As there was no internet signal yesterday at Rode Heath, there are two instalments today.

 

Wednesday May 8th

The forecast seemed pretty grim for today and the next few days with the lovely hot weather of the last few days soon to be a distant memory. As if to reinforce this we could hear heavy rain cascading down just before the alarm went off at its usual 6.20.

However, as we untied an hour or so later, modelling last year’s wet weather gear (which probably isn’t waterproof anymore after last year’s deluges), it was dry.

And so the final descent of Heartbreak Hill commenced. Just a small matter of 14 locks in 4 miles before our planned stop at Wheelock.

Thurlwood Steel Lock in 1977

First up was the two Thurlwood Locks - the top one being the site of the famous Thurlwood Steel Lock, a frighteningly sinister steel box in a steel frame opened in 1957 that was supposed to be the answer to the subsidence that was threatening the original lock alongside.

However, the boatmen hated it and it was soon taken out of use and workings recommenced through the original lock. It was cut up for scrap in 1988 and boats continue to use the original lock.

Site of the odl steel lock - original lock to the right

Derelict buildings alongside show how much subsidence there has been, and the channel into the site of the steel lock is still visible beneath its bridge arch from the lower side.

After the second lock open countryside takes over and a very pleasant length through Pierpoint Locks to Hassall Green follows. It starts through a tree nursery showing various types of trees in all stages of growth from almost bare twigs to almost fully grown specimens.

Unlike the other locks on Heartbreak Hill from Harding’s Wood Junction to Wheelock, the two Pierpoint locks were never duplicated and I’ve never seen an explanation as to why. They are now joined by a number of locks on Heartbreak Hill that have completely lost one of the pair (like Thurlwood) or the second lock is in a state of complete disrepair.

The former Lock 57 complex at Hassall Green in better days

At Hassall Green the very popular canalside bistro, shop and staging post for fuel, gas and coal has closed and appears to under conversion to a private residence. We had heard it had closed. Perhaps last summer’s awful weather and the following winter were the last straw. Also closed (although allegedly under refurbishment) is the village pub – The Romping Donkey. I remember the pub as a drinking hole from two trips doing the Cheshire Ring in the 1970’s and it later became quite a popular eatery. Apparently it was a case of another greedy pub chain demanding ever higher rents until the landlords decided enough was enough. Sad.

The M6 crossing at Hassall Green (complete with an Eddie!)

Hassall Green probably was at one time quite a pleasant place. That was until the M6 opened and  can be heard for some considerable distance, although, curiously, not from immediately beneath the viaduct when an eerie hush descends.

blighted this area with its visual and aural pollution. A vast concrete viaduct takes the monstrosity over the canal just below the second of the two Hassall Green Locks, and the din of cars and lorries roaring overhead

Some distance beyond the final eight locks of Heartbreak Hill commence – the Wheelock flight. These follow one after the other in fairly quick succession as the canal continues its drop into the Cheshire Plain. The locks carry the canal through the canalside settlement of Malkin’s Bank – an attractive place with the old workmen’s’ cottages facing the canal on both sides.

The major employer in the area was a chemical works based on the brine and salt extraction that has been carried on in the area for centuries. When the works closed, the buildings were demolished and in a sad indictment of our priorities that the site is now occupied by a golf course.

Eventually the final pair of locks is cleared and we can put the windlasses away for a bit. It’s not far now to the embankment above the tiny River Wheelock and the visitor moorings. We’ve had a tremendous run today – not only because it didn’t rain on us at all, but also because we managed to do all 14 locks and 4 miles in just 3 hours! It helped that all locks were more or less full and we could go straight in, but for a pair of creaking geriatrics, not bad!

Mooring at Wheelock

Tuesday May 7th

Being Bank Holiday Monday, and with the sun shining, Westport Lakes was as busy as we have ever seen it before with lots of people walking around the park just enjoying the sun as well the inevitable cyclists and joggers. There also had to be the one anti-social moron who rode up and down the towpath on a motor bike.

