This week has taken us 47 miles and 46 locks through Shropshire into Cheshire, back to Shropshire and then to Staffordshire.
We left the Llangollen Canal in glorious sunlit days preceded by moody misty starts.
Through lush green Cheshire countryside we made good time, going with the flow of the River Dee waters hastening down to Hurleston Reservoir.
Beside the Reservoir is the final 34ft drop taking boats down from the Llangollen onto the Shropshire Union. Through Nantwich and over the Chester- Nantwich Road Road on an impressive cast iron aqueduct, the result of landed gentry not wanting to see a canal and industrial barges plying near their county seat.
Then it was hush hush territory- Hack Green, the now far from secret (or perhaps a double bluff) scene of a WW2 radar station converted into a nuclear bunker to house Regional Government if the Cold War demanded. Now a tourist attraction it sent eerie chills through me – and not just because of the lack of heating.
Then amid a weather change back to winter on to Audlem, passing the once bustling Shroppie Fly, remembering the barges which were the 24-hr operating delivery service of their day. Audlem’s flight of 15 locks are resplendent in battleship grey and white rather than the familiar magpie colours elsewhere. Remnants of a WW2 paint surplus bought up cheap.
In return for 15 locks by 11.30am rewards awaited at the delightful and delicious honesty stall of Kinsell Farm.
Up the Adderley Flight of 5 locks and into the haunted Betton Cutting where tough old boatmen of yore never lingered…neither did we.
Quick pause for supplies at Market Drayton mooring at the delightfully named Ladybird Moorings. Then through through Tyrley flight of 5, remembering that this sandstone cutting and deep lock chambers were all cut by hand with picks and shovels.
The Shelmore Embankment was another engineering and construction feat in its day – taking 6 years to build. At the start stands the wharf overseen by a duty heron as we passed where cocoa nibs used to be loaded from the factory beyond to travel by barge to Bournville. Bet those Cadbury barges smelled delicious!
On then through Grub Street Cutting (nothing here for writers) but again a route painstakingly created with picks and shovels, wheelbarrows and sheer hard graft. At the end stands the famous double-arched High Bridge. Living up to its name it is well known for the short telegraph pole standing in its centre. It too is said to be haunted after a boatman was killed here in the 19th century. Either our imagination was lacking or the bitter chill kept the spectre at bay…unless you can see him?
We still have 22 miles and 23 locks to our Monday destination – will we make it? We’re ploughing on through sun, rain, hail and snow so hope springs eternal as ever!
Pickingupducks 