Another fabulous day weather wise, but a bit of a BW gripe

The Macclesfield canal really is pleasurable to cruise through. It was one of the last British canals to be constructed, and was apparently almost a railway instead! The canal opened in 1831, and only finished as a commercial waterway in the 1960’s. It’s initial aim was to provide a short cut from Manchester to London, but was actually used mainly by the mills and mines at Marple, High Lane, Higher Poynton, Bollington, Macclesfield and Congleton.

Woke up to a beautiful calm and sunny day just opposite the old Hovis Mill

Duck swimming with canal reflection

 Lovely clear blue sky, you could even see the moon - magical!

Now moving away from the Peak District hills

 

The swing bridge at Royal Oak

Think this cruiser might have been renamed by a narrowboater??

There are certainly a number of old mill buildings along the way, and a set of 12 locks over a mile and a half just before Congleton. At the top lock there were BW facilities advertised, including a launderette. I hadn’t taken everything to the one in Chinley the other day, so was planning on doing a load here. A very clean and well kept building with a shower, toilet, washing machine and dryer; I thought my luck was in! I had some credits on a BW card I’d bought in Stourport which I imagined would work here. There was no sign of any BW workers, though there was an office in the block. But my card didn’t work and there was no-where to buy any more – instructions across the lock suggested that cards for services could be bought a the Canal Centre in Macclesfield (the place we’d left that morning) or at Bridge 87 – miles further along the canal!

So there I was with a sparkling clean washing machine and dryer and some clothes needing to go in, with absolutely no way of making it happen. Bloody hell! How terribly frustrating is that? What a bizarre system; can anyone explain it to me? Nothing in the two maps/guides we have make any suggestion of this hurdle. Absolutely ludicrous! The weather was fine again so I could've hand washed it all and it would've dried, but I just detest doing it.  So it'll have to wait another few days ...

 

The BW Services building - fat lot of use that was!

Ah well, a minor problem in the scheme of things, once I’d got over my annoyance at the stupidity of it. We stopped for lunch and then tackled the lock flight.

 

The stop planks on the left, available to be used to drop down slots in the canal to close it off for repairs, etc

These were some of the best kept locks we’ve experienced since we began our journeys in April, mostly fairly easy and with two gates at each end so opening and closing them wasn't a chore. The occasional gate paddle was a bit stiff to wind open, but otherwise we travelled down the one and a quarter miles without a hitch, doing three each so we both got some exercise.

Down the 12 Bosley Locks

We had a few critical spectators on the way

  Think this is the hill with Mow Cop at the peak?

At the bottom I asked Barry whether that was it for the locks until next year, he laughed I think and after counting them said that if we do the Caldon Canal, which we’re planning if we get visitors this weekend, then we have 56 left. If we miss that one out we have 26 left. Ah well, I thought it was a slim hope!

Last lock of the flight - having a breather

  An abundance of bridges crossing the Macclesfield canal along this section

 

  Picturesque series of arched bridges, complete with cows crossing

 Barry had to make mooing noises to get one to look!

 They seem to go on and on!

A very long railway viaduct

More rows of bridges

Due to our hold up with the electrics, we have to make up some ground so we couldn’t stop anywhere on the way. We moved through Congleton, which looked like a very up-market town with a very ornate aqueduct over a main road and a couple of good examples of snake bridges.

Congelton Aquaduct

 

Bridge 77 - a classic Snake Bridge

We weren’t sure if our visitors were coming this weekend and Barry wanted to walk to a hill called Mow Cop, where you can see for miles from the summit. So we continued on until dusk, mooring in the open countryside by Bridge 85 where there’s a footpath that leads up to it. The guide suggests it's for ‘ambitious walkers’ which sort of put me off! Then we heard from Freddie later on and I was relieved to hear that he and the boys are coming tomorrow evening to join us for the weekend – so that gets me out of the long hike!

We moored for the night just around the corner, a beautiful sunset!

We’d better give the boat a bit of a spruce up before we set off tomorrow …

To the Manor borne ... by footpower

Well what a change – Charlie woke us up with a knock on the roof just after 8am this morning, and we saw it was the most glorious day! Blue skies, sunshine, and not a whisper of wind; with a mist over the canal as the rising sun warmed the cooler water.  The thing about England is that days like this tend to be so rare that when we do get them we really appreciate them. And it wouldn’t be such a green and pleasant land without all the rain I suppose …

Fortunately Charlie thinks he’s solved our problem and mended our poorly alternator; fingers and toes are crossed! Power restored once more, hurrah!  Everyone we spoke to said how great Charlie was and how lucky we were that he'd agreed to help us.

