Cheshire 22 - Ellesmere Port/ Porters Row/Liverpool in the distance /vegan baked beans , steam engines and canal boats

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When you live in the same place for a while it is hard sometimes to think of places to visit . You find you have done them all. Sometimes more than once . The choice of places to look at diminishes over time or the distance between each becomes too great for a day trip out. There is something to be said for moving home on a regular basis . Perusing the local maps doesn't always give you new ideas. Trawling through the internet draws blanks . Sometimes I find somewhere we have not been to but it is either too far to drive to or the weather puts us off . February is an inclement month . We can expect frosty nights or exceptionally mild ones . We may get high winds or torrential rain. Snow can be expected. We don't always know what we will get . Sometimes you just need inspiration and a bit of fair weather .

Perhaps this morning was one of those fair weather moments when it was mild outside, no frost , no chance of wind nor rain . The perfect day to take the Car with no name out for a well earned drive . We needed fuel first though . That is a necessity but at the prices of fuel in the UK is an evil necessity . War and problems in the Red Sea take their toll on prices which are shifting again ever upwards . But the car with no name won't go anywhere without the stuff in his tanks . So biting the bullet we filled him up and the cost of our day out was £65 before we even started on our journey.

The journey was a relatively short one . 35 minutes to travel 26 miles . We were heading for the Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port . This mornings offering on the calendar front was a Chinese proverb. "Raise your sail one foot and you get ten feet of wind " So if we take that literally we were off to raise our sails at the Boat Museum .

Parking was easy. A large almost empty free car park . A few cars were parked up but there were no coach trips nor any school outings today. The local traffic policeman was parked up in his car eating his breakfast . Nice job if you can get it . Cruising up and down in a fast car on a motorway . The huge overspill car park was locked . We thought what a waste. A barrier prevented anything over a car size entering the main car park so that precluded motorhomes. There was space enough on our car park to allow vans on in the day and plenty of room for overnight stops. If this were France it would a port de pleasance with spaces for vans at 10 euros a night . A steady source of income all year round as this would utilise the hard standing . But in the UK not a cat in hells chance !!

Crossing the road from the car park we could see all the main complex which stretched for 7 acres. Ellesmere Port was named after Ellesmere in Shropshire . I had stood on the very same waterways at Ellesmere Wharf a few weeks back . This museum was set on the site where the northern end of the Shropshire Union canal met the Manchester Ship Canal. The museum was described as a place of canal boats , displays of traditional clothing and crafts and showcased the tools and industry that surrounded a canal . Had I followed the Shropshire Union I would have found my way to this place by water rather than by road.

We stopped initially at the Upper Basin where a number of modern canal boats were moored . The Mersey Flat Barge the Mossdale was moored in the area . A number of metal bridges and walkways traversed the site . The pump house and tower was not open today. A number of the footpaths were closed due to slippy conditions and this was one of them.

The reception and shop were extremely welcoming . We paid our entrance fee of £11.50 senior rate . If there was one complaint it would be that the young lad on the desk was all for charging us adult prices. Should we take that a compliment as he did not think we were seniors? Or was it a ploy in the hope we would not comment nor ask for the cheaper price?

The first stop was the film which would tell us about life on the canal . About five minutes he said and then you can go through the doors into the canal basin and just walk at will . Well apart from the slippery slopes of the tow paths. We learned that the site occupied the Netherpool port which was designed by Thomas Telford as part of the ill fated Ellesmere Canal project . All that remained was the buildings , the workshops and the cottages that housed some of the workers. The canal had been linked with Chester in 1797 opening up a further part of the route however by 1805 work stalled as money did not flow in from investors or from the commercial boat traffic. The plans were abandoned and the canal was taken over by the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal company in 1845. This did help to keep the wharves open until the 1950's . However, as the name suggests the railways took over from the canals . And then the railways died because of the combustion engine .

Having left the reception and the film we headed for the pattern shop. On the walls were hung every pattern required for producing tools for the canals and the boats. The boating community wanted for nothing. Across the way was the Toll house. Closed as it was home to the museum offices . Along the way there were trigger points where William McNicholas (ok it was not a real William ) spoke about working on the Mersey Flat boat the Mossdale which was moored nearby. Henry Leadbetter (again not really the real one ) chirped up on life as the shipwright in his workshop. We were entertained by Levi Williams ( I think you have the picture by now ) talked to us about his work as Slipway Superintendent . We were encouraged to imagine their lives and we were asked the question " Have you got what it takes to be boss here ?" Sounds like the typical job interview . Give us an example of ............?????

The pump house and tower were sadly closed to the public . I really wished we could have seen the pumps working . Assuming that they were still in situ .

We criss crossed the canals on site by the small bridges . Locks everywhere bringing the water up from the river and taking boats out towards the inland canals . What a vision . All the way across the country . Where did it all go wrong ? Progress overtook the grand designs but left us a legacy which is now being brought back into use .

We had arrived at the exhibition halls. Two extremely large The Pump House contains the steam-driven pumping engines which supplied power for the hydraulic cranes and capstans on site and of those there were many . Our journey took us to the blacksmiths forge . Two massive white painted chimneys dominated the large room which was in a way too clinical . There should have been fires burning in the hearths and the sound of banging and clanging of hammers should have filled the room . No doubt on a weekend or an event weekend the volunteers would be out in force Dressed for the occasion and the smells and sounds would have been authentic . There was a stillness in there . Gates were thrown here and there to suggest work being undertaken . There was a guide in the building but he was busying himself in a corner . A sign suggested that blacksmithing courses were available .

