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Published: July 31st 2013
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1 lock, 362 in total.
Rain, more rain, and heavy rain. Did we want to climb Mow Cop in this? – not really. Was the view gong to be any good when we got there? – unlikely. We waited for 45 minutes and decided to abandon the plan, a decision which made more and more sense as the wet day progressed.
We motored the last stretch of the Macclesfield to a lock with a 1 foot drop – this was the original end of the Macc – the Trent & Mersey built and controlled the link section onto the Trent & Mersey proper. To accommodate the difference in levels between the two canals without digging more locks and cuttings, the last part of the Macc crosses the T & M by aqueduct and then loops round to join it after the locks on the T & M have brought it up to the Macc level – hope I've explained this satisfactorily. You can tell you're on the T & M proper as the water colour changes dramatically, due to the local ironstone strata.
A few hundred yards and we moored for the Harecastle Tunnel, 1¾ miles underneath Harecastle Hill. There are 3 parallel tunnels although only one is in use. The first was built by James Brindley in 1777 – just 9 feet wide and no towpath so boats had to be legged through by men lying on the boat cabin and propelling the boat by 'walking' along the tunnel roof. The horse would be walked over the top of the hill. There was so much traffic on this canal that there was considerable congestion here. In 1822, Thomas Telford was instructed to build a second tunnel, with towpath, so each tunnel became one-way traffic. By the 20
th century, Brindley's bore had to be abandoned due to mining subsidence and an electric tug was introduced to the remaining tunnel to speed things up. I don't know when the towath was removed but the tunnel is now quite wide but has fluctuating headroom, bit of a problem in the dark. Boaters queue at the tunnel portals until the tunnel-keeper waves them in – convoys of up to 8 go through at a time and it takes about 40 minutes. There are
no ventilation shafts but there is a huge extractor fan at the southern portal. The boats and boaters/pets are all recorded on entry and counted out at the other end. If you get into difficulty then you have to give 3 long blasts of the horn every 30 seconds until this is answered by a tunnel-keeper giving 3 short blasts – high-tech stuff on the canals. The third tunnel is at a higher level than the canals and was for the Stoke-Kidsgrove railway – a victim of the Beeching cuts I believe.
We emerged from the tunnel to even heavier rain and normal-coloured water so motored a mile or so to what we hoped was a pleasant mooring – and it was. Westport Lake visitor moorings – park and lake which we'll explore if/when it stops raining. Unfortunately there is an abundance of goose poo – a fraction of this would quite rightly be deemed unacceptable from dogs.
I'd like to mention that we are not 'anti rain', just the associated problems of a very damp boat with all the wet clothes and a wet dog.
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amanda
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Hello Chaps
Helen, John, and Hattie, going to be a hot one today. Pinch and Punch first of the month (no returns!). Have a super day, if you have a chance please call me on 07836 350203, just want a quick chat, nothing urgent just about Jim and Pauline. xx bye for now Amanda x