We left our mooring in very gloomy weather, but it was still and not raining.
As we cleared the town we were aware of a couple of these bulls that were indifferent to the weather. I don't think I would have got Helen through the field on a footpath though!
As we cleared Lyme View Marina there was a series of work boats serving the two blokes who were building walls of sand bags. As we passed the workers told me that they use two sorts of sand bags, below and above water. They are filled with some sort of concrete and the hessian bags are biodegradable leaving the concrete wall there.
We were soon in the kingdom of the shiny boat brigade as we passed Lord Vernon's Wharf and Braidbar boats. I was trying to work out how many a year they must make just from their production numbers and the year of their registry. I cam up with around twenty a year, but that sounds far too many.
This is the entrance to the High Lane Canal arm that is now the home of the North Cheshire Cruising Club and has been since WWII. It had originally being dug in 1830 and was a 'T' shape. One side of the head has been lost. It was for coal loading from the nearby pits but also as a transfer wharf from road to boat and vica versa. It was from here that Pickford's started out as canal carriers. The NCCC was formed in 1943 and are still there.
Goyt Mill was the last mill to built in the area and it was started in 1905. It was for spinning cotton. It lasted until 1960 and then, after a number of years was used for preforming plastic mouldings. It is now home to several businesses.
Although there are new houses on part of the old wharf at Marple, but the service wharf and the Stockton Canal Charity boat berth is still there, and nothing has happened at the warehouse has happened.
There was no moving boats as we approached the junction at Marple. We turned right up the Upper Peak Forest. The house opposite the junction was once part of James Jink's boat yard. Just up the Peak Forest was an arm that served the lime kilns of Samuel Oldknow who was a local business man. They are now moorings and the Ex. Servicemen's club.
The low cloud lifted for a while and it was good to see the hills.
There are no locks on the Upper Peak Forest but there are four bridges that need working. This is the first and it is a windlass operated on. Helen seems to be putting her back into it as I clicked the camera.
The next is another manual operated bridge, but a swing bridge this time. The next one was an electric one and it was opened as we approached. There were two boats coming down and the second one was fellow blogger 'Cleddau'. Before I saw the name I was greeted with a 'I read your blog'. I was so shocked that somebody admits to reading it that I forgot to reciprocate, as I read theirs too!
As I came through the bridge I spied these hands. At a bit of a distance it looked like somebody had trained so trunks to look like hands, but as we got closer that they were plastic. Still, it looked quite striking.
As we approached Newtown the Swizzles-Matlow factory revealed its self with the sweet smell in the air. The factory relocated here in WWII, and has never left.
The Midland Railway built the Newtown rail viaduct for their line from London and Derby to Manchester in 1867, and reminds me of that one along the Llangollen Canal.
From Disley we got stuck behind a boat that required us to go no more than tickover the whole way from there. Luckily they went on to the basin at Whaley and we turned to port for a berth at Bugsworth Basin.
We went straight on and moored in the Lower Basin without winding, and then went to Tesco's near the junction, and then on into Whaley Bridge, but more of that later.
No comments:
Post a Comment