Wednesday April 25th, Wheelock to Middlewich

It’s typical, isn’t it. You get one nice day and the day after is inevitably awful. Today certainly rated pretty high on the awfulness meter with horizontal heavy rain driven on by an almost gale force wind.

Wheelock Wharf (in the dry in 2010)

Needless to say the rain started just before we set off. We moved about 100 yards (past a tied up ‘Tyseley’ – home of the wonderful Mikron Theatre Company for their annual touring schedule) to the sanitary station where we performed the usual functions with water, loo and rubbish.

By now thoroughly soaked (thank goodness for good waterproofs) we set off again through the “executive” suburbs of Wheelock before the boundary of a huge ‘water treatment’ plant (alias sewage farm) came alongside the towpath for a long distance.

We had the misfortune to suffer an engine breakdown at this point four years ago and after two or three hours waiting for the fault to be fixed, it was a distinctly sickly green-tinged pair that set off again.

After a short rural interlude, abandoned salt workings make themselves evident in the lower level of the land on either side of the canal. Subsidence is a real menace hereabouts, even today. I bet buildings insurance cover for subsidence is either not covered at all or is prohibitively expensive.

As the land has subsided (forming occasional lakes in the process, known as flashes), so the canal banks have had to be raised and substantial sheet piling now becomes a feature for the next few miles. As the canal is so much higher than the surrounding land, the wind really drove across the open land making our progress more crab-like than normal.

Eventually we came to the first locks of the day at Booth Lane. Three locks spread over half a mile or so drop the canal down towards Middlewich. The main Middlewich to Sandbach road comes alongside and remains the canal’s companion all the way into Middlewich. The road used to be lined with a succession of large factories, but in recent years, both Hays Chemicals and the Bisto factory have both closed down and are both now nothing more than heaps of demolition rubble.

Fortunately for the town, the huge British Salt works show that the Cheshire salt deposits are still full of the stuff if the number of huge hillocks of the white stuff on display is anything to go by. Having said that, they are largely outdoors and in places a distinct grey colour rather than pristine white!

A single lock called Rump’s Lock (possibly after a former lockkeeper) brings the canal into the built up area. A sad looking former pub looks over the lock. The Winterton Arms is probably still mentioned in Nicholson’s Canal Guides, but it has been closed for a good few years. It was succeeded by an Indian Restaurant, but the building is now boarded up.

The offside continues to be lined by industrial premises, a large sanitary ware manufacturer being prominent among them. There are also plenty of signs of the former salt works with derelict land with remains of old walls and buildings and canal loading wharves. Seddon’s and Cerebos are just two of the names that were indelibly connected to Middlewich, but have now long since disappeared from the town.

It had been our original intention to drop down the four town locks to the main visitor moorings, but frankly, by now, we had had enough of rain & wind and wanted nothing more than a hot shower and a cup of coffee. So we pulled into the moorings above King’s Lock where, after dodging the dog s**t, we tied up.

Judging by the weather forecast for the next couple of days, we might be staying here a bit longer. Mind you we have shopping to do and post to collect.