Our walk took us past the education blocks . A waterways archive collection in one building . A conference Centre in another . Just imagine holding a conference in such a lovely setting. Those were the days when our work took us to some great venues for meetings . It certainly looked as if this conference centre was well used. An Education Centre making for a good day out for the school children . I think perhaps my children may have gone there one year but that was a long time ago and long forgotten. Play and Picnic areas dooted round the site . Temporary and touring exhibitions were held in the buildings too but nothing there today . The stables housed the horses used on the canals to town the boats and the pigs were housed in the sty behind.

One of the most interesting buildings we went into was the Power Hall filled with an extensive collection of steam engines collected from across the UK. Large steam engines standing idle . Smaller stationary machines . The building smelt of sawdust , steam and engine oil. Again there was someone in the building and it was clear that some days the machines would be steamed up . Today it was just maintenance work. So a quiet building which in its heyday would have been noisy, dirty and dangerous .

In the distance we could see the Liverpool waterfront and skyline . The gaunt tall building that is the Anglican cathedral dominated the skyline . A little to its right as we looked was the wigwam effect of the Catholic cathedral . Again it gave us ideas for a trip out on another day .

Our next port of call was the boatyard area where the lovely Hatty Price (notice all the Welsh surnames popping up) explained here life on the Mersey flat. For the children in the Island warehouse were areas where they could dress up as one of the hardworking folks (that what the blurb called them ) on the canals . An icebreaker game showed what the canal community needed to do to break the ice on the frozen canals . The children were invited to try it and see just how difficult life was on the frozen water of the canal. One area was given over to brass rubbings . Another the children were asked to show their prowess in engineering . Did they have what it took to be an engineer? I wonder how many came in and were enthralled with the smells and sounds and went on to the job of engineer ? There was a memories chalkboard . The life on the canal had long gone and the Victorians who would have known this life dead so memories were becoming thinner on the ground . There was a model of the Anderton Boat Lift , the story of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct . Models of small boats , huge boats and a display of the life on the Manchester Ship Canal . Tools were laid out and the signs rescued from the miles and miles of the canals On the ground floor of the museum area were an assortment of displays. Boats from different periods, canal signs, paintings of the canal and the workshops, the folk art kettles and pans that adorned the canal boat. Ships bells , a model of the Anderton Boat Lift plus maintenance work going on in the building as boats were returned to their former glory. An eclectic mix reminiscent of the railway museum in Slovenia or the Pops Attic museum in Denmark . Not any semblence of date, time or order but nevertheless a fantastic achievement to garner together such a large exhibition. The apprentices in disembodied voices gave an account of maintaining the boats and Jim the navvy told his and countless other navvies stories . Labour was cheap. Life was cheap . How different to attitudes to work now ? Labour too expensive. We buy things cheaper from abroad as they pay lower wages and care less about safety at times.

Our literal last port of call was Porters Row. Cottages that were part of the historic dockyard. Slightly away from the industry of the main yards the 12 cottages were originally built for the dockworkers in 1833. They were home to the shipwrights, the railway waggoners, the porters and their families . I don't think that 12 remained . There seemed to be half that number set close to an old red phone box . Inside a push button B machine . Right up to the 70's these were found in rural areas . The old black bakelite phone sat upon a shelf . Beneath it was a black bakelite cupboard for lack of a better description . Before you made your call you put your money in and pressed button A. If the call did not connect you could push button B and your money would be returned to you. It was always a necessity then to carry a small amount of small coins to feed these machines . As once the call answered you lost the whole of the money you had inserted . So you could put in half a crown and only spend 6d . Looking at the cottages there were only four remaining . Opposite on the riverbank were the new versions . High rise apartments with the ground floor apartments opening out directly on the canal basin

Each of the houses were decorated from different periods . The backs had one long covered passage into which each back door opened . The space was used for storing prams and toys . A communal garden stretched across the back and a toilet in one corner served all four cottages .A garage to the rear housed a horse drawn manual fire engine , fire fighting equipment and uniforms . The house contained two rooms downstairs . The front parlour quite neatly furnished and with a warming fireplace . A kitchen with sink and meat safe . Sparse by anyones standards but home nevertheless . The door to upstairs was closed and we never thought to try to open it. The second of the terraced houses was furnished from around 1900 more comfortable but utility furniture and large blackleaded grate with cooking facilities and methods for heating water . A upgrade on 70 years earlier . We remembered some things in the room fondly. The hot grate but not the blackleading . The space for a kettle on the hearth but never used in grandparents houses . The kitchen with some form of built in cupboard . Again we missed upstairs . Third cottage now had a tiled fireplace where no longer you could cook or boil your kettle . The kitchen had become more functional with ironstone cooker with the familiar shaped knobs to switch the gas on. Gas lighting had taken over from candlelight and the radio stood pride of place . By the fourth cottage we found the 1950's with rudimentary electric lights , a more modern kitchen and a small 9inch TV set in a wooden case . The case far larger than the TV screen cloaked the TV like an old brown overcoat too big for the owner. I tried the stair door and found it open. A narrow , extremely steep staircase very familiar to us took us upstairs where there were two rooms . Two double beds were set in one of the rooms plus a small single bed . Room for mum and dad , two teenage children top to toe and another two smaller ones in the single divan . Six people in one room . No doubt another four in the back bedroom and perhaps even a lodger . How times have changed !

Our visit ended with lunch . The coffees did take a while to come . In the meantime we ordered one bacon butty , shared side of chips and vegan baked beans on toast . A comforting lunch and another place ticked off today and back home to plan the next one .

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