Ellesmere

Today's Canal : Llangollen

We were away a little before ten when the weather was still dry. The rain stayed away and we had a good spell of sunshine for time. However it was chased away by the promised heavy clouds which soon delivered rain, in quantities!

Our only interruption to plain, level cruising today was the single Morris Lift Bridge, notable for having a deck that touches the water level. It comes, in this direction, at  the end of a long straight section so that it is possible to see the bridge for a quarter of an hour before reaching it. We could see a boat ahead that went through after lifting the bridge and we had hopes of a bonus as they appeared to be waiting for us to arrive. A few minutes before we reached it they suddenly closed up. We could see a dog walker go over as soon as possible so we guessed that the boater had been harassed into letting the pedestrian across. This was confirmed later when we passed the boat at a water point and the apologised for not waiting and explained the reason. We told them that we had already guessed and did not blame them! Much the same happened after we re-opened and passed through. This time we knew that the distance boat was perhaps 10 minutes away and a car was waiting to leave the adjoining camp site. So we too had to close up. 

We were now passing Whixall Moss. On several previous trips we have explored the Moss but with intermittent heavy rain, not today!

After Whixall Moss Junction where the short Prees Branch begins, the canal reverts to its more usual winding course. There seemed to be more boats coming towards us than hitherto and we had several times to pull back as a boat charged through, sometimes seemingly oblivious of the issue! One bridge was especially difficult as there were several long term moorings ahead of it and then a work boat left close to the other side. 

We kept trying to test the availability of a mobile phone signal but with little luck. The only time was saw any bars at all was unsuitable for mooring!

Christine has a date with a pharmacist in Ellesmere tomorrow and there is some shopping to do. By lunch time we were passing Blake Mere and rain returned heavily. At least, we thought, we might have a pleasant view of the mere - wrong, all the best spots were already occupied so we came in shortly before with a glimpse of water through the bushes. As we were only about half an hour from Ellesmere we eventually remained here for the afternoon rather than risk arriving and finding no free spaces on the short arm.

8.2 Miles - 0 Locks

Tilstock Park

 Today's Canal : Llangollen

It had rained heavily overnight but reduced to a mere drizzle by the time we made our first mugs of tea. However, the forecast gave a high probability of showers throughout the day - they were right!

Only a short distance before we passed under a former railway bridge. This once carried on of three lines into Whitchurch, passing around the north of the town to join the only remaining service.

Beyond, is Lane Croft Wharf, the bottom of the Grindley Brook locks. After ascending one of the three singleton locks, Christine popped to a nearby petrol station that also advertises food stores. We forgot to buy some new potatoes for our salad tonight and she returned with a box of very new local ones.\

At the second lock we could see the heavily pollarded tree that caused some comment a couple of years ago when it was done. In this photo it is a bit disguised by the large silo behind it.

However, from the other side a better view and we wonder whether it might have been overdone as there seems to have be no new sprouting.

Just below the staircase we noted that a sign warned that there were no lock keepers on duty today - if busy then 'do-it-yourself' can easily lead to lock-rage if a boat fails to honour the taking turns principle. We had to wait for one that had just started down but at that stage no more were waiting so no need to negotiate.

When it was our turn there were a couple of other boats waiting (one at the top and the other at the bottom) that were quite new to staircases - one of them was very new to canals and from Wrenbury and so only done four standard locks. We engaged in quite a bit of instruction! 

At the top, the lockies hut was very firmly closed - buy we already knew that anyway. In fact, provided that the instructions are read carefully, a staircase is not difficult but some of the stages are bit counter intuitive. In this case the intermediate gates also lek quite a bit and so there is often insufficient water in the middle lock to fill the bottom one enough to allow deeper boats to pass over the sill.      

At the top we moored on one of the water points as we needed to do a 'full service'. Afterwards we only needed to move a couple of boat length onwards to the visitor mooring where we had our lunch.

Just after we set off again a very heavy rainstorm arrived - fortunately no boats came by as we sheltered under a bridge during the worst of it.

Our first lift bridge of the day came at Whitchurch Junction - the arm to the left and beyond the bridge.

Yet another ABC hire base in after the nearby winding hole - several boats were in the process of being handed over to the latest round of hirers - many now doubt full of anticipation! It did seem that not available boats were due out today - they were very obviously locked up.

Hassell No 1 lift bridge brought a bonus - it is currently left open all the time! And sunshine . . . 

