Monday 1st May - New Islington Marina to Piccadilly Village
Today we have decided to stay in Manchester and probably move the boat out of the Marina and around onto the Ashton Canal at the Piccadilly Village. We spotted a hire boat moored there and we figured they would move on today and free up a suitable mooring.
Then soon after 9am the hire boat we had spotted appeared to be coming into the Marina and we were quite pleased as we knew we could take their mooring. However, the male part of the crew appeared walking along the wall, canalside of the railings and carrying a windlass. He said that they were trying to turn round as they had taken the wrong turning and were supposed to be heading down the Rochdale 9 into Castlefield Basin.
Jack borrowed our boat pole and pushed the boat off the wall, shouting instructions to the driver which didn’t seem to work for the poor lady. Apparently the boat is 68ft and she didn’t like driving it!
Jack returned the boat pole and jumped onto their boat and turned it round for her so they were heading back down the Rochdale towards Castlefields. It seemed like an ideal opportunity to share the last two wide locks with another boat, so we quickly got ourselves sorted, reversed out of the Marina, waved goodbye to Jack and set off after them. Two locks later we waved goodbye to the hire boat, turned left and joined the Ashton Canal and found the empty mooring in Piccadilly Village and tied up again.
We spent a lovely morning exploring Manchester and a quiet afternoon on the boat.
At the end of the day I went to find Jutland Street, the steepest street in Manchester. It was originally called Junction Street and was renamed in 1939.
LS Lowry did a pencil on paper sketch of the very same road in 1929 and the original hangs in the Manchester City Art gallery.
Tuesday 2nd May - Piccadilly Village to Portland Basin
After a very pleasant evening we were ready to move on up the Ashton Canal and its 18 narrow locks.
This is the Chips building at New Islington. Chips is a unique residence in New Islington. It’s nine-storeys high, looks like three chips stacked on top of each other and the exterior is stamped with the names of places which pay homage to Manchester’s role in history as the birthplace of the industrial revolution.
The Ashton entrance to New Islington Marina, with Dave walking over the lift bridge to the next lock of the day.
The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest football stadium in England and tenth-largest in the United Kingdom.
We have seen many Canada Geese sitting on nests, but this is the first set of goslings we have seen, beautiful bright yellow balls of fluff.
This is the Stockport Branch canal. The Stockport Branch of the Manchester and Ashton Canal, now infilled, ran from Clayton, Manchester to Lancashire Hill, Stockport. The Stockport Branch was opened in 1797 as an after thought to the Manchester, Ashton under Lyne and Oldham Canal system, in order to transport coal from the collieries in the Ashton and Oldham area to Stockport. The canal was just over 4 miles long with no locks. Its route took it through Openshaw, Gorton, Debdale Park and Reddish to a wharf and warehouse complex at Lancashire Hill, to the north of Stockport town centre. Soon after this we passed through a swing bridge and it was time to pull over and examine the weed hatch, I had lost power and sure enough Dave had to cut lengths of plastic away from the propeller!
Our last lock of the day is at Fairfield Junction, where a branch canal was built to Hollingwood, but only the first few hundred metres have been rewatered for a mooring basin. The Ashton Canal turns right and we cruise along to Portland Basin and turn right onto the Peak Forest Canal.
This is one of the lowest bridges we have been under so far on this trip, we made it through without having to clear the roof, which was a relief!
Housed in the former Ashton Canal Warehouse, the Portland Basin Museum is situated alongside the Ashton Canal at Portland Basin, opposite the junction with the Peak Forest Canal.
We moored up just before the lift bridge and enjoyed a quiet afternoon and evening.
6.5 miles, 20 locks, 5hrs 48mins
Wednesday 3rd May - Portland Basin to Marple Aqueduct
Today we continue on our way towards Marple, the canal is quite beautiful, the sun filtering through the fresh green leaves on the trees and the blue skies look delightful.
