Macclesfield Miscellany.

 Unfortunately our time at Bugsworth is limited and we were off the next day. Luckily the weather was drier, if not sunnier!

There is a bit of colour in the trees now, but I have a feeling that as soon as there is any wind they will all be down.

Is this the 'Rodders' boat? Or another one? It was moored up on the Upper Peak Forest near Strines.

The house by Bridge 21 has a good view across the valley on a day like this. Not so much yesterday. The driver of the tanker parked up on the bridge apologised in advance just in case the weight of the truck collapsed the bridge!! he was obviously a little worried about it!

As we approached Marple Junction you pass Tramway Wharf which seems to be home to some old boats. Although it doesn't appear on the OS maps it was used as the transshipment point from Bugsworth Basin to the Lower Peak Forest Canal whilst the Marple Lock flight was being built. It took eight years to complete the locks so it would have been a very busy place indeed. It continued as a commercial wharf. It is hard to think that the Marple locks were abandoned in the 1960's and a lot of hard work and argument need to be undertaken to get them open so we can now cruise the Cheshire Ring.

The junction at Marple between the Peak Forest and the Macclesfield Canal didn't open until 1831. It was eerily quiet once again as we turned left onto the Macc and through the first of those lovely bridges.

This is a much better view of Goyt Mill as we approach from Marple.

Just another gratuitous shot of a bridge on the Macc. 

By Bridge 13 there is this nice man cave. It actually hides the original pill box that can just be glimpsed behind the greenhouse. This section of canal is a real drag as there are so many moored boats it takes for ever!

We were nearly at out destination, which was just as well as this boat was another that was going slowly. Luckily Helen had decided that she wanted to get her steps in so was walking the tow path and I was just keeping pace with her.

The bridges around High Poynton are not the classical shape as the area was a big coal mining area and the land consequently subsided over time. It was must quicker, and cheaper too, to build up the parapets and add on a girder bridge across the cut. So that is what they did.

Just before Lyme View Marina and by the Rams Clough Aqueduct C&RT have fortifying the sides of the canal with sand bags. This shows what a lovely job they do. The bags don't seem to be sewn closed but just folded under.

Foot long staples are then pushed in on the top layer to join each individual bag to the next and to the ones below. This picture is on the off side so it also looks like that every few layers of bags they staple them together too.

It was great to see this old lady still going strong. She was built in 1899 for Fellows, Morton and Clayton at their yard at Saltley. It was a composite iron horse drawn boat. It was fitted with a Bolinder engine in Yarwood's yard in Northwich in 1937. It was bought by the British Transport Commission in 1949 and passed to the British Waterways Board in 1963. After this it had the cabin extended. It was passed to C&RT in 2012 and is obviously still working and still looking in very good nick.

We moored up for the night just after Lyme View Marina and Bridge 18. The winding hole just by the bridge served a colliery on the tow path side. There was a plateway down to the canal but I'm not sure why the wharf was on the other side of the canal I'm not sure.

Bridge 18 is just off the map section at the bottom, as is the basin. The Miners Arms is still there and on Goggle Earth you can see the pit and plateway.