Having been invited to join Kris and Bernard and help take "Sunshine" down the Wigan locks I travelled up to Adlington to meet them. The journey involved changing not just trains but also stations in Manchester and I was looking forward to it.
I suppose most people have a soft spot for the city in which they spent their student days - and I certainly do. In fact I made several unsuccessful attempts to leave the Manchester area before finally coming to live in Hereford and even then I had regrets about leaving. I can never walk out of the front doors of Piccadilly station without a feeling of excitement and of being glad to be back and this time was no different. Although there are various ways of travelling between Piccadilly and Victoria stations I opted to walk to enjoy the city at close quarters. Within minutes I was reminded of why I like the place so much. Calling in at a cafe for a tea and a bacon butty and stopping in a couple of shops to buy things I'd forgotten to bring I was immediately reminded of how friendly everyone is. In Hereford its a condition of the job that shop assistants are miserable, but in Manchester - even in large city centre shops - the staff will tell you that they hope you enjoy your day (and then look out of the window at the rain and say - "Oh!...well enjoy it as much as you can". Only in this city will a stranger come up to you looking at a window display in the transport bookshop and say "'t little train's not running today - they usually 'as it goin' back and forth" leading to a conversation about the state of Britain's railways!
I was quite sorry when I finally got to Victoria and it was time, yet again, to leave the city. This time, however, not for very long....
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Its Lke the M6 Up Here!
"Its like the M6 up here today" said the boater, sat on his mooring at Shebdon Wharf as Starcross crept by on tickover. Its a traditional summer greeting on this part of the Shroppie as boaters intent on completing the "Four" Counties Ring speed by in convoy in both directions.
But at the moment its being used very much tongue in cheek! Mind you, I could see his point: for him, every northbound boat, including Starcross, was followed minutes later by a southbound boat (including Starcross) that had just winded at the current limit of Navigation of the "Southern Shroppie "at Shebdon.
Canalside businesses must be suffering. The Wharf Inn at Shebdon is virtually inaccessible to boaters and the moorings at the Anchor at High Offley were quiet. There was plenty of space at the visitor moorings at Norbury Junction as well, although the Junction Inn and Norbury Wharf's cafe get much of their weekend trade from car-borne visitors. On a two-hour bank holiday trip up to Shebdon and back I passed a total of five moving boats - last bank holiday that would have been 25 and it proves the point that early waterway campaigners made that its the network that matters and an interconnected system of through routes is much more attractive - and viable - than a series of dead ends.
But at the moment its being used very much tongue in cheek! Mind you, I could see his point: for him, every northbound boat, including Starcross, was followed minutes later by a southbound boat (including Starcross) that had just winded at the current limit of Navigation of the "Southern Shroppie "at Shebdon.
Canalside businesses must be suffering. The Wharf Inn at Shebdon is virtually inaccessible to boaters and the moorings at the Anchor at High Offley were quiet. There was plenty of space at the visitor moorings at Norbury Junction as well, although the Junction Inn and Norbury Wharf's cafe get much of their weekend trade from car-borne visitors. On a two-hour bank holiday trip up to Shebdon and back I passed a total of five moving boats - last bank holiday that would have been 25 and it proves the point that early waterway campaigners made that its the network that matters and an interconnected system of through routes is much more attractive - and viable - than a series of dead ends.
Big Hole in Canal - BW looking into it!
Yesterday was the first chance I'd had to go up to the Shroppie and have a look at the "leak" that's closed the Shropshire Union Canal at Shebdon embankment, just north of Starcross' mooring at Norbury Junction.
There's not much to see: British Waterways has closed the canal and fenced off the towpath. The hole appeared in the bed of the canal towards the Knighton end of the embankment and, from the old Cadbury's wharf, you can get near enough to get a view of the coffer dam and the empty canal beyond.
British Waterways has helpfully placed explanatory notices on the towpath fencing, complete with photographs of "the hole". 
There is less to see from the Shebdon side: the canal here is closed just north of the winding hole and a considerable distance from the leak. Neither boats nor towpath users should be able to get anywhere near - although a couple of boats seem to have sneaked past the barrier in this shot and I must confess that I had strayed a few feet past the existing hole in the barrier across the footpath that leads down to the Wharf Inn.
Strangely, BW has placed the towpath barriers such that there is no access at all from the towpath to the Wharf Inn even though boats can tie up just south of the winding hole. It can't be good for trade and the pub certainly looked deserted for a bank holiday lunchtime.
BW's latest estimate is that the canal should be open by the school half-term in October, which is just in time for the winter stoppages that will see the canal closed all winter at Wheaton Aston embankment and at Nantwich embankment between January and March. The great embankments are a major feature of the canal but they continue to cause problems as they always have done!
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