Grappenhall

Today's Canal - Bridgewater

Today was generally cool, cloudy but without the rain that was forecast for us last night.

We had moored last night facing the way we came so before going anywhere we had to turn around. This gave us even better views of the splendid Waterloo Bridge.

After about half a mile we passed two short arms close together. There is no immediate obvious purpose for them but looking at old maps it seems that the canal was originally built with a large loop at this point and these arms are all that is left. At the apex of the loop (the bit that no longer exists) the canal linked to a large lake known as the Big Pool (see here for a photo). Around 1900, a new section of canal was created to cut off the loop and gradually the pool was infilled and roads built over it.

Just after the next bridge stands this imposing building with the inscription Runcorn Co-Operative Society Limited and the date 1893. Above the row of houses adjoining to the left is the name Co-Operative Terrace. We have not been able to discover what the origins of the building were but it does look as if the terrace was housing right from the start and the right hand end, perhaps once a store or an office, was converted much later. There is a reference to a book on the history of the Society but is is long out of print and no articles come up on a Google search,

Another basin, this one is call Tannery. This part of Runcorn was at one time one of the most important producers of shoe leather (see here for some history) which was then to sent other places who specialised in making footwear. There were at least four major factories near here - this one is called Royal Oak on the maps from the late 19C. One of the reasons was access to suitable water but also because they had the right to discharge their waste into the Mersey. In the 1960s legislation was introduced to bar this practice and the firms here all soon collapsed - but the environment was much improved, if in the short term employment opportunities!

As the above photo shows, for a brief period we did have some welcome sunshine but it not last and the afternoon gradually became distinctly cool (cold). Some boaters even resorted to lighting their stoves.

We moored for a while the other side of Old Norton Townfield Bridge for a quick trip to a Co-Op store only five minutes walk up the hill (actually, about 10 up and 5 down!) A little to our surprise we did get almost all of the items on our shortish list, save for white cabbage (they were out) and the bread was not to Mike's liking - but we have enough in the freezer for few days.

A little further and we stopped at the water and elsan point alongside Preston Brook marina (just to left of the photo)

On the opposite bank is a quite large basin, now used for permanent moorings, that we expected might have been associated with some significant industry. However, our searches suggest that it was a transhipment basin and the buildings were warehouses - some have since been demolished.

At the junction we turned left onto the main part of the Bridgewater Canal and continued to Moore where we stopped for lunch on some of the all too rare mooring rings (most stops involve hammering in pins)`

The surroundings along this first part are often rural on one side and urban housing on the other. The canal itself is often insulated from the context by the vegetation.

It was now not really comfortable to be on the rear deck so when we set off we investigated a place to stop this near side of Lymm, rather than beyond as we had originally intended.We were also looking for a nearby church for tomorrow morning and ended up at Grappenhall with the parish church on the opposite bank (easily accessible we hope!

11.4 Miles - 0 Locks