Monthly Archive: June 2017

3

Familiar places, familiar faces – and two Cheshire cats

Hardings Wood Junction to Higher Poynton: 23¼ miles, 13 locks Wednesday June 7th: Does the Macclesfield Canal start at Hardings Wood Junction    – or a mile further on at Hall Green Stop Lock?   Strictly speaking the junction leads to the mile long Hall Green branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal, before becoming the Macclesfield Canal at the stop lock which, with a water depth of I foot, was constructed to prevent water being stolen by the Trent and...

2

Torrential times on the T and M

Tixall Wide to Hardings Wood Junction: 25½ miles, 18 locks, 1 tunnel Cleddau had been moored at Tixall Wide on Saturday, bow towards Stafford, stern towards Great Haywood – this meant the glorious watery vista would be visible from the side hatch window.    Obviously if moored here you’d want the best possible view! Come Sunday morning bow and stern needed to be in the opposite directions. All was cleared for a lengthy reverse followed by a winding (turning round)....

1

Up – along – and down

The Bratch – Laches Bridge – Penkridge – Tixall Wide: 26 miles, 18 locks From The Bratch moorings at Wombourne to the Great Haywood Junction at the northern end of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is about 27 miles. Back on board on Thursday after a night away the cruise resumed: there was a lock queue at Awbridge Lock,    distinctive for the vertical slots on the bridge brickwork over the lock tail. Then there were five further locks spread...

0

Brief shore leave from The Bratch

Moored above Bratch Locks, Womborne On Tuesday Cleddau had climbed the three Bratch Locks and been moored on the delightful visitor moorings above. What does The Bratch mean?  Boatwif had wondered the other day… Wikipedia, the internet user’s useful friend, explains it as a familiar Staffordshire word referring to new clearings near the edges of ancient forests. There are no roads nearby and the towpath, though frequently used by local running groups, does not seem to attract cyclists in the same...

0

Shuffling along on the Staffs and Worcs Canal

Stourport, Wolverley, Stewponey, Swindon to Bratch: 13 miles, 18 locks If covering distance fast is a priority then cruising the Staffs and Worcestershire Canal is not for you! It’s a narrow canal extending 46 miles from Stourport-on-Severn (out west in Worcestershire) to Great Haywood, near Stafford. Though Cleddau and crew have travelled this way often – they haven’t! Memories are of only once before (during the marathon first ever trip in 1994) cruising from the Stourport end, yet on various...