Nantwich Aqueduct

We had a rekey at the marina this morning once Tilly returned from the trees below. Here there is a Laundrette with large driers. You can get a service wash done and they will also wash your duvets. This is one thing we’d been thinking about as ours were last washed before we left Kings Marina two years ago. The lady gave us a quote of £23, if we had more than one then she’d do us a good price, the only problem is the drying time. With it being not so warm anymore and our duvets being feather,to get them fully dry would take about four days. We should have thought about this earlier as once we know our filter can be sorted we want to be moving again and that might be Monday. So the duvets will have to wait for elsewhere or on our return journey at the beginning of next year.

At the chandlers we bought ourselves a smoke and CO alarm. Oleanna came with two alarms, but we have recently sussed that both are heat alarms which detect sudden changes in temperature and not CO. Now that the stove is alight pretty much 24/7 we’d feel happier to know that we are covered for the silent killer CO. Just a shame an American lady will tell us very loudly that we are in danger.

We then walked into town to check out the market and buy some baking potatoes. Stalls were outside the indoor market and there was plenty to see. With four potatoes and a new baseball cap for Mick (the latest having been swept off his head on the Ribble Link and the old ones once washed have disintegrated) we had made our purchases. I then wanted to have a look at a building we’d walked past a couple of times since we’ve been here, yet we’ve walked too close to it to see what lay above street level.

1 Pillory Street was built in 1911 for P H Chesters a local grocers.

The corner of Pillory Street and Hospital Street had been occupied by Chester’s Stores since 1869. Chesters was the largest grocery business in Nantwich with several premises in the town. In 1910 the existing premises on the corner were demolished along with adjacent properties so that Pillory Street could be widened as it was an accident hotspot. In it’s place the new store was built, designed by E H Edleston a local architect, in the French Baroque style of the 17th Century. A very fancy façade with large arched windows and a double storey attic with porthole windows, yet the goods inside remained at reasonable prices and Chester’s remained here until 1939.

The building is currently for sale, Rightmove has a guide price of £500,000 but the estate agents don’t mention a price. Along with the two lines of porthole windows with their cascading fruit and a dome with flagpole on the corner we were entranced by it’s guttering. This levitates sweeping it’s way around the building and across the lower attic windows. A rather wonderful building.

0 locks, 0 miles, 4 potatoes, 1 baseball cap, 2 pints milk, 2 mackerel fillets, 3 pavement clocks, 1 picturesque building, £600,000 needed to have a fantastic attic room apartment (donations gratefully received), 2 late to get duvets done, 2nd night of chilli, 2 jackets in the stove, 3 patterns worked out, 3/4 of hat knitted, 1 cat loving these none moving days.