So, it looked as though we should moor in the basin. There was a Holiday Inn and the chefs were sitting out having a cigarette, so I asked them, but they had no idea! In the end, a couple appeared out of a narrowboat, and they helped us to moor up in a rather weird place, and it was difficult to get on and off the boat. There didn't seem to be any organised mooring. Trev told me not to fall in, as the water was VERY DEEP, he said! That was all I needed to know.
The people who helped us moor keep their boat in the basin, and they kindly told us all about the trouble which goes on, like youths breaking in and vandalising things. I could tell I was really going to enjoy this...... They also explained how we could get out if we needed to! The whole area is surrounded by a fence, and there is a gate with a security code to get in and out. They told us there was a nice African restaurant just round the corner, and, since we'd never been to one, we decided we'd give it a go. It took some time to find the escape gate, and then Trev went out and I stayed on the inside to try out the security code and make sure we could get back in! The African restaurant was excellent, and we managed to get back in to the basin without mishap.
Sunday, 20th March
Well, we spent a safe night. We didn't sink, we didn't get attacked. so no adventures, thank heavens! Ellesmere Port is the point at which The Shropshire Union Canal ends and where it meets the Manchester Ship Canal. In the days when the canals were used for commercial traffic, barges transferred their cargoes here to the ocean going vessels, and took on goods which had arrived from overseas and took them back to the Midlands. It must have been a very busy place, but now it is a museum, and it is a very interesting one. It retells the stories of how life was when it was a working port, and we spent most of the day looking round. You can see more here:
We stayed on board that evening and met another couple who moored their narrowboat in the basin, and they were fitting it out themselves. They came to see our boat and we went to see theirs, as one does, & we passed a very pleasant evening with them.
Monday, 21st March
I slept badly tonight, worrying that it might be tonight the local lads decided it was time for a break in, or may be we had a leak...... Unusually, I was up at 7.30 and raring to go! Someone had told us last night that the big boat "Kerne" moored right by us, was going to go out on to the Ship Canal this morning, and that when it went through the lock, the level in the basin dropped rapidly! So of course, I now had another thing to worry about! In fact, by the time we left, it was still there.
We left at 9.00 and went through the first lock. I was preparing the second lock for Trev when he called to say that the boat wouldn't move, the prop was jammed solid. Half an hour later, and many yards of thick, builders' style polythene removed from the prop, we went through the second lock! Past the Travellers and the chemical plant, the rubbish floating in the canal and eventually we left the wastelands of Ellesmere Port behind. We approached Chester, and the dreaded staircase locks, but this time it was much better, because I wasn't stuck at the back of the lock as we were going up not down and there was a group of people who helped. The women of the group chatted to me as I went through, and it all passed much more quickly. We stopped at Cow Bridge, where there is a good shopping area, and bought provisions, and then on through the locks by Beeston Castle. We passed the long line of moored boats again, and eventually moored up in a pretty spot. And look, what's that over there? I do believe it's a pub! So we went there to eat. The food was excellent, but there was a huge tv the size of a slide projector screen which was turned on very loudly and defied anyone to talk to each other.
We'd had a long day, quite the longest we'd ever done, except when we were on The Thames and had a current and lock keepers to help us.
Tuesday 22nd, Wednesday, 24th March
We had a later start today, and shared the locks with "Poppy", the boat of the people who'd helped us to moor at Ellesmere Port. They were on their way to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal for a month. We said goodbye to them at Barbridge Junction, where they turned left on to the Middlewich Branch, and we carried on south. We passed Hurleston junction, where the Llangollen starts, and went on to Nantwich, where we moored up for two nights.
We passed a lot of boats on their way to Ellesmere Port for an Easter Rally of working boats.
Thursday, 24th March
After shopping in Nantwich we set off again. We went through the two locks at Hack Green and moored up at the curiously named Coole Pilate. Here the Shropshire Union Canal Society has made some delightful moorings with picnic tables. There was plenty of space, and we got everything off the roof, the back and the front of the boat and had a good clean up. Well, my brother and his wife are coming to see us soon, and want to look as though we lead a respectable lifestyle!
Since we left the marina on March 4th, we've done 133 miles and 55 locks.
Home PagePrevious Page
Summer 2005 Cruise, Weekly Log
Summer 2005 Schedule