Hassell  No 2, however still needs to be wound up and, in repayment for the bonus earlier this one takes 20% more turns that all the others.

For a while we had a very pleasant sunny interlude and, despite several very dark clouds overing nearby, we only had a short light drizzle before we arrived at Tilstock bridge and then moored at the Visitor Mooring just beyond.

5.3 Miles - 6 Locks (and 4 lift bridges, but one was open)

Grindley Brook - almost

Today's Canal : Llangollen

We stayed up late, long enough to see the Exit Poll and the first few results arrive, even if they were not representative of the nation as a whole they did seem to paint a consistent picture. As a result we were not ready to set off this morning until 10 o'clock. Whilst the 'first past the post' system delivered a clear verdict in terms of a government with a majority able to work without endlessly making compromises that emasculate even the best of ideas, the detail that emerged by the time we awoke does seem to hint at darker clouds lurking just beyond the immediate horizon.

Christine walked down to Wrenbury Lift Bridge as short distance from where we moored as she wanted to check in with the mechanic at the boatyard. As promised, he had taken a look at our problem when he arrived for work, could not see any remaining issue and was still of the opinion that we had nothing to worry about. Thanks for your advice and comfort - saved us panicking anyway!

We then came through the lift bridge without any of the difficulties of two years ago when the controls  decided to go on strike at an inopportune moment. Alas, we only held up one lorry and one car on one side and none at all on the other. hardy worth the effort of pushing the buttons!

About twenty minutes later we arrived at the next lift bridge. As this only carries a footpath it is operated with the dreaded hydraulic winding gear. 56 turns up but only 27 down. A boat arrive from the other direction so we waited until it has passed through before closing it.

Thomason's Winding Nole is the only one on the whole network that we know about that has been given a personal name - and we do not have any clue why!

This is the other glamping site that we mentioned yesterday and, no, it is not owned by the same people as the Ranch. This one is a bit older and appears from a distance to be a bit more basic than that we we passed yesterday.

First lock of the day: Marbury and we had a short wait as one boat was waiting below whilst it was emptied. With a boat moored at the end of the lock landing it was not until the first boat had set off into the lock that we could ourselves  come in. Turned out to be the same boat that was difficult last night and it was perhaps just as well that by the time Mike had made it up to the lock that they were about to depart so no time for a conversation anyway.

A longish pound before arriving at Quoisley Lock, the first of three fairly closely grouped together, but all with very different setting. This one is close to a busy country road - always seems to carry noisy boy racers on motorbikes! A single hander was already just starting down so that saved turning the lock unnecessarily. But we did not immediately spot that he had left one paddle half open for us to close!

Willymoor Lock is alongside the eponymous Tavern. In the sunshine the kitchen seemed to be being kept busier than we have seen before.

The bridge at the tail of the lock is a frustrating disappointment to boaters as it does not have an access to the offside of the lock. Hence it does not help to reduce the amount of walking - having opened one gate it is necessary to walk all the way around and over the top gate to open the other. Similar in reverse. A simple gate in the railings of the bridge approach would have been so useful!

And finally before lunch came Povey's Lock, in a more isolated position. A boat arrived just as we reached the top which again was a help so that we could leave it open for them - and they opened the gate for us as well.

A few minutes later we found a secluded spot to moor for lunch. After eating both of us fell asleep with the kettle on the hob ready to make a mug of tea. Fortunately we awoke before it ran completely dry.

In any event, we soon agreed that this was not only a good spot for lunch but also would serve as an overnight stop as well. We were close to the Grindley Brook flight and by now it might be a bit late before we used the service block at the top and then moored - even without the delays that sometime build up here.

5.6 Miles - 4 Locks

Wrenbury

Today's Canal - Llangollen

The well known problems with intermittent mobile signals on this canal mean that we cannot always publish our blog as contemporaneously as we usually aim for. Apologies to both our readers.

We set off in good time - well, ten o'clock, anyway, but we do not have a demanding schedule for this trip - and our first stop was just outside the marina entrance to fill up with fuel and empty the elsan. It was pretty windy today - and chilly at first - so manoeuvring was tricky.

The first lock was only a short distance and, as we feared, there was a queue. One boat must going in and another two ahead of us (ahead of the two moored boats) As we ascended the lock, eventually, we noticed a problem with our fuel system. Just before the Baddiley flight we stopped for lunch and Mike also took a good look down the engine bay and anywhere there might be a problem but to no avail.