It was however curiously quiet boat wise. When we arrived just before midday there were only a couple of other boats there and one of those left in mid-afternoon. By evening there were just six boats tied up, well down on what we are used to.

Southern portal Harecastle Tunnel

Anyway, to this morning and another early start saw us get to the southern portal of Harecastle Tunnel about 20 minutes before its opening time of 8.00am. One other boat was already there and had, so the tunnel keeper told us, arrived too late to go through yesterday and thus had had to tie up. Because of that, the established procedure was to let overnight boats through first, so for once we didn’t have to wait too long, entering the tunnel in the first convoy of the day.

Harecastle Tunnel north portal

A, thankfully, event-free passage of the tunnel followed, Being able to use our new high power lantern we were able to illuminate the side wall to help me navigate through in a more or less straight line. It also illuminated the distance markers that are marked in 25 yard segments so we were able to gauge our progress through. One startling benefit of the lamp was that it illuminated stalactites forming themselves down from the tunnel sides and roof in places. Because of the iron oxides leaching out from the rock, they at first looked like a brown fern growing out of the brickwork, then you realised they were brown coloured stalactites – most unusual.

After a passage lasting 35 minutes we emerged blinking into the sunshine at the northern end where three boats were lined up to head south on the next passage through.

Approaching the top lock at Red Bull (Heartbreak Hill)

After passing through the two-arched bridges (only one arch of each is navigable) we passed Pauline & Andrew again on ‘Griffin’ who we have been leapfrogging since Stone, and headed for the top lock of the Red Bull flight, passing as we did so the junction with the Macclesfield Canal – the route from the north we had used last year. The top lock is the start of Heartbreak Hill – a long flight of 26 locks split into various sections of which Red Bull is the start.

We didn’t have a bad run down the locks,

Iron Oxide staining on locks walls

many of which are duplicated. We pulled in for a few minutes at the Manchester & Pennines Regional Office of C&RT and utilised the sanitary station to empty the loo and get rid of the rubbish. Whilst there, a number of “suits” arrived, no doubt for some high-powered meeting.

Once through the third of the flight the traffic and industry that has dogged us since leaving the tunnel suddenly clears away and the canal descends through another lovely length of countryside. It is a gently rolling landscape, well wooded in places, but with pasture and crops as well. It all folds in and around itself, rather like the folds on a good woman.

Towards the end of the Red Bull flight of 6 we passed at one of the duplicated locks a couple on a boat we have seen before – ‘Fair Fa’. They know our friends John & Janice on ‘The Oak’ and we had had a text from Janice just a couple of days ago saying they had met ‘Fair Fa’ and they were heading our way. They also know Penny & Richard.

At the foot of the flight we came up behind a single handed boater who we helped down the next 6 locks before we tied up. We had a reasonable run down the next 6 locks which are split into three groups – Church 2 Locks, Hall Lock and the Lawton Treble Locks. We were fortunate in the first pair to meet two ascending boats which made life a little easier, but we had a long wait above the middle of the Lawton Treble Locks – the middle one is the only one of these three to be a single lock having lost its duplicate a long time ago.

There was a boat preparing the bottom lock and we decided to wait above the middle lock so as to leave it ready for him and save a lock full of water. In the time it took him to get the bottom gates open, walk back and get his boat (yes he was another single handed boater), get the boat in, tie it up and raise the top paddles (very slowly) we could have been down and through the duplicate bottom lock!

When it turned out to be a 25 foot tiddler with an outboard for an engine, it was all a bit frustrating!

However, we were soon through and making for Rode Heath where we tied up on our usual mooring opposite the Broughton Arms.

It has been a glorious day with hot sunshine – indeed after tying up out came the summer tops and, in my case perhaps somewhat foolhardily, shorts.

Mooring at Rode Heath