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Rumpus makes the Caldon (and the Cheshire Ring) - September 2003

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This Report is a little different from the rest - you've got a separate picture pages, but there are links from the text to specific images as well.

Monday 9th September

After an “interesting” cross country journey via Great Haywood (well, we are on holiday) we arrived at Festival Park too late for the last north-bound passage through Harecastle. Unloading and de-coking the heating stove took a fair while and once all was ready for departure it was 3-30. “Just in time for Harecastle” thinks I , until I consulted Syd, who said it’d take over an hour to get to the tunnel, so we did a quick u-turn (we can, you know) and headed for the Caldon.

Susan hadn’t done locks for quite a while, so the Bedford Street staircase was a bit of a culture shock! Planet Lock was easier, though it was sad to see that the (very well done) hard landscaping was weed-grown and badly neglected, as was the house next to the bridge - restoration project, anyone?

We managed to infuriate the road drivers at Ivy House Lift Bridge - some were VERY impatient and went across before Susan had got the barriers up properly - on your own head be it............. Prior to this, I’d spent some time communing with the stove which was having a fit of the sulks, but eventually it was bullied into life but still misbehaved until it settled down.

The weather had been bright to start with, but now the rain set in in ernest, so we moored by “The Foxley” by Bridge 16 for the night. The gas regulator for the BBQ was knackered and the pub was VERY quiet..................

5 miles, 3 locks

Tuesday 10th September

............... started at 0100 when we both decided we were too hot and I got up to turn the stove off!. Having been woken by the factory siren at 0700 and 0730, we eventually were ready to start by about 0830, only to discover - no start! A local car repair shop had got one of those portable “get-U-started” batteries which got us away - I suspect the short run and lots of lights on for longer than usual yesterday may have been the reason.

We carried on at a steady pace through locks and lift bridges - Susan’s getting her hand back in! We suffered a number of short sharp showers - the worst after we’d moored at Endon for lunch, accompanied by thunder and lightening! We set off again at 1245 and called in at Park Lane for water and waste - Susan was MOST impressed by BW’s new “super services”!

We nearly had a nasty accident at Hazelhurst bottom lock (appropriately named, as it turned out). Susan had finished working the lock and Rumpus (as is usual) was sitting in the tail of the lock, waiting to pick her up. She came down the steps, which were wet, lost her footing and slid all the way down on her ar$e! Fortunately, Rumpus was waiting for her at the bottom and disaster and a possible immersion were narrowly avoided.

Steady progress was made through Cheddleton, where the Flint Mill looks very much as it must have done when it was in use. I finally won the battle with the oil stove, which had the weight put back on the operating lever to stop it inadvertently shutting down through vibrating shut - something I’d done some time ago but undone on the advice of Mr Lockgate.

All the pubs down here are very picturesque, but we’ve no time to stop - Froghall beckons! There’s no gauge at Flint Mill Lock now and it’s odd to see the platform shelter at Consall Forge station, which is cantilevered over the canal - the building’s fine but there’s NO PLATFORM!!! I took the chimney and water can off the roof as we approached Froghall tunnel but had no problems at all, thanks to Rumpus’s narrow cabin roof. I had to get on my knees to steer, but the only thing that touched the side was one of the cab-top seats by the slide. We winded and REVERSED to the very end (because we can) and finally tied up at 1925. A text in the style of an Admiralty Despatch was sent to The Commode d’Or: “Be pleased to inform their Lordships that the TNC tender NB Rumpus has reversed to the end of the Caldon Canal and tonight lays moored at Froghall Wharf - God save the Queen!”. Needless to say, there was no signal WHATSOEVER on the TV..............

12 miles, 14 locks

Wednesday 11th September

Rain, rain and MORE rain! We set off soggy from Froghall (having had a Weed Hatch Moment removing the weed from last night’s escapade). The weather didn’t improve until much later in the day, so we were not over-impressed with the Caldon, despite the fact that everybody seems to rave about it. Perhaps living where we do (in the bottom of a picturesque valley with a canal at the bottom of the garden and a preserved steam railway one field away) has spoilt us for this particular stretch of canal. We called in at Park Lane for services (again) and at a farm shop to get the ingredients for tomorrow’s dinner - venison and vegetables. We ended up mooring by Bridge 8 in Stoke and went to “Oggy’s”, just down the hill from the bridge, so Susan could watch the rest of the England football match on big-screen TV.