Not all constructed boat names make us smile as much as the owners hope, but this one ALDOITTAMORA did :)

This smart new mini-house looked very much like something out of a US Western ranch, complete with rocking chairs for grandparents! In fact it is a holiday let - Little Ranch Glamping. The owners also have two other glamping units we spotted two years ago just the other side of Wrenbury. (See tomorrow for correction)

We opted to make some progress before we decided on whether to escalate the issue and we did get some sunshine and blue sky this afternoon. With luck we might also find a spot with a mobile signal - they are few and far between along here. Christine managed a brief and interrupted call with Sally and Danny but they could offer no obvious explanation. In the end, contact was made with ABC at Wrenbury who offered to take a look if we could make it to their wharf which was only about ten minutes away.

The engineer there spotted us arriving and helped us tie up before going through a range of check - most of which we had already but he could inspect parts of the engine bay that we cannot! In the end he did not find anything amiss and told us not to worry, hopefully it will clear itself. He also offered, if we moored close by, to check for how it is  in the morning. 

We made two 'mistakes': firstly we took his advice on where to moor overnight to be close to the wharf but we were harangued by a local boater passing though as it was the very end of the bridge operation section. The second mistake was to reverse back about five boat lengths. We managed this well as we passed the three moored boats but then became caught on offside silt just as we were in a position to moor. It took us ages to free ourselves even when we seemed to be almost in the main channel. In the end we gave in and made a rare use of our long pole. We might have tried this sooner except that it was at the wrong end of the roof! The painters had put it back on the front and we did not get around to moving it on the grounds that we rarely need it!

Amidst all this, our main laptop started to play up in several different ways and eventually the mouse ceased to do anything useful at all! After a spell using the touch pad - never the best especially when editing photos - but Christine offered Mike her mouse which goes with her laptop until he can source his own replacement.

4.6 Miles - 5 Locks

Back in the water, all fresh and bushy tailed

We are now back on board but still in Swanley Bridge Marina. It has been a busy couple of days, not as planned at all! We started well, preparing the car with all but the frozen and chilled food all packed in the car on Monday night. We set the alarm early so that we were on the road by half past eight.

All long journeys now, with an electric car, have to be planned in a little more to the M5, via Swindon, was uneventful and at the Air Balloon we were prepared for the new contraflow that came into force at the weekend to allow for the next phase of construction that sees the southern end roundabout moved a little eastwards. Although there was a lengthy speed restriction, traffic flowed smoothly and we were not delayed much more than could often have been the case in the past.

We decided to continue on beyond Droitwich - our previous option for charging at Lidl but this can be quite busy and can easily be occupied in the time between turning off the motorway and arriving! As we had plenty of miles in hand we switched to a location at a pub near Gailey. Although we thought that there were three charge points here it turned out to be a single station with the three different connectors. Alas someone else had just arrived and was struggling to get the control panel to work. We took an urgently needed comfort break and when we returned to the charging station the driver reported that it was now out of service! However, he did tell us of an alternative about a mile along the road to Penkridge. This was an Instavolt site which we found quite good on a long trip down to Cornwall a few weeks back. There were two  stations and one was free! Whilst the care was charging we had a take away coffee from a nearby Costa - this was a small retail park on the edge of town.

Back on the road we soon re-joined the motorway and made good progress. Shortly before we were due to find the A500 exit the sat nav had a hissy fit and we could not persuade it to return to life! We had to resort to the passenger reading out directions from the maps on a phone! In any case, it was a route we knew reasonably well but we are so used to having the sat nav support that it seems frightening in its absence . . .

As soon as we arrived at the marina we headed to the boat painter's shed and were quite pleased that we were still in time to see Alchemy being launched back into the water. Of course, we were able to chat through with Sally all the details of what had been undertaken. It certainly looks really smart - even better once it was moved outside and then back down the slipway. No time to hang about admiring it as we needed to move to our overnight mooring - the slipway had several more ins and outs to be done.

We anticipated that we might need to spend quite a bit of time putting everything internally back in its rightful places - moveable things and the contents of all the lockers had had to be taken into the front cabin at the start of the exercise. We also planned to do a 'big shop' in Nantwich before setting off so that we had enough room in the car for everything else!

Nothing ever goes entirely without glitches and we soon found two or three. Not major but they did need to be sorted before we could leave. The most significant was that the central and water heating did not seem to be working - fortunately we could heat enough for tonight via the hookup and the rarely used immersion heater. The back sliding hatch did not slide and a door lock lacked a fixing bolt. Battery charging was also strange. We did have a go ourselves at trying to persuade the hatch to slide but did not make a lot of progress. 