We passed Unity Milljust before Woolley Tunnel. Unity mill is thought to have been constructed in the 1860s for spinning cotton and was formerly known as Trianon Mill. By the 1890’s the mill was converted to a rubber works then back again to a textile mill. The site has been used for the manufacture of products for the food, animal feed and brewing sector until it closed in December 2003. It is in a very poor state, very derelict.
Here we are driving over Marple Aqueduct with the Viaduct in the background. Marple Aqueduct, also known as 'the Grand Aqueduct', carries the lower level of the Peak Forest Canal across the River Goyt at Marple. Benjamin Outram and Thomas Brown jointly designed it and the contract for its construction was placed with William Broadhead, Bethel Furness and William Anderson. The first stone was laid without ceremony in May 1794. The three arches were keyed in during 1799 and it was filled with water in 1800.
It is the highest canal aqueduct in England and the highest masonry-arch aqueduct in Britain. We moored at the foot of the Marple Locks, ready for them to be opened tomorrow at 8.30am behind another boat.
We walked down to the path beneath the aqueduct and viaduct and saw the wonderful three arches. The circular holes to the right and left of each arch cuts the weight of the masonry above the arches.
On the way back we called into a animal husbandry shop to get some bits for Toby and I met Effie, a three day old lamb whose mother had had triplets and couldn’t manage the third one. She had just had a bottle, was wearing a nappy and simply wanted a cuddle, beautiful!
6.75 miles, 0 locks, 2 tunnels, 1 lift Bridge 2hrs 54mins
Thursday 4th May - Marple Aqueduct to Marple
This is our third sighting of a Mandarin duck, also with a mate although she is not in the photo. He is being harassed by the Canada Goose, they are on high alert at the moment as the females are sitting on eggs in their nests.
Today we ascend the 16 Marple Locks. The locks are worked three days a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday from 8.30 to 12 noon, with all boats to be exited by 4pm. This is an effort to conserve the amount of water being used due to the closure of the Toddbrook Reservoir. Canal and River Trust are currently working on a major project to restore Toddbrook Reservoir after the dam auxiliary spillway was damaged in August 2019 after a period of intense rainfall.
Each of the locks are very deep, the flight of 16 locks are a spectacular sight, one of the steepest flights in Britain and raising the canal by over 200ft. With the beautiful countryside around Marple Aqueduct, a 20 minute walk up the towpath to the top of the flight is a delight and the 2 - 3 hours it takes to bring a boat up is such an enjoyable experience.
At Lock 9 is Oldknow’s Warehouse, a three storey stone structure now housing a suite of offices. Samuel Oldknow had a mill at Mellor and bales of finished cotton were brought to the warehouse for storage before an onward journey along the canal.
Arriving at the top of the 16 locks we said a very big thank you to Roger, lead volunteer for the flight, for all the brilliant work they do to make this such a wonderful flight of locks and for making our transit today so enjoyable. After a welcome cup of coffee provided by Roger we turned right onto the Macclesfield Canal, pulled over for water (a very slow tap) and then moved down to the visitor moorings to spend the rest of the day.
A walk into Marple to restock with provisions, some lovely shops and very friendly people.
1 mile, 16 locks, 3hrs
Friday 5th May - Marple to Bollington
Dave went back into Marple to visit the lovely deli we found yesterday and brought back fresh croissant and pastries for brunch. We then got the boat ready and set off for Bollington. This evening we are meeting up with a college friend of Dave's for supper.
Goyt Mill, built 1905, at Hawk Green was the last cotton mill to be built in the Marple area, and is the only building of that kind left standing locally today. After the Second World War the British cotton industry declined rapidly and yarn production stopped at this mill in 1960. The space is still used today by a wide variety of businesses.
A field of sheep and lambs, so cute! We made a stop at Baileys Trading Post for water and diesel and then onto Bollington. We moored on the aqueduct with only one other boat ahead of us.
