New Mills Lift Bridge

Saturday morning we headed out to top up the food supplies and get our Saturday newspaper. We walked the road into town as the pathways looked like they would be rather muddy and icy in patches. Cutting through Jubilee Park we came out near Colour Supplies, the Whitchurch version of Boyes. Somehow in the last week our dustpan has lost some of it’s rubber lip which means that it is neither use nor ornament, so we wanted a replacement. Next it was time to choose which charity shop could have some bits and bobs donated to them, this done we wandered up the High Street to find a butcher that would sell us a joint for Sunday.

By now it was snowing so we called into Sainsburys and then made our way back to Oleanna.

The Whitchurch arm looked a little bit icy now with a layer of snow sitting on the surface. We wondered how ducks had walked in such a straight line across the surface at the winding hole, but as I noticed a drip from above the penny dropped. Not ducks feet, but telephone lines dripping!

The boat that had been behind us had moved off whilst we were out, so Mick pulled us back hoping that this might improve our TV reception. It didn’t! But Tilly had a slightly different patch to explore for the rest of the day, returning with very muddy paws. We now have towels to cover the dinette and sofa on such days with the hope that they may stay reasonably clean. However a paw bath across the stern and some highly absorbent matting wouldn’t go amiss. Well it’s exciting out there and I need to run around reliving my exploration and telling them all about it. Sometimes the best place to do this is on someone’s knee or newspaper!

Sunday came with sleet which then turned into quite large chunks of snow. The only one to actually step off the boat today was Tilly and she wasn’t too enamoured with it, returning quite quickly on numerous occasions. I had to keep checking on the outside as you never know things might have changed. The snow turned back into sleet and then rain, making the towpath even more sticky, sloshy and slushy. We got a touch bored of opening and closing the back doors for her!

I bet Richard on NB Mountbatten was glad to be on the home straight from doing his latest coal run.

All cosy inside I set about finding a few more knitting patterns to keep my fingers busy. The pattern I decided on involves some cabling which I haven’t done for a long time. When we were downsizing our possessions I went through all the knitting needles I owned (a lot!) and put together a full set of sizes, donating the remainder to a charity shop. Sadly amongst my set there was no cable needle (a needle with a V in it to help pass stitches to the back or the front of others), but after a bit of thought and looking around on the internet I realised that I could do without, using either a stitch holder or a straight double ended needle. I also learnt a new way to cast on which gives a stretchy edge, useful for hats and socks.

Meanwhile after Mick had finished reading the paper he decided to have a go at installing one of his Christmas presents. I’d bought him an Alde Discrete Room Temperature Sensor for our boiler. The thermostat is currently in the electrics cupboard which tends to be one of the warmest places on the boat (other than in front of the stove), so not a true representative of general temperature in the cabin. With a cable of around 1.5m his aim was to pass it from the control panel in the cupboard behind the larder drawers in the galley and out the other side.

First we had to sus out how the drawers came out, a little catch on the runners, one pushed up the other down and bingo space too work in. But would the cable get fouled by the drawer and it’s contents? Theatre Designer mind was engaged as boy looking wasn’t finding a solution.

A route through avoiding the boiler flue, not totally ideal, was found. From the control panel (A) the cable needs to pass through a gap with many others (B) to just under the inverter (C), here it can pass through two layers of 18mm into the top cupboard, then straight down into the space below where the drawers are (D but towards the rear of the cupboard). From here it can run along the underside of the cupboard and come out through a hole to a discrete position in the galley (E). There is enough cable for the run, but sadly we don’t have a suitable sized drill bit to be able to do it with! So the job was put on hold for the time being, at least one drawer got a good tidy and clean out.

Our joint of roast Pork with all the accompaniments was just the right way to round of a truly miserable weekend, aided by a couple of glasses of wine.

0 locks, 100ft backwards, 2 wet sleety slushy days, 2 cold damp boaters, 4 cold muddy paws, 4 cat sized wellies required, 2 new patterns, 0 cable needles, 0 10mm drill bit, 3 things learnt, 1 tidy clean drawer, 0 tv signal, 1 chink of phone signal, 25th 26th April hmmmm!

Grindley Brook to New Mills Lift Bridge 31

I enjoyed a bit of a lie in this morning whilst Mick obeyed the voice from Houdini’s phone and got up just before 7.30am. There were noises coming from NB Mountbatten soon after Mick showed his head out at the back of Oleanna. Lying in bed listening I really wish I’d recorded the noises.

