Macclesfield Canal - Bosley to Bollington

Thursday, 20 May 2010 20:46

A disappointment that turned out well

I am a wee bit late doing this today - blame the opportunity to chat on a certain social networking site with my closest friend who has just moved from Calgary to Vancouver Island in Canada!

We are moored at Adelphi Wharf in Bollington, handy for buses into Macclesfield. The reason for this will become clear during this blog!

Our first obstacle was Royal Oak swing bridge, now electrified. It was a very heavy manual one when we were last on the Macclesfield Canal. I am the red cap in the photo! A second photo looksking back at the closed bridge

We had a following narrowboat!

...so wI closed the bridge after both of us:

As the narrowboat had overtaken us, they had drawn the short straw, as they had to open the manual swing bridge at Broadhurst.

The canal curves around at the foothills of the Pennines; the hills were calling me!

Pennine foothills

Gurnett Aqueduct has some good visitor moorings and overlooks the cottages below. One of these was where a young James Brindley began his training as an engineer. The bluebells on the bank behind are almost over, but this is a view I have carried in my mind since 2002!

Cottages below and the white Plough House

Foden Bridge (43) is another of the lovely Macclesfield "snake bridges" or change bridges, built of local stone and distinctive.

Macclesfield welcomes the boater with a different type of bridge. Verdons Bridge (41) is flanked by wall buttresses and feels quite imposing. Leadbeaters Bridge follows and beyond the canalside, gardens make an attractive approach to the Macclesfield "nod" to the canal.

Verdons and Leadbeaters Bridges

A big "nod" is the Hovis Mill, once a working flour mill, now up-market apartments. The archway entrance to the canal is masked by the moored boats. Of course we had a quote (by John!) from the famous TV advertisement as we passed, in the right accent too!

Hovis Mill

The second "nod" is the visitor moorings, much less spectacular and definitely not up-market. Sadly, we were unable to get in due to the V profile of the canal here. The bollards were few, they are only 24H and running of engines is forbidden. The moorings are either side of Buxton Road Bridge (37) which would have given us good access to the town and its delights.

Having tried both moorings (we even reversed back through the bridge as a narrowboat vacated a space (picking up a sweatshirt around the prop in the process), we decided to give it up as a bad job and carry on. (In retrospect, it would have better to have moored before Leek New Road Bridge (45), and caught a bus in from there, but hindsight is a gift we haven't mastered.)

We were rewarded with a view over the town, as the canal skirts Macclesfield to the west, through Hurdsfield and the countryside.

Passing Kerridge Dry Dock, we arrived at Bollington and moored at the Wharf, opposite Bollington Wharf Boat Builders. The Mill looms over the 48H moorings, which are a little "run down", but the local shops, pubs, and buses into Macclesfield (10 and 11) are just down the hill. A couple of nights here will do us nicely!

Moored at Adelphi Wharf

Macclesfield Canal, Locketts Bridge to Bollington

3 hours 45 minutes, 7.57 miles, 0 locks