The way to Hell's Kitchen

Sunday, 19 April 2009 18:52

We moved down to the junction early as we were hoping that out Webasto would be fixed in time for us to get in some cruising. Steve (Mr Wedgwood Boat Building) spent some time on it and John observed!

Eventually, just after lunch everything was working well, the boiler was adjusted to use minimum diesel and heating the boat nicely! As it was now very warm outside we had everything open to cool down!

Whilst we were there, the Junction was fairly busy with boats going all three ways - into the Middlewich Branch, coming down and going up Kings Lock and continuing down the Trent and Mersey canal towards the Middlewich Three locks.

Cowburn and Cowpar's working boat Swan came down Kings Lock and turned into the Middlewich Branch - hitting our stern, but only gently, in the process!

C & C's Swan

All the Historic and Working Boats we have seen on the move are in an album on our photo gallery. I will keep adding them as we continue to see them.

After taking on water and calling at Middlewich Boats for the elsan we approached the Middlewich Three. All were set against us and
the bottom paddles were a little hard!

Middlewich Big Lock is 14 foot wide and will take two narrowboats. We had the company of a hire boat going down. Looking back at the top of the lock there is an impressive sign to welcome boaters to Middlewich.



But we said goodbye to Middlewich as we left the lock behind

The Trent and Mersey canal now enters the countryside and winds around some bends and over the River Dane on a narrow aqueduct.

Croxton Aqueduct

The River Dane

This collapsed and was rebuilt to narrow dimensions effectively cutting Middlewich off from wide boats of the salt industry, which used to ply between here and Preston Brook, Manchester and Wigan.

It is really beautiful along this stretch and Croxton Flash must be a haven for wildlife



We moored in a peaceful spot in the area known as Bramble Cutting, just past the quaintly named Hell's Kitchen Bridge. I looked at the thermometer once we moored - it was 26 degrees outside at 5pm.

We look out on fields over the hedge and rolling green banks on the other side. Flashes of yellow on the bank and in the fields are no more exotic than dandelions - this sentence gives me a good lead in to a photo I took yesterday experimenting with "flower" photography with my new camera!

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