Hassell Green to Church Minshull

Tuesday 30 April

We set off at 7.45 and were straight into doing locks - 17 of them today. Many of these locks were built as pairs alongside each other which would have helped when boat traffic was heavy. However, some of the extra ones have been 'decommissioned' (one is now part of a pub garden and another has been converted to a weir); others are in need of repair. 

We made good progress through the first ten locks (Hassell Green and Wheelock Locks) as all were set ready for us. As we approached the next lock (Booth Lane Top Lock) we caught up with another boat, nb Voyager. We followed them for the next 5 locks into Middlewich, so our progress became much slower as we had to fill the lock each time after Voyager had gone through. But the sun was shining and the countryside was pleasant, so no complaints really.

At Middlewich we turned left onto the Shropshire Union Middlewich Branch, but first passed through the Wardle Lock Branch which is supposed to be England's shortest canal. 

Wardle Canal - 164 feet long

We did Wardle Lock and then moored up as we needed to buy a few provisions. We bought bread and milk at Jack's - Tesco's new economy supermarkets aimed at challenging Aldi and Lidl, We were impressed with the light and spacious layout of the store, but not with the choice of goods. We did not buy tea and coffee.

We continued walking into town towards the church where two men were clearing gutters. We spoke to the man footing his mate's ladder and he pointed us to Number 28, a drop in centre belonging to the church. We had a very welcome coffee and teacake there and spent some time chatting to the women serving the drinks. If you are ever in Middlewich, we recommend you try St Michael's and All Angels - loads of activities for young, old and everyone in between.

Back to the boat, but before setting off I chatted to the man sitting in the garden opposite where we were moored, about the pair of swans in his garden. They were nesting several yards form the canal, but had been doing so successfully for some years. Last year they didn't arrive because there was no water in this section of canal as a result of the breach a little further on. But this year they have turned up again and nested as before.

The clean, new edging shows where the breach was.

We did Stanthorne Lock, then as the weather was sunny and warm, we continued as far as Church Minshull. After mooring up, we walked into Church Minshull along a very busy, but rather narrow, road with no pavements. Church Minshull has a church, a pub (The Badger) and some attractive old houses, but not much else. 

Church Minshull

We returned to the boat via a footpath through the woods alongside the River Weaver, a rather longer but safer route than the road. 

Woodland path alongside River Weaver

We returned to The Badger later on where we had a very good meal; we used the road as the traffic had reduced considerably.

Locks 17   Miles 13                                               Total Locks 104   Total Miles 128