Mountbatten’s engine took a while for it to get started, it was –1C. Then it gradually had it’s morning stretch and slowly got going, the chugging evening out to a constant rate. Richard brought her back alongside Oleanna, first a gas bottle (bumped and scraped into the locker at the bow), then what sounded only like one bag of coal (but Mick assures me it was four). She was then moved to the stern for diesel. He did his calculations handed over the bill and set off to replenish the stocks of a couple more boats in view and then carry on towards Ellesmere, Ruth hitching a ride to open up the lift bridges for him as he went before walking back to their butty Jellicoe.

Mick climbed back into bed with a cuppa at 8.15, job done and no missing cat this time!

Having been sat at Grindley Brook now for eight days we decided that a change of scenery would be good. First a couple of loads of washing were run through the machine and hung out around the cabin, followed by a shower and a top up of water.

We still have a week before a stoppage ahead of us is completed and we reckon it will take a couple of days to get there. Grindley Brook is the last water point before the stoppage so we didn’t want to move down stream just yet. Instead we winded above the staircase locks and pootled our way back towards Whitchurch.

The sun shone and as the bow of Oleanna passed Butty Jellicoe all the colours sang out. As I’ve had a few sedentary days doing accounts I decided to walk. The towpath was a bit slippy slidey so Mick and Oleanna managed to keep up with me and pulled into the off side moorings just before New Mills Lift Bridge before I’d had chance to cross it.

Here we have a view down across fields through twisted oak trees. The wind could do with changing direction as at the moment it is bringing all the traffic noise from the A41 with it. The noise doesn’t bother me! This outside is much better. A steep bank, plenty of friendly cover, big trees with no ivy so really good climbing. Tomorrow I’m going to see if I can spy on what they are up to on the boat from up one of the trees. But before that we’ll have a walk into Whitchurch to pick up a Saturday paper and top up with fresh veg.

0 locks, 1.03 miles, 1 wind, 2 loads washing, 1 Chinese laundry, 1 gas bottle, 4 bags coal, 29 litres diesel, 1 wave goodbye to Jellicoe, 1 muddy mile, 2 hours, well maybe 4! 1 torch assisted cat retrieval, 1.5 socks completed, 2 more patterns found, 2 turkey schnitzels, yum.

Grindley Brook

With the impending storm with strong gusts of wind expected we decided to move up the moorings and position ourselves between the water points and the pump out. Here only one tree would be a possible casualty and we managed to pull up hoping that it would miss us should it come a cropper overnight.

Over night we’d had a light dusting of snow and by the time we moved up and let Tilly out there were only patches of it left on the towpath. I did my best not to loose my paws in it, but decided that even though I wanted to be out it would be safer for my paws if I spent much of the day curled up on board in the warmness.

A good tidy and clean followed as we were expecting guests in the afternoon. Marion and John drove up from Eastbourne for a visit and to start on their museum tour for 2018. Their drive up had been an easy one and they very nicely arrived with a Clementine and Almond cake (Rick Stein gluten free!) for us to enjoy with a cuppa. This was very nice and we’re glad that it didn’t all go, so should last us a few days.

Catching up on news of their latest travels, Christmas and New Year took up much of the afternoon before we headed out to walk along the busy A41 to The Horse and Jockey. We’d visited here twice on our trip on NB Winding Down and had enjoyed the food and beer. Since then it has changed hands, but still served up a good meal for us all. The Tapas menu a great thing for veggies and gluten intolerant folk, being able to mix and match dishes. Mick had a pie and the rest of us Sea Bass washed down with a nice pint or two of beer.

Whilst in the pub it had started to rain, the precursor for the storm! We all settled down listening to the patter of the rain on the roof aiding drifting off to sleep. Before 2am however the gusts of wind started. Everything on Oleannas roof had either been tied down or stowed in the pram cover out of harms way. The poles on the racks vibrated as the wind swept across our roof. Mick had tightened the ropes earlier which meant we weren’t going to biff about too much, but we still rocked as each gust hit us. According to John the gusts reached 59 mph.