15.5 miles, 17 locks

Thursday 12th September

We started today with an interesting problem - the flap’s fallen off the bottom half of the Porta-Potti! not a lot I can do about this at 0115............. Set off at 0900 and had a surprise encounter with a Canaltime boat - Mucky Duck out of Alvecote - but they’ve already done most of the Four Counties Ring!

We arrived at Etruria at 0900 to do water & waste and to commune (up to the elbow, on the towpath) with the toilet. It was possible (just) to reassemble it by sticking your hand and arm through the hole where the poo goes down having THOROUGHLY washed the unit first. It would have been much easier if the two halves had split apart, but consultations with one Peckett, G revealed that this was not an option, even though all the bits for "inside" are listed as spares by Thetford.

Having done what we could, we took a gentle potter towards Harecastle, passing the Anderton Co warehouse and Middleport Pottery, stopping off at the canalside Burleigh (not Burleigh & Stronginthearm, beloved of Discworld warriors) Pottery, having done a couple of Huey’s as I missed it first time around - a delightfully old-fashioned pottery with a very good line in jugs, from the creamers-in-the-shape-of-a-cow-that-you-can’t-clean-out-properly (one of which I believe caused some kind of epidemic) to massive pitchers at over £35 for a plain second!

We then paused at Longport Wharf, for meths, diesel, another pottery visit (Price’s Pottery is turning itself into a Visitor Attraction - a sad come-down from its more prosperous days as a potbank) and Oxo and cornflour. We’re actually Cooking Properly on Rumpus today - "cooking" in the Rumpus sense has usually either been “warming up tinned stuff” or “reconstituting dried stuff” but I’m doing a venison stew (in our Spanish terracotta cook pot, in the oven) so we’re having to buy Proper Cookery Ingredients.

We arrived at the southern mouth of Harecastle in company with George on NB Alton - a sometime poster on the internet fora and a pleasant hour was spent in conversation and brass polishing before the southbound convoy arrived and we were able to set off. When they put the fans on, it’s bloody COLD but it does clear the air: Alton’s headlight went from a murky brown colour to white. It was interesting to see al the various distance markings, in yards from the north end in big painted letters near the waterline on both sides, and in metres from either end on the modern green reflective “exit arrow” signs at eye level, with a pair back-to-back in the centre. I saw the skeleton, too.....................

........ and took a sharp left onto the Macc at Red Bull! There were no maps in the box at Hall Green - a quick phone call resulted in an equally quick return call to thank me, and arrangements to collect one later. I saw a sadly neglected Mumble (one of Rumpus’s replacements) at Heritage Narrowboats - Susan is much more impressed with the scenery on the Macc!

After an excellent venison stew (aromas of which had been wafting back to me all afternoon as I was steering), off to “The Wharf” at Congleton with Phil Rushton, David & Shirley Kitching and a surprise guest (to all of us). We’d just started wrapping ourselves around our first pints when a white-haired gentleman with glasses came up and asked “Is one of you called Brian, and do you own that little narrowboat called Rumpus?” It was none other than Antony Matheson (WITH salt this time) on his way back to Stoke. A most unexpected and welcome guest, and yet another victim of the “Rumpus Effect”.

12.4 miles, 4 locks

Friday 13th September

A bit of a late start, after startling the cleaner of the pub when I went back to retreive a lost film, but pleasant weather and scenery. Around bridge 64, Rumpus’s get up & go got up & went and we were left with nothing but tick-over! The throttle linkage had lost a vital nut but there was still one left so I was able to effect a swift repair, which resulted in much more of Rumpus’s six horses becoming available than I suspect had been the case for some time.

It was very sunny as we ran up Bosley, in company with cruiser “Elegance”. Once off the top of Bosley, the views were excellent - much better than on the Caldon! With all of Rumpus’s six horses working away in the engine ‘ole, progress was much faster and we arrived at Macclesfield Canal Centre just after four. Here, Ross most obligingly fixed the gear lever rather better than it had been a couple of years ago - a weld had come unwelded resulting in lots of lost motion - now completely eliminated and at no charge! He also found a couple of nuts for the throttle linkage, including a Nylock nut, so the damn thing won’t undo itself again - a common problem on single cylinder engines.

