Wednesday 12th May.
We are idyllically moored on the Macclesfield Canal between the car scrapyard and the sewage treatment plant. Absolutely true but as we can see neither and fortunately, can not smell the latter from here, it’s a good mooring. The Macclesfield is a bit shallow and you have to moor up in proper places. That said, it did take us 3 attempts to even moor here as it was too shallow to get the back in.
Yesterday we shopped until we dropped, stocking up on all sorts whilst in the close proximity to the retail park. It was a bonus to get a taxi back from Morrisons to the Toby Carvery car park as we were moored there (on the canal not actually in the car park) so we were able to get more than 2 rucksacks worth.
Our journey today has taken us through some differing landscapes. First there a was a huge area of demolishment (is that a word? I probably mean demolition) where industry has given way to acres of redevelopment space. The piles of rubble look much better than the half derelict buildings in Leicester though. Then there was the Middleport area where the potteries are still alive and kicking. Middleport pottery still has a bottle kiln, although whether it is in use or not is not clear. There are canalside cranes here too, reminders of a bygone age when the pottery was loaded on to barges to be transported. Steelite and Johnson Tiles have newish production plants here too. This was followed by the very attractive Westport lake with footpaths round and a long row of moorings alongside. We will stay here on our return journey as it is lovely.
Suddenly we were at the entrance to the Harecastle tunnel. There are 3 tunnels at Harecastle although only one is still in use today. Firstly there is the James Brindley tunnel completed in 1777 after 11 years work! It has no towpath so boats had to be legged through and the horse walked over the hill. In 1822 Thomas Telford was approached to build another tunnel to relieve the bottleneck. His tunnel, benefitting from 50 years of advances in engineering was finished just 3 years later and had a towpath so progress through this one was very much faster. Both tunnels became one way until the 20th C when the Brindley tunnel had to be abandonned due to mining subsidence. An electric tug was introduced from 1914 until 1954 to speed up the traffic through the Telford tunnel. The 3rd tunnel is 40ft above the other 2 and was built later to carry the Stoke to Kidsgrove railway until a new route was taken round the hill in the 1960s.
We spent some time removing all the paraphernalia from our roof so we could comfortably go through the tunnel which is quite low in places. We filled up with water (the tank not the actual boat) to make us a bit lower as well. The tunnel keeper gave us a list of guidelines to read while we were waiting for two boats that were coming this way. He was a real laugh. I was taking photos (as is my wont) and he said he has his photo taken more times in a day than Jordan! George liked him although I do think George thought his shed was actually a pub as we were moored up near it and he kept trying to go in there!
I was surprised to find they shut the door behind you after you go in the tunnel at this end. Because the tunnel wasn’t built to take powered craft it has no air shafts so they have fitted an air conditioning system which needs one end of the tunnel to be sealed. We were ok because we were travelling in the direction of the open end so we could literally see the light at the end of the tunnel but coming the other way you wouldn’t have that comfort as the doors are shut!
Anyway 40 minutes later we emerged into the light at the North end. We then turned off the T and M and travelled over it on the Poole Aquaduct on to the Macclesfield Canal. Just in time to take our lively family pet to the real pub, perfect!
There are new photos in the galleries now my camera works again. I know some of them show up blank in the thumbnails but they are there – honest.