I took Toby for a walk back along the canal and down to the road so I could see the aqueduct. Canal aqueduct: c1830 by William Crosley for Macclesfield Canal Company. Work on this canal began at Bollington in 1826 and was completed at Hall Green in 1831. Its route was surveyed by Thomas Telford and its construction was engineered by William Crosley. The bridge was designed by the engineer Thomas Brown and was completed in 1828.
A lovely evening at The Poachers Inn with Pat, Paul, Anne-Marie and Phil, it was great to catch up again and many thanks for treating us to supper, it was brilliant food!
8.5 miles, 0 locks, 3hrs 12mins
Saturday 6th May - Bollington
Today we are staying in Bollington and are going for a walk recommended by Phil.
Whilst we were having our cup of tea, nbAlton, fuel supplies boat was passing and we hailed them in order to buy 4 more nets of logs, as there is still no indication that the evenings are getting any warmer.
We set off down the hill beside the aqueduct, with Ella moored up above us. By the end of the day three more boats had moored up around us, it is certainly a popular place to moor.
Looking back we could see Clarence Mill. Clarence Mill was the first in Bollington to be built for steam power. It was therefore the first to be built away from the river. It was built here for just one good reason – the canal. Transport of raw cotton to Bollington and finished thread and cloth away from Bollington was all done by canal. Spinning stopped in 1970, but the building is still in use today with two upper floors as apartments and several small businesses on the ground floor.
This tiny church is a Methodist Church, but is no longer used for worship as the congregation has moved to Macclesfield. We were struck by the size of the building!
We then began to climb out of Bollington up towards White Nancy. White Nancy was actually built as a summer house by the Gaskell family who lived below the hill at Ingersley Hall in about 1815. It is regularly painted white and inside there are chairs and a circular table carved from a single piece of stone. It may have been named after a Gaskell daughter, Nancy. Then again, maybe after the horse that is said to have hauled the heavy stone table top up the hill.
The views from White Nancy are amazing, in this photo you can see the Manchester skyline and behind that the Pennines, all of which we have explored on Ella!
Heading back down to Bollington we passed through Endon Hall. Endon Hall is a 19th-century house with associated circular lawns and floral borders. There is also a large icehouse on the site. There is also a tall crenellated tower which appears to have been built as a folly.
Kerridge is a delightful little village perched on the hillside and we stopped at the nearby pub, The Bulls Head, for a cold drink and a rest. All in all a delightful walk!
Sunday 7th May - Bollington to Bosley Locks
Today looks a lovely day so we prepared everything and set off at 9am for the top of Bosley Locks. The locks are open three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, so we shall be ready for 8.30am tomorrow.
We passed Adelphi Mill once we were over the aqueduct, the second cotton mill in Bollington. Begun in 1851 by Martin II and his brother George Swindells, the mill was named Adelphi in recognition of the Greek meaning of the word – brothers. It opened for business in 1856. It was steam powered, the same as Clarence Mill, and it eventually closed for business in 1970. However it is a hive of activity these days with the space being used by many modern businesses.
Baby ducklings…
a heron just taking off..
baby goslings, just some of the wildlife to be seen on the Macclesfield Canal.
This is a wonderful example of turnover bridge, where the towpath crosses over the canal on a bridge and comes down on the other side. This was done so that the horses didn’t need to be untethered when the towpath changed sides.
We moored up before Bridge 53 as there was a man on a boat ahead of us who told us there was nowhere to moor down at the locks. Very quiet mooring in open countryside.
After a spot of lunch we took a walk down the locks to the aqueduct where we shall moor tomorrow. A stunning view of the gritstone hill called Bosley Cloud. Bosley Cloud is a prominent hill situated within Cheshire's Peak District on the border between Cheshire and Staffordshire. It is 343 metres (1,125 ft) in height making it one of the highest hills in the area and one of the best places to see spectacular views of Cheshire.
We met Roger and Jean on nbRuncorn who also moor in Diglis Basin, what a small world!
8 miles, 0 locks, 2 swingbridges, 3hrs 36mins
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