During the day, we’d tried to book passage through the Rochdale Nine, but couldn’t make head nor tail of the recorded message which greeted us on the BW Manchester number. I ended up asking Tim Boddington to get the number for us - it’s actually the number of Standedge Tunnel Visitor centre!

After “playing” with the Centre’s day boat, spotting of a familiar boat resulted in an invitation issued and accepted and Sandy Dorward joining us for tea. No sooner had Sandy left us than Tim Boddington arrived, to whisk us into Macclesfield for tapas, wine and conversation which flowed into the evening, ended by a visit to the all-night Tescos and a steady walk back up the hill, shooing the ducks off the jetty as we returned to the boat.

10.2 miles, 12 locks

Saturday 14th September

An early rise meant that breakfast and brasses were completed by 0800 and we were off! It was a glorious day, with (distant) views of Manchester to the west and of the Pennines to the east. We called in at The Trading Post (“not recommended by Egon Ronay”) by Braidbar Boats to pick up another anti-vandal key, as Sod’s Law says that if we don’t................. We then did TWO pirouettes to get back to the water point.

Marple Locks were the beating of Susan - even I struggled with some of the bottom gate paddles with the Dunton Double but the flight is very picturesque and I was able to recruit the bystanders for gate closing duties. I was reminded that the National Sport has kicked off again by the shouts from a pair of teams playing on the fields below the canal. Susan was pleased to note that all the locks appeared to be set for us - what she hadn’t realised was that her long wait to leave each lock was caused by me nipping down to the next one to start it filling!

We arranged help from Andrew Instone-Cowie whilst trundling Ashton-wards and eventually found a mooring in Portland Basin Marina as the basin outside the Museum was full. It was odd to see railways with trains on again - though our route from Colwich, south of Great Haywood runs by railways nearly all the way, all the lines have been closed by a major rebuild and upgrade project. It was also sad to see the few remains of the 1500 volt DC overhead electrification on the now closed Woodhead route across the Pennines - an opportunity lost. Of course, there was no TV signal whatsoever...............

18.7 miles, 16 locks

Sunday 15th September

(Dustman to awakening Chinaman) “Where’s your bin” “I ’s been on the Ashton.” “No - where’s your wheelie bin?” “I ’s wheelie bin on the Ashton!”

An early start this morning - left Ashton at 0830-ish, having picked up Andrew, our help for the day. We took water at the top of the flight from a water point with a vandalised lock, where a sunken wheelie bin prevented us from exiting the first lock. Fishing it out with a boat hook was an interesting exercise.......... The top section of the flight runs through housing in a better state than some I’ve seen on my travels (the northern sections of the BCN immediately spring to mind) though I did wonder about the bars on some ground-floor windows: to keep bad ‘uns out, or stop the police getting in? Perhaps best not to ask.

The central section is industrialised as in any big city and the bottom section is in Games City - a massive Asda, the velodrome and the Commonwealth Games stadium (now home to Manchester City).There was a match on - fans trickling over the bridge. “Who’s playing?” Man City” “I KNOW that - who are they playing?” “Oh, Aston Villa!” There was one of the few remaining lock keeper’s cottages for sale here - no garden - 200K if you please!

On down the flight, past mills long past their sell-by date, until after the Piccadilly Village a couple of right-angled corners through a new development decanted us into Dale Street and the top of the Rochdale Nine. This area in particular is under major redevelopment and will soon be THE place to live - there’ll be many trendy apartments here within a year or two.

At bang on one pm, the BW “Assistants” arrived, unlocked the top of the flight and said they’d see us later. The first couple of locks were OK, though there was LOTS of water coming down. We were met at Lock 86 where’s there’s scaffolding in the way, then it was down to the infamous Lock 87 with the missing balance beam. To say that this took “some doing” would be to understate the case more than a little, but eventually we came out and continued down the increasingly gentrified flight until we were the centre of attention at the bottom lock, where the BW crew unlocked it and let us out.

