Audlem Lock 3 to River Tem Aqueduct

As ever on a Saturday we were on the hunt for a newspaper. With just over a mile to walk or cycle back to Audlem you would have thought that would have been where we headed to. But it was raining when we woke and due to continue for a couple of hours (Frank wouldn’t have been put off!). So we decided to sit out the rain and then continue onwards to reach Market Drayton where there had to be one copy of our paper left.

The towpath would change sides today, so we made use of it being on the easier side to empty  the yellow water tank, once it had stopped raining. Then we pushed off and continued our climb. There are quite a few locks on the Main Shroppie, but they are grouped in flights, with the exception of Wheaton Aston lock and the stop lock at the end of the canal. We had two more to do of the Audlem flight to be able to tick them off.

The cottage by the top lock is having quite a bit of work done to it. We’d heard rumours of a large extension being built. At first glance it does look huge, but then you realise that the original lock cottage was single story and they have extended some of this upwards. It’s not going to be an architectural masterpiece, but the large first floor window will have great views down the flight. Due to all the building works the little cabin, normally full of cakes and goodies, was empty. No need to have spare change in your pocket today. Maybe there will be some treats put out for Easter?

After a gap of just over a mile we arrived at the bottom of the Adderley flight. These have older wooden, slightly rotting, bottom gates, these I can normally kick open, the metal ones are not so easy. My back feeling much better today I gave them a shove to open them up. Sadly my legs are not long enough and I’m not brave enough to hop back over the gap with one gate closed to close them again. So there was still a walk round to close the bottom gates.

There were a few walkers on the towpath, some of them helped as they went, bottom gates on empty locks miraculously opened before us, Thank you. Reaching the top didn’t take us long and then it was the three or so miles to Market Drayton. Mick paused in a bridge hole at one point as he had moved our starboard centre line to port (it’s the longer of the two) to make life easier, but now as the towpath was changing sides it would be better for it to return to starboard.

The first stretch of moorings at Market Drayton are noisy with a busy road. Then there are permanent moorings which you can moor opposite, but only overnight as you’d be in their way should they want to head off on a cruise. The short stretch that followed didn’t appeal either so we carried on past Betton Wharf and under the next bridge where there was plenty of space for us. Here Tilly would have trees and a playing field to amuse herself.

Mick patiently had lunch before he headed into town for our paper. Asda didn’t do well, so he had to venture further to WH Smiths and then Lidl for a few essentials. We’ll venture out tomorrow to stock the cupboards, we’re almost out of wine!

The remainder of the afternoon I popped a large pot of chilli on the stove to gently cook and set about checking a couple of knitting and crochet patterns for some friends in Scarborough. Animated Objects are enlisting local community groups to make them a mass of poppys for their ‘Stories Of Remembrance’ project which will be on display on Armistice Day. Before sending out the patterns they wanted to make sure that they weren’t written in gobbledygook, an extra pair of eyes is always useful.

This evening we have been treated to a very red sky. A couple of years ago we had a spectacular sunset near Norbury Junction, the Shroppie knows how to do sunsets.

7 locks, 5.09 miles, 0 cakes, 2 almost dry boaters, 1 smiling boat, 1 disused workshop, 2 spring lines, 1 mid afternoon paper, 3 poppys, 1 vat of chilli, 1 very red sky.

Audlem

Snow was falling when we woke, but it wasn’t settling as it had rained overnight. The snow turned into sleet and then rain again. All this white weather and winds that accompanied it put Tilly off going out. But the sun soon came out, the temperatures rose and the world became cat friendly again. By now we’d decided to stay put for the day and have a bit of an explore ourselves. However we needed Tilly to be home to be able to do this.

Tilly sometimes comes home when called, but other times she is far too busy with something to even bother to hear me. Today was one of the latter occasions, which wasn’t then helped by a boat pulling up behind us. This was the plant boat we’d seen last week in Nantwich. They have a Collie who spends all day every day running back and forth from bow to stern, Connie is on a constant duck hunt! With Connie sat at our stern I opened up the cratch for Tilly and we settled down to have lunch.

Tilly eventually showed her head out from a huge pile of brambles only to be spotted by Connie who charged forward barking. Her owner called her back and the only harm done was raised heart rates all round. Tilly soon made the dash across the towpath to the side hatch and safety. What a lot of noise! If only woofers didn’t woof, I’d get on better with them.

Now free, we headed up to the village to have a look round. First we stopped at the Canal shop by the Shroppie Fly pub. Here is the best stocked canal book shop on the network. Shelves upon shelves of books tell of the history, design and life of the canals. Upstairs is a floor dedicated to crafts, wool, tapestry, beads, rug making, allsorts. So I had a good look round before Mick ventured up the stairs, he didn’t need to make use of the chair set aside for husbands though!

The doors were open on the church, St James the Great. Inside the church was fairly standard, nothing stood out as a gem, maybe we missed something. Built on a hill overlooking the village, possibly an old Celtic burial ground the church dates back to the 13th Century. It commands it’s position with paths leading around made from old grave stones.

