There's Only One Way Of Life And That's Your Own...!

Wednesday 19th October - After a lovely stay in Bugworth Basin we headed back towards Marple. The day wasn't looking that cheerful, how far would we get before the heavens opened..? The answers to that question was, Marple. We ended up staying in Marple for another night. The weather got very wet and windy. It was a bit of a restless night listening to things being blown around and the trees creaking all around us. The following morning wasn't looking that good either but we decided to move just to get away from the high trees we were moored near. As it goes the day got better and we had some quite long spells of sunshine with only just a couple of light showers in between.

As we left Marple we pasted the now restored Goyt Mill, towering way above us, this marked the end of Marple. We were now out into the countryside. We needed countryside to reassure ourselves we were away from Manchester. At this point the canal sits at 500ft above sea level winding through the countryside, crossing several valleys. After a few hours cruising we passed through Bollington, with the White Nancy Monument high on a hillside to our left hand side.

The White Nancy Monument was erected by the Gaskell Family in the 19th century to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo and was used by the family as a summerhouse.

Following the tree lined canal we passed through lovely countryside with views of hills all around us, we then came to Macclesfield. The canal became very wide, as we came under the town bridge there was the old Hovis Mill in front of us.

The mill was built in the 1820's and was the birthplace of the famous flour. The word  Hovis comes from the Latin 'hominisunvis' meaning 'power to the man'. The mill has now been fully restored and converted into up-market apartments.

After leaving Macclesfield we cruised for a short time then that was us for the day. We stopped at a small village called Gurnett. Due to the bad weather we ended up staying there for a couple of days, Yes there was a pub. 

Saturday 22nd September we carried on our way passing the mountains of the Pennines. We had about 3miles to go before we came to the next flight of locks, The Bosley 12 Flight taking us down a total of 118ft. Through the locks with no problems and on to Congleton, this is where our journey ended for another day. Due to the bad weather again we stayed near Congleton for two days.

Monday 24th September the weather wasn't looking to bad so we made a break for if. We wanted to get to the end of the Macclesfield Canal today. The junction with the Trent & Mersey Canal was only about 6miles away. Would we make it before the rain started again? Surprisingly we just made it. As we approach the junction the heavens opened and being fair weather boater, hehe! we stopped and moored for the day. 

During our visit to Bugsworth Basin we found out that the village where the basin is situated had it's name changed from Bugsworth to Buxworth. It is said that this was done as the people in the next village didn't like to be known as living next to bugs and the Pub in the basin called The Navigation was once run by Pat Phoenix, Coronation Street's Elsie Tanner. There is also a more sinister tale to tell about the basin. On Wednesday 26th October 1898 John Cotton murdered is wife, Hannah. The murder was committed in the cabin of a narrowboat moored in the basin. He was arrested the same day and sent for trial in Derby. He was hanged in Derby Jail on 21th December 1989. It is reputed that he was the last person to be hanged at the jail.

We stayed at the top of the Marple Flight for 3 days. Leaving on Monday 17th Sept we wanted to head down the rest of the Peak Forest Canal, known as the Upper Peak Forest Canal. Towards the end of the canal which is only about 6 miles away it spilt's into two arms. One leads to Whaley Bridge and the other goes to Bugsworth Basin. We had been told it's quite a shallow canal and to stick to the middle, hopefully we wouldn't come across to many boats travelling in the opposite direction. It turned out not to be as shallow as I imagined, maybe I was just thinking back to the Llangollen Canal. As we reached the end we first went to Whaley Bridge for one night and then onto Bugsworth Basin for another night.

Whaley Bridge is a quaint village built on a steep hill at the end of the Upper Peak Forest Canal with lovely views across the Goyt Valley. 

Bugsworth Basin was built to bring the canal as near as possible to the limestone quarries at Doveholes, 6 miles away. A tramway was built to transport the limestone from the quarries into waiting canal boats. The tramway closed in 1926 and the basin became disused and overgrown, but now it's fully restored and opened to navigation. It really shouldn't be missed!   

We left Anderton and after a short time cruising we started to come across logs floating in the cut, first one then two, three and four. It was a shame to leave them, they would go great on the wood burner, before long we had quite a roof full. We spent most of the following day chopping wood. By mid-afternoon we had finished the wood, the sun was still shining so we decided to carry on. We cruised to the end of the Trent and Mersey, through Preston Brook Tunnel and out onto the Bridgewater Canal, we carried on for a short distance and then moored for the night at Preston Brook. We were now only yards away from the turning for the Runcorn Arm. This is just a short 5mile stretch that comes to a dead-end in Runcorn right outside the pub where they film Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, so the following day that is where we were heading. Up bright and early the next morning as we wanted to be down to the end and back off the Runcorn Arm before the kids got out of school as in certain places you can have problems with kids throwing things off bridges. The arm is quite wide and deep so it didn't really take long to reach the end, we found the Two Pints Of Lager pub, which is really called The Waterloo, as it was closed we went for a wander round then headed back for two pints but we forgot the crisps, HEHE! . We had a couple of pints, took a few pictures then headed back to the boat and back towards Preston Brook. We had no problems at all on the arm, there was just a lot of rubbish to avoid, before long we were back on the main Bridgewater Canal heading north towards Manchester.

