A nice day, despite the weather.

 Once again it was decided that we would set of early so as to be at Bollington in good time

The Gurnett Aquaduct has a nice terrace of houses by it called Hatton Brow Terrace and until recently they would set you back just shy of £300,000 for a 2 bed place!

Just over the aqueduct and the first bridge is a 'snake' as the footpath changed sides. The leaves are just starting to go too. Not many red hues so far this year though.

On the approach to Macclesfield there are some serious ground works to keep up the offside slope. I wonder if this was original to the canal, or was added afterwards due to bank slippage. On the map of 1870 it looks like just a slope.

We stopped for water just before the Hovis Mill at Macclesfield Basin. The C&RT yard was once coal yards. The Hovis Mill was built in 1831 and was the mill where Hovis flour was first ground. The name HOVIS for a loaf of bread could be given to any loaf of bread that was baked using the Hovis flour, and this is where the distictive way of grinding the wheat was done to give it the flavour. In 1895 there were a million loaves of Hovis bread being sold every week. The name HOVIS is short for hominis vis which means strength of man!

There are several narrows along the stretch that runs alongside the industrial estate that may have been bridges. I thought that they must have been evidence of past industry as they would mean that local workers could access the 'factory' from the other side of the canal. However when I look at the maps I can see no old industry at all, right up to the 1960's so it was built on green field sites. A large part of the site is now taken up by Astra Zeneca!

This plaque may make you think that this was a previous time when the Conservatives where having a go at 'leveling up', but no Woods Bridge was in the constituency of Nicholas Winterton MP for Macclesfield from 1971 to 2010.

These wellies must have a story to tell as they don't seem that worn either. 

As we approach Bollington there is a collection of boats around Kerridge Dry Dock. This was once the wharf with an inclined railway from the Kerridge Hill behind. There were three quarries there and the stone was loaded into boats here. Kerridge stone is still quarried and is used architecturally. It is a sandstone that comes from the Lower Coal Measures. Whilst stone was quarried on this side of the hill, on the other the coal measures themselves were mined. Through the mist and low cloud I could see a tower in the woods by the quarries. I wondered what it could have been used for. I wondered whether it was some sort of chimney for steam engine driven equipment at the quarries. Some thought that it may have been a ventilation shaft from the coal mines on the other side of the hill. There is no evidence that it was used as any of these as it stands on rock and there is now evidence of soot etc. It seems that it was a folly built in the 1800 by William Clayton who was a very successful industrialist. So much so that he had Endon House and Endon Hall built, but didn't live in either of them!

We passed the Adelphi Mill and should have stopped there as when we got to the aqueduct there was no moorings left so we had to pass Clarence Mill and moor a little way out of town.

We went for a walk after mooring and went round the east side of Bollington. It is a nice little terraced palce with some nice buildings. Here just near the aqueduct is a neat little back garden backing onto to the stream or old mill race.

It maybe just a terrace of stone houses but they command a good wack at £225,000!

We walked up to Clarence Mill. The first mill was built here in 1831 and extended a couple of times. The mills were for cotton spinning, but a little weaving went on in sheds behind. After nearly going bankrupt during the American Revolution they came back and demolished part of the old mill in 1877 and built the present mill.

After meeting my niece and nephew and their various boys in a play park near the aqueduct, cut very short as it teemed it down with rain for the first time in the day, we walked under the aqueduct and through the recreation ground to reach The Vale, the brewery tap of the Bollington Brewery which is just over the road. The Oat Mill Stout and a pint of Best. I liked the Best best. It was dark and gloomy among the trees on top of the very gloomy day. We had high hopes for tomorrow.