These were followed by a not so fierce gust, it was just constant, getting on for two hours of 39mph! Blimey!! This was really quite hard to sleep through. Mick checked that all was okay in the main cabin with our guests and then we both read as the boat slowly reverberated with the wind. From 4.30am onwards there were still gusts, but we managed to sleep through much of it. Not the best nights sleep!

We woke to pretty clouds and a calm world, almost as though nothing had happened. A check round outside and all was where it had been left and no signs of any trees down behind us.

NB Mountbatten was due to bring their butty down to fill with water, so we’d arranged to top up on supplies whilst they were here, our gas bottle from Llangollen having run out just after seeing Richard a week ago! But there was an offer of a day out with Marion and John, a trip to Ironbridge to tick off a couple of museums. Whilst Mick was composing a text to say we’d see Richard next week down stream Ruth called to say that they wouldn’t be moving today due to not feeling so good, so could they catch us next week down stream instead.

We all climbed into the car along with our empty gas bottle (not Calor, so none returnable) and called in at Whitchurch Tip to add it to the caged bottles. then onwards to Ironbridge.

The Ironbridge Gorge is a World Heritage Site, has ten museums helping celebrate the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

The main attraction is the cast iron bridge which gives the town it’s name. Built in 1779 and opened in 1781 it was the first bridge to be built of cast iron after Abraham Derby perfected the method of smelting iron with coke, allowing cheaper production and larger sections could be cast than previously. Down the banks of the River Severn coal and iron mines, brick and tile works, ship building filled the gorge with activity. Today the atmosphere is very different, quieter and cleaner, English Heritage are currently undertaking a huge restoration project on the Ironbridge. The whole structure is swathed in scaffolding and the sound of grit blasting below your feet can be heard as you walk over it. So sadly the elegant structure can’t be seen for the next year as the works take place to keep the bridge for future generations.

Owned privately there was a toll to pay to cross. This was set at a standard price, everyone would pay the same even if they were royalty and the prices remained the same from 1781 to 1950. A guinea would buy you an annual pass and the only persons exempt from paying were the ferrymen who lost their livelihood when the bridge opened.

After the toll house our first museum was The Museum of the Gorge. Here the star of the museum is a 20meter long model of the gorge laid out as it would have been when William V, Prince of Orange visited on the 12th August 1796. A team of people must have worked on the model, at first I thought it would have taken a month, but that is likely to have been how long it took to just assemble the pieces.

The scale trees and figures were almost certainly bought, but the number of trees must have filled at least a shopping trolley and a half. Each building has been made individually to match what would have been there at the time. Boats were bow hauled upstream, carts waited for goods to be loaded, inclined planes moved coal down from the canal to the smelting works. Apparently the model was damaged in the floods of 2000 and had to be reworked.

The rest of the museum is interesting giving a brief  history of the gorge. Views down the river to the iron bridge would be great if it hadn’t been for the scaffolding.

We then climbed back into the car to head for Blists Hill Victorian Town.

The museum recreates a town around 1900. Originally the area was filled with industry, consisting of a brick and tile works, blast furnaces and coal, iron and fire clay mines. It opened in 1973 and has been growing ever since as original buildings have been relocated to the site. It is similar, yet smaller to the Black Country Museum. The whole of the town is inhabited by Victorians and should you want you can exchange you £’s and p’s for £sd at the branch of Lloyds Bank so that you can purchase goods around the town. Most of the inhabitants play along with the theme quite well.

The conversation in the grocers seemed to be more 21st C and it wasn’t until a long while later that the penny dropped about the conversation going on in the Post Office between two women about how things would soon improve (Suffragettes!). At the bakers fresh bread can be bought (the last loaf and a roll to us), plaster motifs and cast iron figures are made and sold by craftsmen who are happy to talk about how life would have been.

One chap was powering down the steam engine that worked the lift down into the mines when we arrived. He demonstrated the mechanism and talked through all the different layers that the mine would reach, a small block of wood attached to a string showed which level the lift had reached, string technology from the Victorian era.

On the wall was a hand drawn map of the canal network leading to Blasts Hill. Mick had correctly guessed that they would connect to the Shropshire Union at Norbury Junction, quite a large network of canals did.

