Catching Up Part 4 - Our Home Waters

For us, we consider the stretch of the Trent & Mersey canal between Anderton and Middlewich, and the Shropshire Union canal (affectionately known as the "Shroppie") to be our home canals - that is they are the waters on which we tend to end up over winter.  Having arrived back in Anderton from Manchester it would have been very easy to just stay put, but after a few days at Anderton we set off towards Middlewich.  I wont bore you with our trip from Anderton to the Shroppie, I covered it in posts in March and April.

The Middlewich branch of the Shroppie comes to an end at a "T" junction, where it joins the main line of the Shroppie.  To the right the Shroppie heads to Chester and eventually to Ellesmere Port.  To the left (the way we went), the Shroppie goes to Nantwich, Audlum and on towards Birmingham.  Now if you are driving your car and you get to a "T" junction, you slow down right?  So what always amazes me is the number of boats (from experienced private boaters to inexperienced hire boaters) who, once on a boat, seem to have left their common sense at home and don't slow down when they reach this junction.  The speed some boats have collided with the wall has now damaged the concrete edging to such a degree that BW have now put a wooden buffer along the edge of the wall to protect the concrete.

My theory is that the boats are trying to take the shortest route possible to the Jolly Tar pub opposite!

Two of my favourite flights of locks are on the Shroppie - the 15 locks at Audlum and the 5 locks at Tyrley.   Adjacent to the 3'rd lock (going up the locks) is a tourist trap, the Shroppie Fly - a popular pub.  The centre piece of the pub is the bar which is incorporated in an original ‘Shroppie Fly’ boat salvaged from the Shropshire Union canal near Birmingham.

 The downside (I suppose you could call it) of having such a popular pub next to a lock is that our boat became a curiosity to those having a day out.  Sometimes we get offers of help, and this time was no exception - even a five year old girl had a go at pushing the gates.

Our time for going through Audlum couldn't have been much better.  The following weekend there was a boat rally there, and even when we went through seven days before the rally there were no mooring spaces to be had.

As I said above, my other favourite flight is Tyrley.  This flight starts off in a "tunnel" of rock and trees, but rises through 5 locks to open countryside and a couple of pretty cottages.

 At times meeting other boats in the middle of a flight requires the boat handler to think quickly and to know what he (or she) is doing.

For years there used to be a big notice on these cottages saying no to the European Union - its only recently disappeared.

Another well known feature of the Shroppie are the cuttings - Woodseaves and Grub Street.  Both are very narrow and we always dread meeting another boat coming towards us as passing places are very few.

Landslides do occur along this stretch and have been known to close this section of canal for days at a time whilst they are cleared.  However to date, we have never been stuck by a landslide along here.

The above bridge is one of the more unusual ones around.

In the space of six days we left Anderton and reached Autherley junction (where the Shroppie meets the Staffs & Worcs canal).  We had covered 60 miles and done 35 narrow locks and 1 broad lock, and 1 stop lock.   A stop lock is a shallow lock that adjusts the water level by a couple of inches.  Their main purpose was to stop the water which belonged to one canal company being pinched by another canal company. 

Under the bridge can be seen the Staffs & Worcs canal, but that is a tale best left to the next instalment.