Macclesfield

Our plan for Friday was to get north of Macclesfield and moor near a canal-side pub for the evening.  As this entailed 12 locks and ten miles, and we wanted to moor up before the weather turned cold and wet, we had another early start (well, early for us).   The 12 locks are altogether and known as the Bosely flight.  The lock chambers were unusual in that they were stone lined rather than the usual brick.  The other unusual thing was that they had two top gates rather than the usual one gate on narrow locks.

The side ponds were rather attractive.

It was T-shirt and sandals weather again and when we got up the 12 locks we were just five miles south of Macclesfield.  The 12 locks took us up 120 feet making us over 500 feet above sea level – one of the highest canals in the UK.

We felt very high up as we crossed the River Dane.

We thought the lamb of the left had long socks on.

This was the first area of wild garlic we have seen since cutting some for dinner in Brewood outside of Wolverhampton..  These are just beginning to flower.

I thanked the white van man who had to wait whilst we went through the swing bridge at Oakgrove but he didn’t acknowledge me - I suppose being slowed down by something really slow is quite galling.  It's a bit like when we haven't seen traffic for a few days and then walk along a road into a town and think everybody is driving like a madman.

We stopped for lunch just after this manually operated swing bridge about a mile before Macclesfield.

It was lovely to be in a new area – lots of dry stone walls and limestone houses.

Part of the planning permission for these houses on the outskirts of Macclesfield said that this wharf crane had to be preserved.  I thought it looked a little odd sitting in somebody's tiny garden..

This is the original Hovis factory that has now been converted to apartments.

The old canal entrance to the mill has been retained.

This is Adelphi mill; it was originally a silk mill but is now offices.  Macclesfield was one of the leading silk producing centres in the country.

Peak District hills in the distance.

This is Clarence Mill in Bollington and used to be a cotton spinning mill – it’s massive and now houses offices, bars, cafes and restaurants.

By the middle of the afternoon the sun disappeared and it became cold and it felt like rain wasn’t far away.  It was back to walking boots and coats and I even wore gloves for a while.  We moored at a place called Whiteley Green which has a dog friendly pub.  Before we went out we lit a fire and had cream tea.

The pub was called The Windmill and was really busy even though it was only 5.30 when we went.

Here are the 12 locks we went up today.