Two ladies were sat by the range in a house where the back rooms were rented out to the doctor who visited one day a week. Across the top of the stove sat a bacon carrot and lentil stew slowly simmering away. The ladies are wanting to try to get one of the ovens working on the range, but this will take quite a bit of experimentation as there are allsorts of variables to move hot air around the ovens. After we chatted for a while the ladies may start cooking jacket potatoes on the fire. We weren’t sure if foil was around in 1900, research suggests that tin foil was used, not sure if potatoes were cooked in it and it did leave a metallic taste to the food, hence we now use aluminium foil.

A squatters house further down the hill gave a hole different slant on life, few of the same home comforts of gas lighting and an indoor tap. Here a family had built the four walls and roof of their house in 24hrs to claim it as a squatters house. A small fire and thick walls did thier best to keep the cold out, along with a Delongi heater in the pantry!

Sadly the museum was closing it’s doors at 4pm so we had to rush back up the hill after a brief look round the Toll house from Watling Street. Another couple of hours and we’d have had time to see everything.

If you came to the gorge for a weeks holiday you could easily make use of the year pass at £25, cheaper if bought on line, which gives you access to all ten museums. A fortnight would make for a more relaxed history filled holiday.

Marion and John kindly returned us to Grindley Brook before they started their return journey south. As we walked up to Oleanna in the now fading light we could see that we had some new neighbours. Richard and Ruth had brought NB Mountbatten and the butty to fill with water in the afternoon. They planned on staying put overnight, so we arranged an early top up tomorrow before NB Mountbatten sets off on it’s last coal run upstream before bridges close on Monday.

0 locks, 0.09 miles, 4 paws still, 1 clean pooh bucket, 1 empty wee tank, 2 guests, 0 trees, 3 bass, 1 pie, 59 mph winds, 1 sleepless night, 1 change of plan, 3 museums, £15 for celebratory beer, 378 tons of iron, £2430 labour, £2 sundries, 24ft wide, 100ft 6inch inside span of arch, 55ft high, 20m long model, 1795 high flood, 1 loaf, 1 roll, 3 moody cast cats, 2 revolting women, 60ft of mine, 1 canal, 1 very good unexpected day out, 1 boring unexpected day in!

Grindley Brook

The last two days I’ve not stepped off the boat, the weather hasn’t been that inviting with strong winds and rain showers. Tilly however has enjoyed this as it’s meant that she can come and go at will and the staff have been on hand to open and close doors and hatches when required!

With Mick heading back to Shrewsbury to return the car yesterday morning I decided it was time to get my accounts up to date (well, for last year!) and do my tax return. Having very little income helps make this job a lot easier than it used to be. Long gone are the days of employing an accountant to do the job, one was only taken on so that we could get a mortgage as I needed an accountants reference, so tax returns don’t scare me. Much of the day was spent downloading bank statements and reconciling them, might as well do it properly. In the old days I’d have kept on top of my receipts but it would still take me a whole day to put those left into the computer, today a whole years worth took five minutes. By the end of the day everything was ready to fill out the form on line. This would have been done sooner if I hadn’t been on door duty all day!

After dropping the hire car off Mick was given a lift into Shrewsbury so that he could visit Maplins. Reception on our TV has been a bit hit and miss of late and he’d been wondering if it was the aerial amplifier. We still have the one from Lillian, but we didn’t have the right connectors for it. With new cables bought he caught the train back to Whitchurch and then walked back along the towpath. At least someone is getting some exercise round here. As I sorted numbers Mick tried sorting signal, but nothing seemed to be working for him. Maybe we are just in one of those places.

Today I spent a few hours on the Government Gateway inputting my small figures and getting nowhere near my personal allowance. No tax due for this year, just a matter of paying Class 2 National Insurance voluntarily to ensure getting benefits and pension in years to come. All up to date and paid. I may get the current year up to date if we have more bad weather, I quite enjoy doing accounts!

Micks task today has been to finish sorting out our emails. The poor chap has felt a bit like he’s been back at work, but doing the bits he didn’t enjoy. My domain that we used to get my email from is no longer available, so Mick has moved it elsewhere, which caused allsorts of problems. We could send emails from the laptop but not from any other devices. Then any email he sent looked as if it had come from me, not ideal. Once I had finished my accounts the boat had to be quiet again for Mick to concentrate this time. But by the end of the afternoon all seems to be sorted.