The lock gear all the way down was in fairly good order - though I’m not a fan of hydraulic paddle gear (who is?) It was perhaps sensible to use gear with no “exposed bits” where the possibility of vandalism exists. The gear on The Nine is of a type I’d not come across before, with geared drive and friction brakes to hold them up. I do hope that when they replace the gates (and some of them ARE in a state) BW will retain the old gear.

Having thanked and dropped off Andrew, we moored at Potato Wharf, as near as I could get Rumpus to where she’d sat on the bank for so long. John from Egerton Narrowboats wasn’t there, so I took a phone number and set off down the Bridgewater, making history in the process by making Rumpus the first ever narrowboat to pass on both sides of Manchester United’s ground - she’d been past the other side (on a lorry) when I’d collected her.

As today had been unashamedly urban and industrial, I hung a right at Waters Meeting and took Susan to see Worsley and the Barton Swing Aqueduct. We were just passing the dry docks when we were hailed by David Kitching - this is where Spey lives! We spent a few moments chatting and looking before setting off again, pirouetting in front of the Packet House and finding a reasonable mooring on the way back before “The Barge” at Monton.

14.6 miles, 27 locks

Monday 16th September

........ started at about 1000 and all was well until we reached the swing aqueduct, to find the gates closed against us. I initially thought I might have run into the annual maintenance period, but it was the usual Monday morning dredger movement on the Ship Canal. I moored up on the “wrong” side to get a much better viewpoint as the span moved away from us. Needless to say, the road bridge was opened last and closed first! When the span had swung back into place, 19th century technology (in the shape of a bucket or two of wet sawdust) was used to stop the leaks before the gates were opened fully and we were able to proceed.

We needed to do a little shopping, so decided to visit the nearby Trafford Centre, which is NOT set up for pedestrian access....... Nevertheless, we were able to get all we needed, though the coffee came from M&S as it was less expensive than Selfridges, which would have cost more than buying canalside, in itself an expensive (if convenient) option.

Having set off again, I hung a right at Waters Meeting and headed towards the T&M. I stopped off at Egerton Narrowboats at Stretford to let John see what had been done: he was pleased to see her restored. On then, to Hesford Marine, where there were a number of “deserving cases” awaiting rescue. On then, through Lymm, Thelwall and Grappenhall with nibbles and a jug of Pimms on the slide. On then, passing a Cub Pack playing outside games and another group of youngsters in canoes who obligingly parted to let Rumpus through. On again, into the gathering dusk, with industrial plants lit up to the north, until we moored up near Higher Walton New Bridge, under the airport’s flight path again..........

20.7 miles, 0 locks

Tuesday 17th September

After an 0845 start, we called in at Moore Village Stores (canalside) for eggs and envious looks from the “suits” collecting their morning papers. The mooring rings here were MAN - sized! We had to wait half-an-hour for passage through Preston Brook Tunnel but got through Saltersford and Barnton OK - I’d forgotten quite how crooked they all were! We called in to see Tim Leech at Dutton but he was away - not so the man at Black Prince at Acton Bridge who remembered Rumpus when she (and he) were at Wincham Wharf. He said that Rumpus was built by Mike Hayward, who was in charge at Hoo Mill at that time.

An interesting story about Acton Bridge - the hire boat operation there used to be called Premier Narrowboats, and all the boats in the fleet were named after British Prime Ministers. The story goes that there was a new boat added to the fleet in the 80's. It went out on its first hire, all pristine and unscratched and all was well until the end of the third full day of hire, when the yard received a frantic phone call from the hirer, saying that he couldn’t turn the boat around to come back. The boat’s name? Margaret Thatcher (and as we all know, “the lady’s not for turning”!).

We then tried to book a passage on the Anderton Lift, to be confronted by a totally undecipherable recorded message, so arranged a passage once we’d arrived at about 1400. The passage was booked for 1615, so we had time to do watery and Thetfordy things, then visited the Visitor Centre (OK), shop (not much boaty stuff - no brass plaque, for instance) & the coffee shop - a good view of the Lift and comprehensive menu.