 Cheers Charlie! What a star, how lucky we are!

 

Our mooring and halfway along our long walk ... 

We wanted to make the most of the day so set off late morning to walk around two and a half miles to Lyme Park & House – where much of Pride and Prejudice, the TV series, was filmed. It’s where the lake scene was shot (the women reading will recall!) when Mr D’Arcy walked out in his wet white frilly shirt and breeches clinging to his toned muscular body. And that was it, we were all in love with Colin Firth!

The walk had breathtaking views across miles of countryside, we think as far as Manchester and even Liverpool in the distance. We could see the Hilton Hotel that we’d been moored close to at Castlefield Junction. It was rather a steep climb before we got the views though; all good exercise!

  Lyme Park - house and gardens gifted to the National Trust in 1947 by Richard Legh, after the house had been in his family for 600 years (1346 - 1946) for the 'health, education and delight of people'. 

 The majestic entrance to the house

We initially went into the National Trust office for some information and realised that we would've been wise to have bought NT joint annual membership for £79.50 earlier in our trip and then we’d have been able to get into so many of the castles and stately homes that we’ve visited without paying again – maybe we’ll remember next year! However, ridiculously both East Riddlesdon Hall and Lyme Hall were closed on a Wednesday which just happens to be the day we were at each place; so if we’d had membership cards and found the houses closed I’m sure we’d have been well p---ed off!

The very informative NT man told us that if he’d had £1 for every woman who’d come just to see the lake, he’d be a rich man now – of course that was after I’d asked him about it! Hehe, are women really that predictable? Obviously the answer is yes!

The only problem was that the lake he walked out of is in the gardens and you have to pay £5.50 to go round them – I had only brought a £5 note out with us! Damn it! Ah well, it’s actually only what’s known as a ‘mirror’ lake apparently, i.e. it’s <2ft deep so he dived into another lake and miraculously appeared from the lake at the back of the house.

 We sneaked a photo of 'The Lake' where Colin Firth walked out in his wet shirt

  Lady of the Manor 

 

 Strike a pose ...

Imagine living here - wow! 

Looking towards the front entrance, through the courtyard and out the back exit to the garden 

 Side view of the house

 The main entrance door; formidable!

The house, looking from the hill, at the front

  The walk across the hill to the hunting 'Cage'

Sandra walking the hills

 'The Cage' - Sandra looking far into the distance

The view across to Manchester, bet they couldn't see this far when his Lordship lived here, due to the smog

 

 There's still a lot of green areas when you look from above

 Looking towards the 'Peak District'

The Lake (pond) that Mr D'Arcy dived into!

The cafe and toilets, etc behind 

 

 Across the flats towards 'Goyt Mill' that we've passed more than once

 The best angle we could get of the rear of the house without paying!

 Another view across the Cheshire plains out towards Liverpool

'Can't see the castles for the cows!'

It was well worth the detour to visit, despite not seeing the inside of the house or wandering around the gardens!

Returning to the boat, Barry was caught up chatting to another fellow boater – it’s happened a number of times during our moorings here; there seems to be a few men on boats or from the locality who gain pleasure from finding new men to talk to. Not a problem, it’s always good to be able to spend time discussing life and it’s challenges and pleasures.

Managed to get a little helpful 'boaters advice' from him, re places to visit, where to find services, etc

  

 Underway again and a beautiful day to be on the canal

 

 Even the fishermen looked a little happier, if that's possible!

 So many bridges ...

  ... and many more bridges!!

The converted 'Adelphi Mill' at Bollington; very attractive

You can see the lie of the land from here!

You can see the lie of the landgirls from here!

 

 Some people really make the most of their canal-side properties

This would have to be the busiest canal we've been on so far, possibly because of the current closure of the 'Shropshire Union' canal

After lunch we set off towards Macclesfield, with the panoramic views towards Manchester following us most of the way. There’s so many people walking and cycling along the towpath and boats in either direction too, it’s obviously a very popular canal with tourists and locals.

The old 'Hovis Mill' at Macclesfield, now converted into flash apartments

 

At night from our mooring

It's certainly an impressive building

Arriving at Macclesfield late afternoon, I set off for the nearest supermarket which as far as I knew was an Aldi on the outskirts of town, though when Barry went for a bike ride later on he found a co-op much closer! Ah well, Aldi is so much cheaper!

One of the back streets of Macclesfield

And a quiet evening in with electric lights, yaay!!