Tuesday June 12th, New Islington Marina - Rose of Lancaster Public House, Chadderton

Phew! We made it! 7 hours cruising including a 20 minutes stop for prop clearing. 7 miles, 18 locks and 1 lift bridge later we’re preparing ourselves for a pub meal out tonight!

To our surprise, this morning dawned with blue sky and sunshine. This is the first such morning since way back on the Rufford Arm. Very nice indeed.

We set off just after 8.10 in order to get to Lock 81 and the appointed rendezvous with British Waterways. We winded and turned into the main canal about 200 yards in front of two other boats heading our way – at least we won’t be the only ones!

Leaving Lock 81

At Lock 81 (Butter Lane Lock) we pulled in to the side and immediately a BW chap wandered down the towpath and checked us all in. He gave us specific instructions about a shallow section through Newton Heath, told us the padlocks had been removed from the locks and then said farewell. That was the last we saw of BW for the rest of the day!

The two boats behind us had moored together at Piccadilly Basin (the new posh name for what was Dale Street Basin) and apparently had an awful night of it. One of them was a single handed boat, and they had more or less assumed they would be travelling together meaning we would be on our own. Not what we had hoped for, but hey ho.

Trvelling crane & chimney, Victoria Mill

We made good progress, initially through a residential area full of mothers taking young children to a nursery, before we reached the magnificent Victoria Mill with its two blocks linked by a travelling crane and tall chimney.

Locks came thick and fast, fortunately relatively easy to work. This was fortunate for Elaine as she was working them – she doesn’t like steering into broad locks going uphill on her own, so she works the locks. I get my turn when we go downhill.

Concrete topping for Anthony's Lock

Lock 77, Anthony’s Lock, was immense as the sides have been raised to combat mining subsidence. It now has a rise of 15’ 1½” making it apparently the fourth deepest lock on the UK canal system.

The canal chops and changes between residential and industrial, but neither ever overpowers the canal which is well fringed with trees and greenery making it at times quite attractive.

We passed the boats booked on the downhill run into Manchester below Lock 71 (Shaw’s Lock), which had a conveniently placed newsagent so Elaine could nip and buy a paper while I was on the boat in the filling lock.

Lock 70 (Madhouse Lock – yes, honestly!) heralded the start of the aforementioned shallow section – and it was shallow as well. This was probably the scruffiest section of the whole journey with a lot of rubbish in the water – mainly plastic bottles, beer cans, aerosols, fast food containers, bits of polystyrene and umpteen plastic bags. But, it didn’t seem to hold us up too much. Part of the offside has been sectioned off to provide a habitat for some small weed or something, and much of the former concrete capping still remains.

Manchester City Council in their infinite wisdom decided to fill the canal channel with concrete to make a “water feature” making the locks into “cascades”. I think this was done in the 1970’s when canal restoration (although not on the Rochdale at that time) was in full swing. Talk about short sightedness! Inevitably the “water feature” became a linear rubbish dump – the only difference to a derelict water filled canal full of rubbish is that the rubbish stayed in sight on top of the concrete!

Much of the restoration funding went on removing this aberration, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough to complete the job!

The locks were by now, thankfully, thinning out as we passed through Failsworth. Here was one of the major restoration problems with a Co-Op supermarket and car park having been built on the line of the canal which had been obliterated from view. A new shopping centre and canal channel had to be built and now looks most attractive.

Locking bar, Failsworth Top Lock

Lock 65 (Failsworth Top Lock) hove into view and this marked the end of the “BW escorted passage” section. Not a sign of any BW employee was seen as we locked up, and left it behind. The lock is notable for the locking bar that BW use to immobilise the balance beams after they presumably assume all boats have passed through. Under way again, Elaine enjoyed her first ride of the day as the next lock is some distance away. She had probably walked 4 miles today and in the process worked 17 locks! Bless her!!

A short green section follows, free of houses and industry and here it was that we had our only major problem of the day. As we passed under a lovely stone built accommodation bridge came an almighty CLUNK! Our progress ground to a slow crawl and the prop rattled like mad.

M60 crossing

We managed to pull in to the side and while Elaine held the boat in with the middle rope, I delved down the weed hatch. Among the many bits of chewed up plastic bags was a man’s anorak wound tightly round the prop and having to be snipped free with the cutters.

Continuing on our way we soon came to the M60 crossing where after a long struggle a planning inspector ruled in favour of the canal’s restoration and forced the Ministry of Transport to provide a navigable culvert for the as yet unrestored canal to pass through. A long section of concrete channel and a sharp right hand bend precedes the long box culvert section followed by a sharp left hand turn to regain the original line.

Grimshaw Lane Lift Bridge

We were on the last lap now. Grimshaw Lane Bridge had been lowered so it crossed the canal at more or less ankle height. To replace it, an unusual lift bridge was built. Instead of the heavy duty lift bridges seen elsewhere, it rises in one section on 4 hydraulic rams so the boat can pass under. It is quite spectacular and holds the traffic up wonderfully on what is a busy road!

Mooring at the Rose of Lancaster pub

Just one more lock to do, and as it came straight after the lift bridge, I carried on and worked it, being very gentle with Elaine on the boat as I raised the paddle. Just a mile to go and after passing through a short and well wooded cutting we rounded a sharp bend to find our journey’s end. The Rose of Lancaster Public House is the first recognised mooring for those, like us, travelling out of Manchester and we saw no reason to pass up on the chance of a good meal to recover.

It has been a long, long day by our standards; 25 lock miles in 7 and a half hours. Not bad going considering there were 18 deep broad locks to negotiate. Elaine has worked her socks off and deserves a glass of wine tonight…. or two….. or three…..