We reported to the holding moorings 30 minutes before passage (as requested) having read the mountain of bumph you get given when making a booking. We didn’t get the full internal inspection which the latter led us to believe was going to happen - another case of a pragmatic approach? - the powers are there if needed. Having entered the Lift, all the gates were shut and we started down, getting gently “bounced" towards the bottom of our descent. There was a slight problem opening the gates at the bottom, which resulted (for some reason best known to The Operator) in a shower of water from the upper level. We eventually left the Lift some 25 minutes after entering and headed down river, to idyllic new moorings at Barnton Cutting - a grassy bank, just made to get the portable armchairs and a bottle of wine out, to watch the sun go down in a blaze of glory. The evening was enlivened by the local bell-ringers practising: they finished at 2100 - a good job as we need to be back at the Lift at 0830 tomorrow for an 0900 ascent.

10.7 miles, 1 lock

Wednesday 18th September

“Tatty little boat with a smoke-stained chimney, Butting up the Weaver on a sunny morn, With a cargo of.................. (with apologies to John Masefield)

We were up and abut by 0730, off by 0745 and in the Lift soon after the early morning checks were complete at 0830. We were actually OUT of the Lift by 0905! By Bridge 182 there’s a new Business Park with decorative “thingies” overlooking the canal, with elements of lock beam and lift bridge in them. We eventually moored at Middlewich to find the chippy closed, so organised our own late lunch and shopped for more meths and the cheapest quote yet for a Thetford Bottom Half!

Setting off up Heartbreak Hill, we noted that there are no lock moorings below Wheelock - I wondered if this was “traditional”. Susan and I have been having this ongoing “thing” about tradition on the canals, with respect to all sorts of things from the livery of boats (“you don’t paint a slide a dark colour, it’s not traditional”) to provision of facilities (by the way, there are virtually none on the Bridgewater). She maintains that tradition is pointless, and if we wanted to live a traditional lifestyle in our Victorian cottage, we’ll have to lose electricity and all the benefits it brings, cook on a range in the kitchen and take our baths in a tin bath in front of the fire. She was quite sad to find out that putting the mop handle through the water can handle is NOT traditional but useful - it stops the can being swept off by overhanging tree branches!

We eventually moored up at Wheelock Wharf, there to be joined by John and Jill Watson for drinks and chat late into the night...................

16 miles, 9 locks

Thursday 19th September

................. which was to prove our undoing the next morning, when there were insufficient voles to start the engine! Fortunately, there are two suppliers of batteries in Wheelock: unfortunately, neither of them had a battery that would start the boat! I suspect that new 70 amp-hour batteries didn’t have enough charge to do the job. Eventually, two sets of jump leads and a passing hire boat coupled up to ours for five minutes put enough voles back in our battery to make a start possible - I don’t know why a normal jump start wouldn’t work.

Having returned all the stuff and thanked everybody, we set off up the Hill rather later than intended. However, the locks were easy to work: Susan went ahead setting them for me and I worked Rumpus through single-handed - a technique which worked well. The only problem I had was with another helpful crew. NB Magnolia was coming down the flight and opened the bottom gates to let me in. OK, fine so far. I was about to do my usual “leap up the ladder with the windlass in my belt” trick, leaving Rumpus to find her way to the top end of the lock unaided, when I heard the rattle of paddles being drawn. I leapt back onto the boat, but was totally unable to stop her from being swept into the top gates with a resounding crash. My complaint that she should have waited until I told her to open them fell on totally deaf ears - it was everybody’s fault but hers! Her companion waited for my signal...........

We actually made very good time up to Red Bull, but Susan started to suffer when she realised that not only had she set all 26 locks but she’d also walked virtually all of the seven miles between them! We moored as near to Harecastle as we could: the gangs were working on the railway at Kidsgrove station all night, but after an evening in the Harecastle Arms, with a totally unexpected karioke including the prototype Pub Singer - totally incomprehensible words, sung very badly, we didn’t really mind!

7.6 miles, 26 locks

Friday 20th September

There we were, all ready for an 0800 passage, when we discovered that the first passage of the day was in the other direction. No matter - a pleasant interval was spent chatting before the northbound convoy emerged and we were able to set off, Rumpus in the lead! The southbound passage was rather faster than the northbound one had been. We stopped off at the Royal Doulton factory shop - a rather up-market affair - before arriving back at Festival Park, unloading and packing the car and heading home via Castle Oakcakes for lunch and the farm shop at Great Haywood, to pick the apple pies up.

5.1 miles, 0 locks

Totals: 148.6 miles, 126 locks

 

Created on September 26th 2003

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