As it was Friday (7th Sept) and we didn't want to do Manchester at a weekend we decided to stop near a place called Moore. Looking at the map this seemed to be one of the last rural places before the city plus we could see a pub called The Red Lion across the fields HEHE! We ended up staying at Moore for Friday and Saturday night and then cruise on to Lymm on the Sunday, this was the last town before reaching the city suburbs. We had been told that Lymm was a very nice and safe place to moor and how right that was, we ended up staying in Lymm for two nights. We found a pub called The Bulls Head and caught up with some people we had met earlier on in the year and also met some more really nice people, it was a shame we had to leave really. This was also where we met Kate Bush, HEHE! .

Tuesday (11th Sept) was the day we headed into Manchester, through Sale, Stretford and past Manchester United FC we then cruised a towpaths width away from the Manchester Shipping Canal with the Metrolink towering above us. We passed Pomona lock, the connection to the Shipping canal. Soon after we came to Castlefields with the first of the nine locks at the beginning of the Rochdale Canal in front of us. We had been told Castlefields was the first of two safe places to moor over night. We moored up and planned to do the Rochdale Nine Locks in the morning. As it was still quite early and the sun was shining  we went for a walk to see the locks we would be doing in the morning, the locks were wide so we hoped we would find another boat to lock up with. We had a wander around the city but before dark we headed back to the boat. The following morning we waited for another boat but none appeared. We came to the first of the nine locks, each lock had an anti-vandal lock on it so this made the process even longer, each lock had to be unlocked, take the boat through and then lock it up again. It wasn't long before a chap who obviously lived on the streets asked if we wanted help with the locks, all he wanted was a couple of quid. Mark said yes to him, he had his own lock keys and as we made our way up the locks he push his bike with all his possessions on it. The canal passed between the backs of tall buildings and beneath elaborate railway arches and finally the canal goes under an 18-storey office block where the last lock is situated between concrete pillars.  This was where we said goodbye to the chap that had helped us. If we did the nine locks again I would let him help us again, we had no problems from anybody and he told us where and where not to go, well worth the couple of quid. As we came out the top lock we took a sharp right then left and found ourselves on the Ashton Canal, this canal has the worst reputation in the country for kids being a menace. A short distance along the Ashton Canal we came to Piccadilly Village, a development of new apartments with the Thomas Telford Basin in the middle for us to moor, this was the next safe place. We really hadn't gone that far but in front of us over the next 4 miles were 18 locks and there was no way we would get through them before the kids got out of school, so the plan again was to moor up and leave first thing in the morning. The morning really couldn't come quick enough, first light and we were on our way. We had been warned about people asking for lifts, kids jumping on the boats as well as throwing things, we really couldn't wait to be clear of this canal. The first three locks were ok as there were lots of building work going on and workmen around but soon we were on our own. A lot of the locks had been left open from someone coming down the locks the night before, that made me wonder what problems they'd had. The one problem we had with the locks being left open all night was the water level at the bottom had risen, as we went under the railway bridge (7) we luckily missed the cratch frame and chimney by about half and inch but unfortunately I managed to smash the TV ariel to pieces HEHE! So watch out for the bridges if the locks have been left open. Was this going to be the start of our problems on the Ashton Canal..? We carried on up the locks watching out for things from all directions, we past the Sports City, The Velodrome and Manchester City FC , after a couple of hours we were out the last lock, we cruised for a couple more miles passing the mills with their tall chimneys we then turned right onto the Peak Forest Canal, WOO-HOO!!! We had done the Ashton Canal with no trouble at all. We stopped for a short time to have lunch  and to let Cassie  have a run around with a Basketball we had fished out the canal earlier that day, with her sharp teeth it didn't last long. Looking around us it still seemed quite built up so we decided to carry on and try to get out into the countryside more, neither of us where sure how close we still were to Manchester. We carried on until we reached the last moorings before the Marple lock flight, it was getting to late to start the flight as there were 16 locks and no moorings in between and it would be dark before we finished. We moored up just before a narrow cutting that I later found out used to be Rose Hill Tunnel that had long since been opened out. The following morning up in the sunshine  we set off to tackle the Marple Flight, we crossed the Marple aqueduct with the viaduct towering above and the River Goyt below, then back under the railway and into the first lock. After a couple of locks we had a visitor from where we used to be moored in Cambridgeshire, after going through the city where nobody looks or speaks to each other it was nice to see a friendly face plus it was an extra pair of hands to help with the locks, hehe! . It took us a good 3hours to do the locks as they are some of the deepest narrow locks in the country, well thats what I was told. On reaching the top of the locks we turned right under a bridge onto the start of the Macclesfield Canal where there just happened to be some very nice moorings where we stopped for the weekend.

The 16 locks at Marple cover 1 mile and drop 214ft in total. They were built in 1804 at a cost of £27,000 this was four years after the rest of the navigation opened. Before the lock were built boats that carried the limestone from Bugsworth Basin at the end of the Peak Forest Canal had to be unloaded by hand on to a horsedrawn tram and then the boats were reloaded again at the bottom of the tramway.