Some just have everything

Canals are remarkably like people. They each have their own character, their awkward bits, their lovely parts and their idiosyncrasies. Some, just like some people, seem to be blessed with everything, and that goes for the Macclesfield where we’re moored right now.

The Macc has beauty, history, the right amount of challenge and some of the most beautiful places along its 27.5mile length. It wends its way from Marple in Cheshire where it joins the Peak Forest Canal all the way down to the mighty Trent & Mersey on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent.

We’re travelling up the Macc this time, from The Potteries up to the Peak District and that does mean a climb, but thanks to its famous designer, one Thomas Telford, this canal makes its locks very manageable. We encountered a single stop lock at Hall Green of just 12 inches and the other 12 locks which took us up 118 feet were contained in a single flight at Bosley. The Bosley flight is a delight, a mix of long and short pounds between stone locks. It took us just under 2 hours to complete.

Bosley provides a real treat at the top, a set of services that, if you have the right cards (which we don’t) includes washing machines! (Fortunately there are good laundrettes on the Macc at Macclesfield and Bollington). The Bosley Services also boast excellent clean, hot showers – essential for the lucky long term moorers up there, but they provided us a positively delightful spa day treat after 12 locks. (We do have a hot shower on the boat fed by our tank but CRT showers come with unlimited hot water). Bosley has a free book exchange in a cupboard – what more could anyone want? When we called there also seemed to be a free cocktail ingredient exchange on offer too!

The Macc is one of the last narrow canals ever built, created to serve mills (cotton and silk), mines and quarries. It was opened in October 1831 and operated commercially until the 1960s. Now the commercial operation is limited to the essential and friendly fuel boats that ply their trade along its length, and hire boats bringing tourists for blissfully relaxing days and weeks on its waters.

It has two swing bridges both of which appear on the outskirts of Macclesfield, that notable silk town. The swing bridges of the edge of the Cheshire Plain aren’t toughies like the Leeds and Liverpool types, but the easily power operated Royal Oak and the manual but still easy to use Broadhurst.

Bridges too bear witness to possibilities of combining practicality, commercial considerations and beauty. The turnover, changeover or snake bridges have sinuous curves which saved the horse drawn barges time, enabling the horses to cross the canal without needing to be time-consumingly unhitched and rehitched when the towpath changed sides (time being money) , and the Macc has some of the most exquisite examples.

There are stupendous stone aqueducts at the foot of the Bosley Flight over the River Dane, and at Bollington. The views from these testaments to 19th century engineering and craftsmanship are well worth seeing, whether you make it to them by boat or foot or bike. In the case of the Bollington Aqueduct be warned of the 43 steps up!

Stone also features in the milestones along the length of the canal. During World War II they were nearly all buried to prevent invading enemies using them to find their way through England’s countryside. All bar 3 were found and reinstated, the gaps being filled with new milestones carved from stone quarried from Kerridge Hill behind Bollington.

Bollington is another treasure on the Macc. A small town which boasts two stunning mills, the Adelphi and the Clarence are no longer spinning world-class cotton but are homes to new 21st century businesses including cafes, gyms, offices, upholsterers etc.

Bollington sits in Happy Valley which enjoys all sorts of therories about how it got its name, from a preponderance of pubs ( currently 15) but apparently really because of a philanthropic mill owner called Samuel Greg Junior. He developed the area around his mill to make life better for his workers with medical attention, a school, library and allotments. He called this Goldenthal, German for Happy Valley. Today the name is used for the whole of Bollington and has also appeared on a continental style ale from the Bollington Brewing Company.

The walks from the Macc are outstanding – as long or as short, as flat or hilly as you could wish for. One of the most accessible is from Bollington rising to White Nancy, an iconic landmark which was originally built on the top of Kerridge Hill as a remarkable summer house by a wealthy landowner. My photos here are from now and when we climbed to enjoy White Nancy in the summer sun last year.

The only thing the Macc doesn’t boast is a tunnel, but with everything else it has to offer quite frankly I think that’s a bonus!