Once we had cleared the Harecastle tunnel the junction with the Macclesfield canal followed in less than a mile. Here my crew Carsten left me, so I was on my own again. Not so bad, because the Macclesfield canal has only one lock flight with 12 locks and otherwise lock-free cruising. This is going to be a rather long post covering the whole length of the Macclesfield canal.
The junction with the Trent & Mersey is interesting as it isn't really a junction, but rather the Macclesfield is carried over an aqueduct, while the Trent & Mersey goes through locks below.
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| Macclesfield going over the Trent & Mersey below |
Macclesfield Canal History
The 26 miles long Macclesfield canal dates from the 1830s, so is quite a lot newer than the Trent & Mersey and most of the other canals I have been on. It is very obvious that canal engineering had progressed by then as the canal despite going through very hilly terrain is fairly straight without a lot of locks or tunnels. This was achieved by "cut and fill" technique, which means the canal goes through deep cuttings into hillsides, high embankments over valleys and a lot of aqueducts. The result is that the canal has the most amazing views. And its location right alongside the Peak District also has some of the best countryside. It is also the second highest navigable waterway in England with an elevation of 500ft. I think this was my favourite canal so far on this journey!
The industrial heritage to be seen next to the Macclesfield canal is also of a newer date. In the middle of the most beautiful countryside there are huge mills next to the canal which were built in the 19th century. They are mostly converted into office space or other business spaces today, so are well preserved. These huge buildings originally housed steam engines which powered the machinery. It is easy to imagine the new class of industrial workers emerging right here.
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| Adelphi Mill, a former cotton spinning mill |
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| Clarence Mill, also a former cotton mill |
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| Clarence Mill, now offices |
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| Hovis Mill, this one needs no explanation |
Canal Features
Every canal has its own character. One of the most recognisable aspects of a canal are the different designs of the bridges. The Macclesfield has its own 'twist' of turnover bridges. They are called snake bridges and are beautifully curved. You can see how the horse towing a boat can walk over the bridge and continue on the other side of the canal without being untethered.
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| Snake bridge in Congleton |
The 'normal' bridges are quite high on this canal, so not a problem there. But they are usually very narrow, only leaving about 10-15 cm either side when passing through. They are also curved in a way that they are narrower at the bottom and one side is usually heavily overgrown so that it's not possible to see where the wall actually is. They need a lot of concentration to go through without a bump. Fortunately narrowboats have a standard width so I knew that the boat would fit.
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| A typical bridge with overgrown side |
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| They are narrow! |
Another feature of the canal is that it's mostly very shallow. It is usually not possible to moor where you like even when it looks accessible. So I ended up moored on designated visitor moorings most of the way, which sometimes means company by quite a lot of other boats.
Here are some lovely moorings I had.
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| Spot Willum above the village |
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| Mooring on Gurnett aqueduct |
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| This one was right in the wilderness as I had to moor here to drop my crew at the station. |
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| In the jungle. |
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| Moored on a high embankment with a view of the Congleton railway viaduct |
The canal being shallow also meant that it was slow going as the engine churns up the bottom of the canal and the water doesn't flow well around the boat. I got grounded lots of times trying to moor up and also avoiding other boats.
There is lots and lots of reeds on the sides. And sometimes the reeds go walkabout or rather floatabout. At one point a big floating island appeared right in the middle of the canal, blocking the passage. I pulled it all to the bank with a boat hook and pulled about half of it out of the canal. Several boats went by and people waved cheerily as I struggled to get this stuff out onto the bank. No thanks by anybody for clearing their way too!
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| Reed floating island in the middle of the canal |
I broke a swing bridge
Somewhere en route I encountered a hydraulically operated swing bridge. As you may remember, the lift bridges on the Stratford canal had not been my strongest moments. This one here was a swing bridge, which opens sideways. I thought this'd be slightly easier as it must be easier to get the boat through on a rope if the bridge is not up in your face when the boat comes through but tucked to the side. Well it didn't exactly go to plan. I tied the boat to the bridge as there was nowhere obvious to tie it on the offside where the bridge mechanism was. The bridge had a hydraulic mechanism on the push of a button. I pushed the button, the road barriers came down (I like this bit!) and the bridge started to open fine. The boat was pulled along by it slightly, which was also fine. About half-way open I stopped to check on the boat. When I resumed the opening, nothing happened. I tried everything including an emergency reset as described on the panel. Nothing. No open, no close, road barriers down and car traffic piling up on both sides.
Meanwhile a couple of boats had tied up either side and people were wandering over to join me. We tried everything but without success. First of all we told the car drivers to find an alternative route. A helpful lady even called the local radio station to let them know about the obstruction.
Finally we had to call the emergency number listed on the panel. Their response was great and within about 1.5h a team came out to fix it. They just reset the bridge works completely, then it worked fine again. The engineer told me that "it likes to be opened in one go, otherwise it gets confused". Ah well, better write that on your instruction panel then. I wonder how often this happens (according to a passing jogger "all the time"). I felt slightly guilty as by now about five boats on each side finally made their way through the bridge.
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| So far so good. |
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| Now it's stuck. |
Bosley Locks
The Macclesfield is a pleasant canal to cruise single-handed, because it has only 12 locks and they are all in one flight. The Macc is a popular canal and part of the Cheshire cruising ring, so frequented by lots of enthusiastic holiday boaters. And the Bosley locks are in a truly panoramic setting with the hills all around.
The Bosley locks were therefore really easy to do on my own although they are all deep locks and I had to change my technique as all the locks had bridges over them. This means less use of the rope from the top and more climbing up and down the slimy ladders. Yuck!
On a few locks I had help from lock volunteers. One of them said to me "Be careful, at locks 4, 5 and 6 you've got a pisser." In my mind I envisaged an old man hanging round at the locks annoying people and braced myself. Turned out what he meant was that the locks were leaking quite badly resulting in fountains from the top gates. Seems I learnt some new canal lingo there yet again!
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| Waiting for a lock to empty |
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| Half way up the flight |
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| Not much water in this pound |
The main attraction is the beautiful countryside
This doesn't need much explanation. There are spectacular views along almost all of the canal.
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| View from another aqueduct |
Other random places and observations
I need to give a special mention to the village of Poynton. A) it has a Waitrose (just kidding) and B) it is a shared space village. There are no kerbs between the road and the pavement, everything is one level only indicated by different coloured paving. The space is supposed to be fully shared. Whenever I attempted to cross a road, no matter where, the cars promptly stopped. It was an amazing experience. I wish this would be done more widely. There is no reason I can see why this couldn't work in residential areas in cities too.
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| Shared space village |
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| No kerbs in Poynton |
In Congleton I bought some fish in a supermarket and for the first time in my life ever I was quoted the weight in ounces. I had not the faintest idea, how much an ounce is.
Onwards and Downwards
The Macclesfield Canal ends in Marple. From here turning right is the short Upper Peak Forest Canal, which I cycled to the end. I will dedicate its own post to that as it's quite unique as well.
Turning left is the descent into Manchester over 43 locks covering three different canals. This is the route I took. What goes up must come down.
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