We walked on to have a look around the cemetery, we can see this from our current mooring. Two fine chapels Grade 2 listed sit either side of an archway leading into the cemetery which was founded in 1872. What a view from your final resting place, overlooking the valley towards the canal. Here several things stood out to us.

A large block of polished stone remembers those who were buried in the paupers graves here, many very young children. An unusual headstone of glass sat amongst all the black granite. Etched on the circle CLARKE and on the back of the grey base stone ‘Sleep well old Biddy’. I can’t find any more information on who this was for and why it is such an unusual design.

Then a low circular yew hedge surrounds a short tree with paving and a stone bench. On it’s back a list of names. This is an area dedicated to the memory of eight local young people who lost their lives over the period of a year in the 1990’s.

The catalogue of tragedy began in October 1994, when Alastair Clarkson died in a car crash, 12 days after his 19th birthday. His best friend Stephen Mayne meet a similar fate only months later. In April 1995, a head-on crash with a milk tanker killed four teenage friends – Abigail, Simon Dakin and Jason Knight, and Robert Hawes. There was talk of a curse on the village and by August the “curse” had claimed three more lives. Phillip Wibberley, 23, Stephen Mayne and his girlfriend Charlotte Nield, both 18, from Congleton, died after their car careered off the road at Cholmondeley, near Audlem.
A week later, Neil Brookes, 19, who lived in nearby Nantwich, was also killed in a car crash. With a population of only around 1800, the loss of eight young people left a big hole in the village. You can read more about The Village Of the Damned here (link). A lovely memorial.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 snow flurry, 2 hours, 1 pesky woofer keeping me from my lunch!  0 craft purchases, 1 church, 2 chapels, 1 faded bird, 8 lost lives, 1 glass headstone, 1st flowering daffs, 1 twinged back, not good with 13 locks tomorrow!

Nantwich Embankment to Mickley Bridge 84

Boats were on the move early today, everyone of them wanting to stop and fill with water. Jaq called us as a working pair had passed her just as she’d been about to untie and head to the water point herself. If they were going to fill up there was little point in pushing off herself. So we waited for them to come past. They didn’t, but others did who’d been moored in front of us. The tap, not being one of the quickest on the network would take some time to fill everyone’s tanks. I made use of our central heating having been on and had a shower, knowing that we’d be filling up ourselves today.

Whilst we had breakfast Mick kept peaking out of the kitchen window to see if the point was free. There being space for two boats, but only one tap, meant that once one boat had filled and pulled away, the second boat then pulled up nearer the tap and the waiting space was soon filled by another. Boats were coming from all directions and there certainly wasn’t a lull. One pulled in for a pumpout opposite us, so glad we no longer even have to think about such things.  At around 11.30am I called Jaq suggesting that she came and joined in with the waiting boats, it had already been a three hour wait!

By the time more boats had passed, winded, returned Jaq came into sight over the aqueduct. Her timing turned out to be spot on as one boat was just finishing filling their tank and the other had only used the elsan. The service moorings soon became free and NB Valerie could move into pole position. We also pushed off and reversed our way to stake our claim to be next in line and what seemingly turned out to be last. Once NB Valerie’s tank was full there were hugs all round and a final wave goodbye as Jaq headed north and we were to head south. Good luck with the job hunting Jaq.

Making use of the time it would take to fill our tank we had some lunch, used the toilets, the showers were still filthy. Just as our tank started to overflow a van pulled up, the cleaners, just as we were ready for the off!

Crossing the embankment we waved goodbye to Nantwich, we were on the move again. At most bridge holes we’d come across a collection of slabs of ice. Thankfully they would nudge out of the way quite easily leaving our blacking intact.

At Hack Green Bottom Lock a lamb came rushing over to see what was happening bleating it’s little head off. But we can’t have been that interesting as the next time I looked he was running around the field with a gang of friends. Not too much springy bedoyinging going on, maybe they needed to warm up a bit more.

The top lock was just about full and a boat was coming towards me so I topped it up and opened the gate, then signalled back to Mick to leave the gate open on the bottom lock for them. Under the Shhhhhh! Bridge past the Secret Bunker we continued on a bit further to where there were picnic benches and plenty of space for Tilly to play.

Here is good. I have claimed four benches as mine, maybe tomorrow I’ll claim more. There is friendly cover, shallow puddles, sideways trees and a suitable tree to climb which has a very interesting view!

2 locks, 3.83 miles, 2 cards in the post, 1 reverse, 8th, 4 hour wait for water, 1 cleaner, 1 final farewell to Jaq, 4 ice fields, 3rd one placed in the safe, 2 glasses of wine on a Monday, 1 more place to fit into our cruise, 4 benches, 1 happy cat, 2 happy boaters.

Nantwich Embankment

No ice visible today and temperatures were definitely heading in the upward direction. This however brought with it rain, which at least pleased Tilly and meant that her freshly laundered towels got christened with paw prints. The fat ball in the tree was very popular today with visits from Robins, Great Tits and Blue Tits, they did however keep away whilst Tilly was out and about!