This morning we started early, calling the electrician (who turned out to be an all-purpose boat engineer who started his obsession with boats at the age of 4!) Fortunately he was already on his way from Barlaston to another job in the marina so would call as soon as he was free. Sally came to take a look at the hatch, having realised overnight that it was not quite as simple as just spraying on a coating of GT85 - previously our go-to when the slide became a bit stiff. She soon found that the hatch was catching on the edge of the slide at just one point, probably the result of the extra thickness of the new paint. She was able to improve movement quite a bit but it is still not at its best. Let's see what a bit of use does to it. Sally also arranged to source a replacement for the bolt which seemed to have gone AWOL.

Simon, the engineer, arrived just before lunch and it took some time to sort out the water. Although. much to our relief, he soon found that the heater was firing up, no hot water was coming through. The short version of the story is that there was a lot of air in the system and eventually he was able to clear it and we had hot radiators once again.

Meanwhile we had continued to sort out stowing things away but it was mid afternoon before be could get into Nantwhich. As well as a large scale replenishment of our larders, we were also able to charge up the car so that we can leave it almost on maximum miles. 

When it was clear that we would not be able to leave until rather late we arranged a further night in the marina and we now plan to leave as soon as we can in the morning - topping up the fuel on the way out.

Ashing at Caen Hill

Whilst walking down the Caen Hill flight this afternoon, I chatted to several members of CaRT staff who, as usual, were both helpful and friendly as well as being well informed.

In the process I learnt that this year the team were experimenting with ashing three of the locks in the flight in an effort to mitigate the effects of water losses through leaky gates. I was fortunate to be able to witness this action with one of the locks.

The photos show the before and after situations - it is clear that the losses through the centre mitre were all but eliminated. Even more astonishing (although many years ago I had seen this once before) was the speed at which this happened. It was almost instantaneous - well, at least within just a small number of seconds. The cessation quickly worked its way down the mitre as the ash (from Avon Valley Steam Line) was being poured.

Canal Vegetation - Then and Now

This is not a cruising blog but just an item of interest - hopefully some anyway!

In a number of places recently we have wondered about the historical approach to canalside vegetation. This has also been prompted by what seems to be a significant rise in landslips, often  associated with tree falls. The Shroppie is, of course, especially prone to this, When built, soil mechanics had not yet been devised and the design of cuttings and embankments, the slopes especially, was a matter of 'try and see'. The steeper the bank the cheaper to construct since there is less material to move. However, push it too far and the bank readily become unstable.

Having started to think about, I happened to encounter a CaRT manager with responsibility for vegetation management contracts and we had a very interesting, albeit too brief, chat. (It seems that for the first time CaRT are developing a medium term plan for regular inspection and maintenance with a view to reducing costs - planned is usually cheaper than emergency reactive. It seems that some of the thoughts that had been forming in my mind aligned with the emerging understanding within CaRT. This chap has been building a picture of how things were in the past as well as now.

I had been theorising that it is only very recently (perhaps a small number of decades) that the immediate surroundings of canals have been allowed to develop vegetation. In urban areas this often creates a much pleasanter environment for users of water and towpath and is thus by many  to be 'a good thing'. More contentious is the treatment of the towpath itself, especially the verge with the water itself where a lot of moorable space has been lost.

A few days ago, browsing through some recent and not so recent photos that we have taken, one example stood out as encapsulating the contrast, taken on the New Main Line in Birmingham (strictly Smethwick) where the former pumping engine stands that once raised water from the Birmingham to the Wolverhampton levels.

The first dates from the mid 1980's - not sure as mass processed film lacked dates in those days! The second is from 2021. 

As can be seen, even just four decades ago, the cuttings and embankments were kept almost entirely free of vegetation and it is easy to see why the modern approach is considered more attractive. However, the vegetation-free approach must have had its own costs and would surely have been viewed as necessary in the light of experience with land slips, or not. Perhaps there needs to be a more balanced debate that takes into account the choice between saving costs in the short term with larger ones later, together with the environmental impacts. What is clear is that we appear to have drifted into the present policy without gaining wide acceptance of the implications. However, it is good that CaRT are now addressing the matter! 

As an aside, note how the older picture has the chimney missing - we think that this was re-built during the more recent restoration of the pumping station.