Wednesday July 25th, Marple Junction - Bollington

A warm, but cloudy and overcast day today, but quite pleasant bearing in mind the horrors of the last couple of months. Still, it was a bit of a disappointment after the wall to wall sunshine of the last few days. Never satisfied, are we?

Nothing too complicated today, just a nice rural cruise to Bollington – all of 7 miles. We left Marple nice and early – untying at 7.30 and crawled past Jo & Keith in ‘Hadar’ who had moored up just before us, through Bridge 2.

Goyt Mill, Marple

Marple demonstrated its textile background with the huge Goyt Mill, canalside at Bridge 3, still with the remains of its loading gantry sticking out over the canal edge.

We had, by now, already experienced the first linear moorings of the day – there were plenty more to come. Marple’s suburbs don’t extend too far and we were soon out in pleasant countryside, with a stretch of parkland coming down to the canal complete with deer. We saw one stag with a magnificent pair of antlers.

Former coal loading arm, High Lane

At High Lane, houses back onto the canal and we admired the efforts that have gone into some of the landscaping. There is an old arm here that was once a coal loading arm. Now it is the headquarters of the North Cheshire Cruising Club – one of the earliest on the canal network.

The Macclesfield Canal now alternates between high embankments and cuttings as its construction mimicked the railway age as it essays a largely southerly direction.

Long lines of moored boats stretch for a mile or so either side of Higher Poynton and reduce progress to continual tickover. It was noticeable that the boat some way behind us didn’t believe in slowing down too much as they quickly began to catch us up. Rather belies the boat’s name – ‘Serenity’. Bet they wouldn’t have much serenity if someone did it to them!

Both Higher Poynton and High Lane were centres of coal mining right up to the middle of the C20th. They are now rather upmarket satellites of Stockport & Manchester. Another old coal loading arm at Higher Poynton is used by Braidbar Boats – the well-known boat builders.

Occasionally the trees and hedges give way to give extensive views to the west where the hilly ridge ends at Alderley Edge where it plunges down to the Cheshire Plain. Great views can be seen as far as the built up area of Manchester & Stockport way in the distance.

Alderley Edge is of course footballers’ wives territory with many of the obscenely overpaid prima donnas of the Premier League living the life in what was a pleasant area. It is now more like the Bling Capital of the UK.

After this flurry of activity the canal passes through a really remote section where, for a few miles, you hardly see any houses at all. Another large marina with a line of linear moorings appears at Four Lane-Ends, but that’s about it until a succession of bridges brings the canal towards the small stone-built town of Bollington with its two huge canalside mills.

Clarence Mill, Bollington

The first, Clarence Mill, has been kept in good order and is home to a number of small businesses, a café and apartments. A line of moorings follows ending at the aqueduct that takes the canal over the B5091. Last time we cruised the Macc, 4 years ago, we tried to tie up here and failed. Both us and another boat who wanted to stop here couldn’t get anywhere near the side. This time, the moorings looked full, but there was space adjacent to the aqueduct where we were able to get in and tie up.

White Nancy

We have an excellent view of Kerridge Hill, at just over 1000 feet high and surmounted by “White Nancy” (a former summerhouse built by the local landed gentry family and converted to a beacon). The Pennine ridge has followed us all the way from Marple, and is getting quite close now. From here to Kidsgrove the hills will be a constant companion to the east.

Mooring  at Bollington with Kerridge Hill in the background