The wind had come round over night and was blowing us directly on to the quay. I'm glad I had turned round as it meant I could just steam along the side until the bow was over the end and the wind could blow her round to head the right way up the canal.
As we left the dock basin it was almost like being called to the hills. The wind was now behind us so made it much easier getting on and off the lock landings and after the first three or four locks they are sheltered anyway.
At the first lock heading back up to the Junction is the Mill at Conder. The original mill was built in 1740 but was bought by the Canal Company in 1824 for a £1000. They sold it on to the Western Railway Co. a couple of years later. In 1830 it was sold on to a J. Bibby and by 1878 it had passed to his two grandsons who set up a Company styled J. Bibby and Sons. They went on to make animal feed. in 1885 the mill burned down and they moved elsewhere and progressed into seed crushing, oil extraction and refining and making of compound cooking fats. By 1968 this was added to by such as soap manufacture and paper production. They also owned Princes Foods for a while. They are now part of the ABN group that is in turn part of Associated British Foods. The mill had three sets of stones and was driven by water from the River Conder, but after providing the power was discharged into the canal. It is now a very nice 16 bed hotel and restaurant.
Just above the lock these swans were getting very amourous, and I didn't know where to look at times!
Not seen from the Glasson Dock but spied from higher up the canal is the Heysham Nuclear Power Stations. Heysham 1 is the one behind the one with red bits, which funnily enough is Heysham 2. Both have two advanced gas cooled reactors. No.1 was started in 1970 and its reactors came on line in 1983 and 1984. It is due to stay in power until 2024. No.2 was started in 1979 and came on line in 1988. It is due to continue until 2030. Heysham is supposed to be the site of the new generation of nuclear power stations that are supposed to be built by a consortium of French and Chinese. They are presently run by EDF.
Despite the sun the wind was still cold and Helen was wrapped up like Eskimo Nell as she entered the locks. As we got higher up the canal and more sheltered she started to strip off some of the many layers though.
I had noticed a similar fortification up on the Lancaster Canal. I was struck by the fact that they both were not facing the coast, where one would have thought the main threat of invasion would have come from in WWII, but they were facing inland and NE!
The other similarities were that they both had open backs. I assume this is so that they could get some equipment in and out easily. I initially thought of a field gun but there is no aperture for it to fire through.
They also both had this little invert at the 'front' of the structure that seemed to hide a low down exit/entrance. I wondered if they were for airfield defense, or maybe some other sort of establishment but can find no mention of such. I can't find anything similar of the pages of the Pillbox Study Group, so I suppose unless somebody out there can enlighten me it will remain a mystery.
Nearby was this tank defence concrete block. There would have been a line of these to impede the passage of tanks. so it seems that a defensive line must have been made in the area to prevent travel up the line of communication that is now the canal railway and M6 corridor. I am still intrigued by the fact that they were facing North East, and not even south east. In the background is St Thomas and St Elizabeth Catholic Church at Upper Turnham close to Turnham Hall. The Church is from the 1840's and is Grade II listed but the Hall has parts from the 1600's and is Grade I listed. The first from locks from the top are also Grade II listed.
At the top lock and back to the Lancaster Canal we turned south as were are booked into Garstang Martina for a few days as we need to pop home.
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