I’m glad they’ve both finished, maybe they’ll move the outside again. It was quite good here yesterday, but today I’ve started to use it all up! The wind has been blowing my bottom which gives me a Mohican and bushy tail, I don’t like that. Running around made more use of the outside, but I had to climb to the very top of the trees and dig holes to find new places to explore. I kept coming inside to give them the opportunity to move the outside, but that didn’t work, maybe tomorrow.

0 locks, 0 miles, 3 times last year, 2017 tax return completed and returned, 0 tax, Class 2 NI paid, 1 TV being temperamental, 1 cat being loony lala, 21 door openings, 35 hatch openings, 20+ feet of tree top climbing, 4 hours of cat indecision, 2 fingers crossed that emails work, 1 button down hat completed.

Grindley Brook

A bit of a lie in with Saturdays paper and then we had to make full use of the hire car.

First it was a shopping trip into Whitchurch to stock up the fridge for the next week. Walking to the handy layby where we’d left the car (near the bridge over the locks) we managed to pass by a C&RT chap who was drumming up support for the trust by enrolling friends. We don’t have a problem with the Trust doing this, but with not a lot of income we feel that we give C&RT enough money as it is in our licence fee. Having come across this chap before and others, we know that once they start talking to you they do their darnedest not to stop until you give in. Luckily he was busy chatting away to a lady and on our return he realised that we were carrying heavy bags and were on a mission to get back to the boat. We stocked up on essentials but only got two boxes of wine! No 25% off deal and as it’s now January we are trying to have two days a week without alcohol again.

The boat in front of us had moved off to wind and head towards Ellesmere so as I stowed the shopping Mick pulled us forward to the end of the Visitor Mooring so that when we want water our hose will reach the tap without us having to move.

Next we thought of going for a bit of a drive, maybe to an interesting house or pretty gardens somewhere we’d not normally get to from the canal. However with Oleanna’s next service due soon Mick wanted to get a filter as we’d picked up oil on our way back from Scarborough. So we took a cross country route over to Nantwich to visit the chandlers at the marina. They of course are closed on Sundays!

So we passed under the aqueduct and turned left. Mick thought this would be the way to get to Barbridge and the chandlers at Medway boats. It was if we’d turned left almost straight away again or done a u turn! Instead we followed signs round Nantwich to reach the A51 which took us 6.5 miles anti-clockwise around the town, when a mile behind us was where we should have been. Now you could blame the navigator, but she blames our road atlas which has a lot of writing over roads and where junctions might be, so for local roads it is almost useless.

However we found our way in the end and crossed over the two hump backed bridges to the chandlery. At first it seemed like it was self service, no sign of anyone. The filter we needed was getting on for £4 cheaper than the last one we’d bought, so Mick picked up three. After having a good look round I eventually spied a lady sat in the warmth of a back office very much engaged in what she was doing.

By now it was too late to find somewhere to visit, but I was in need of a pit stop. We happened to know of some facilities nearby, so pulled off the A51 to use them.

It just so happened that across from the loos there is a rather good chilled medication dispensary. With the car having told us that there was a risk of ice we thought that we should partake, it would have been rude to use the loos and not spend any money. Hard to make up our minds what flavour but in the end Mick chose Cappuccino and I had Choc Choc Brownie, not quite as grown up as the Amaretto I’d had last time, but far tastier!

As we sat eating our medication a little girl attempted to fit most of her head into her ice cream cone at the table next to us. No matter what Dad said she wasn’t going to eat the cone, but was determined to get the last bit of ice cream out of it. A constant stream of people came in, they all stood concentrating trying to decide which flavour, their eyes lighting up at the choice and grins of anticipation crossed their faces. After we’d seen what a cookie sandwich looked like and one chap with a three scoop cone we decided it was time to leave.

Back before sunset Tilly got the chance to head off outside for the first time in a few days. Half an hour she said. Taking refuge from a passing woofer back at the boat was a mistake as the doors closed in front of me. Half an hour is no where near enough time! Tom stood outside for ages longer, so not fare!!!! Mick had got chatting to a couple from Melbourne who are wanting to cruise the canals. They had plenty of good questions, just hope Mick didn’t put them off by talking toilets too much.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 boxes wine, 8 turkey sausages, 12 eggs, 1 bag litter, 3 near misses, 1 nudge up, 6.5 mile detour, 3 for the price of 2 filters, 1 tub grease, 2 chilled medications, 4C just the right temperature, 30 minutes! 21 inches of hat knitted.