Once the rain had passed over we ventured into town to stock back up on fresh veg and fruit. A joint of pork also somehow managed to make it into our trolley for Sunday dinner! Holland and Barrett provided me with some Buckwheat flour so that I can have a go at making some gluten free hot cross buns. Last year I didn’t get round to making any, mostly to do with having a broken ankle and now the highly expensive small amount of buckwheat flour is long past it’s use by date. I just have to sus out a way to balance a baking tray on my proving shelf as the recipe I have needs three lots of proving.

Back at Oleanna I had a go at cooking the shoulder of pork in my cast iron pot on top of the stove. The Great British Chefs website came up with some advice on roasting and getting crackling. Half an hour in the oven on high to get the crackling going, then pop the lid on and turn the oven down for at least two hours, six even better. Translated to stove top boat cooking, I popped it in the oven for the half hour, then after adding a drop or two of wine, had to wrestle with the joint to get the lid on the pot before sitting it on top of the stove for four hours. Our Great British Chefs seem to have been able to retain their crackling despite cooking the joint in a cocotte (cast iron pot to you and me). For us the joint had to come out of the pot and join the roast veg for twenty minutes in the top oven to return it’s crackle. In the end it turned out very tasty and saved having the main oven on for four hours using gas and creating condensation.

Work on my next knitting project (now mark two!) has gone much better, since I bothered to mark out a pattern on paper. Hopefully in a day or two it will be finished.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 walk into town, 2 bags of flour, 1.5kg pork joint,150grams cranberries, 1 apple, 2nd episode, 7 inches knitted, 1 owy ankle, 50 minutes gas 8, 4 hours gas 0, 4 hours free cooking, 1 damp happy cat.

Nantwich Embankment

It’s continued to be cold here in Nantwich, so we have mostly been tucked up inside Oleanna keeping warm. Watching the news and seeing what has been happening around the country makes us feel like we’ve missed all the fun. Huge amounts of snow and snow drifts have missed us, the snow having been deposited before it reached our part of the country. We’ve had a few feeble flutterings of snow and the most that has hung around has been an inch in the shadows.

The wind has been freezing and gusty, but I’m glad we didn’t get the foam (link) that engulfed Foreshore Road in Scarborough. Seeing images of the high waves crashing over the harbour walls and flooding along the seafront (link) along with tales of friends battling their way home from work across Yorkshire have made us feel very lucky to have been where we are, only have a bit of ice to contend with. Boaters up and down the country have been iced in to a greater extent than us. NB Alton, the coal boat on the Macclesfield, has had to postpone their usual fortnightly run as the ice on the Macc was just far too thick at 3 inches for them to break through, so they are delivering by road to keep people going until they can reach them by water again. Even parts of the Llangollen have frozen over.

The ice alongside Oleanna on Friday was well and truly broken up by a hire boat heading back to Norbury Junction. First I knew of it was when huge rumbling noises made me look out of the window to see the large sheet of ice, that had been knocking at our hull all night, zoom past! It was nice when they decided to slow their pace just after they’d passed us! With the ice now broken up that bit more another boat reversed to the water point where they seemed to vanish. Maybe they were sunk by an iceberg? Or reversed into the Nantwich Triangle never to be seen again! Who knows, but they certainly didn’t return in our direction.

With the temperatures starting to rise the likelihood of the cut freezing over again was slim so we decided to treat ourselves to showers on board, the tank was still above three quarters full, so we could risk it. It was nice to be clean again without having had to swill down the showers across the way.

Saturday morning arrived and we woke to the canal seemingly having returned to water. Ice was still congregated by the bridge behind us, but this was far enough away to be safe for Tilly to go out. I’d already come to the same conclusion hours before hand, they were so slow at opening up those doors for me!  Tilly made the most of gaps between woofers running around like a total loon, pouncing on none existent friends, leaping into the air and scurrying up and down the embankment. At least all this activity kept her warm!

Late morning we had a tap on the roof, Jaq from NB Valerie. We had a lovely couple of hours chatting about our cruising lives. This lady smelt quite nice, so I offered my photographic skills to take a picture of them all from my shelf. Came out quite well.

Over the last four years (almost) we have crossed bows with plenty of bloggers, NB Valerie several times. But usually we’ve been on a bit of a mission, heading somewhere, trying to keep up the cruising hours to reach our next destination for someone’s birthday or a booked passage, so we’ve not often had chance to stop and spend time meeting people. So it has been lovely to have some time to start to get to know Jaq. After the weekend, if the weather stays good, our bows will cross again, heading in different directions, maybe not to cross again for sometime, but that is boating life.

Now that we are no longer embedded in ice, Jaq had a tip for our blog. It seems that having had the ‘Embedded’ box ticked in the settings for comments meant that not everyone could comment on the blog, Jaq, Ali and Les (an old BT colleague of Mick’s) having had difficulty recently. The box has now been unticked, so hopefully commenting will now be possible for all.

0 locks, 0 miles, 8 towels and 4 t-towels washed, 1 speeding ice breaking hire boat, 1 vanished boat, 2 bananas and 200gms chocolate, 1 sock, 1 feline knitting failed, 1 pattern drawn up for next attempt, 1 Jaq, 2 squeaky clean boaters, 4 paws on terra firma.