Magni cent scenery near Maccles eld. All photos by Jane Cumberlidge. WW Guide to the CHESHIRE RING DISTANCE 96 MILES | LOCKS 92 | DURATION 1-2 WEEKS From the Cheshire Plain to the bright lights of Manchester, via the incomparable Peak District, this is a cruise to savour. JaneDownloaded Cumberlidge by David A Calverley casts from off waterwaysworld.com from Anderton… www.waterwaysworld.com | JULY 2013 | 61 Anderton to Hardings Wood Junction Anderton to Hardings Wood Junction THE FAMOUS CHESHIRE RING can ancient salt works, gliding above probably provide boaters with the much of the surrounding farmland most comprehensive introduction on embankments. The old Lion Salt to Britain’s waterways. Through its works at Wincham was the last varied length you will cruise level open-pan works in Britain, closing pounds, work up and down strenuous in the mid-1980s and now being lock ights, creep through eerie refurbished as a heritage centre. The tunnels and slide over impressive Lion Salt Works Trust is managing the aqueducts. From Cheshire’s fertile day to day restoration and the new agricultural plains, the ring skirts centre should open in summer 2014. the dramatic heights of the Peak The canal soon passes through District before descending to the wider sections of water, called city sights of Manchester. The route ashes, left over from salt works. then gradually returns to more In spring the encroaching reed rural landscapes along the lock-free beds here are popular with nesting Bridgewater Canal. Although the swans, and the males can sometimes ring can be completed in a week, be very aggressive if you get too such a tight schedule allows no close! The canal runs alongside the time to visit the charming villages River Dane, which you cross on or sample some of the many Croxton Aqueduct. In the 1890s attractions Manchester has to offer. this was a wide-beam structure Your rst decision is whether to but was rebuilt after a ood in the cruise the Cheshire Ring clockwise 1930s and is now probably the or anti-clockwise. Here we go anti- narrowest section of the canal. clockwise and set off in a southerly On the edge of Middlewich town, direction from Anderton Marina the canal starts climbing at the wide- on the Trent & Mersey Canal. beam Big Lock, with a pub alongside This allows a few lock-free miles, and new housing overlooking it. before easing into lock activity at There are good moorings near the Middlewich ahead of the more town centre before three locks extensive Cheshire locks. bring you to the junction with the The Trent & Mersey is one of Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire the oldest canals on the system. Union Canal. Middlewich has been an Opened in 1777, it formed part of important settlement since Roman Brindley’s original ‘Grand Cross’. times and salt was the backbone of Through Cheshire the canal seems its economy. The canals played an Downloaded by David A Calverley from waterwaysworld.comto waver somewhat erratically past essential part in the salt industry 62 | JULY 2013 | www.waterwaysworld.com Cheshire Ring LEFT: Hassall Green. ABOVE: Church Lawton. ABOVE RIGHT: Wheelock. RIGHT: Middlewich. throughout the 19th century with large works and factories lining the Trent & Mersey Canal. Today only one salt company respite en route and this stretch is more remains but Middlewich town is still busy daunting in prospect than in practice. and the canal junction active. In June each This was once a busy industrial area, year there is a lively Folk & Boat Festival. but now there are few reminders of As you continue along the Trent & such intense work. You may wonder Mersey, the next few locks are well how many golf balls end up in the canal spaced. Approaching Sandbach you as you pass the rolling links near locks start to rise out of the Cheshire Plain 62 and 61 at Malkin’s Bank. Just after through an enchanting blend of rural and Bridge 148 you dive under the M6. industrial surroundings. The canal doesn’t The contrast between the thundering touch Sandbach, but you can see the motorway and the slow business of town church about a mile away. Passing passing through Lock 58 is striking. under a massive railway line, you soon nd There’s a charming row of cottages pleasant countryside opening up, with the alongside Rode Heath Lock and the possibility of a quiet mooring for the night. popular Broughton Arms near Bridge 139. The River Wheelock is now to the After Hall and Church Locks, the canal west in a valley dotted with large dairy has farmland either side, while the church farms, while ahead and to the east open of All Saints, Church Lawton, is a short country starts lifting towards the high walk away. We moored by the towpath moors of the Peak District. Wheelock which was busy with joggers, dog walkers village has good moorings, a tap, rubbish and locals out for an evening stroll. disposal and a pleasant canalside Italian Climbing up the Red Bull locks, trains restaurant called San Marco, with the go whizzing along the track just to the Cheshire Cheese pub across the road. south. The service point at Red Bull has Most locks from here to Red Bull everything you need and feels attractively Junction are duplicated, though rural despite being only a stone’s throw occasionally one of a pair has been from Kidsgrove. The Red Bull Hotel has a abandoned or closed for maintenance. canalside garden. By now the canal water There are 26 locks in roughly 7 miles, has taken on the distinctive orange hue giving this section the nickname from the local iron ore, which intensi es as ‘Heartbreak Hill’. However, various you approach Pool Aqueduct and the last canalsideDownloaded pubs andby David moorings A Calverley offer from waterwaysworld.comtwo locks before Hardings Wood Junction. www.waterwaysworld.com | JULY 2013 | 63 Hardings Wood Junction to Dukineld Hardings Wood Junction to Dukineld THE MACCLESFIELD CANAL wasn’t opened until in a straight reach past old industrial buildings. 1831, connecting the Peak Forest Canal to the You feel quite shut in by high brick walls and a Trent & Mersey. This idyllic rural waterway only cutting before emerging over an aqueduct and just touches the towns of Congleton, Maccleseld embankment. Looking back towards Congleton and Bollington, all once heavily involved in you see one of the magnicent viaducts carrying spinning cotton and silk. After the stop lock at the railway across the valley. Bridges 61 and 62 Hall Green the canal is level apart from the 12 are close together and the narrows between Bosley locks, a picturesque ight through quiet them have to be passed in one go; a bottleneck wooded slopes. The Peak Forest Canal was built if several boats are coming in the opposite to transport limestone from the Peak District direction. Keen walkers should stop near Bridge down to Manchester and was opened in 1800. 61 and climb the Cloud, whose summit is about Turning onto the Maccleseld Canal at Hardings 200m above the canal. Stone was quarried Wood Junction, you cross your own track on Pool from this bluff to build the 12-lock Bosley ight. Aqueduct, one of only three canal yovers in Britain. Below the bottom lock there are pleasant rural A short mile from the aqueduct, Hall Green stop moorings by the aqueduct over the River Dane. lock has a tiny rise but is slow to ll. The atmosphere Bridge 49 is a swing-bridge activated by a of the Macc soothes you straightaway with its waterways key. At Maccleseld you see plenty wide open skies and rolling countryside. To the of colourful boats at the Canal Centre, next to south-east, Mow Cop hill is topped by its castle the old Hovis Mill. There are good moorings folly and to the north-west the land falls grandly opposite and a pub next to the bridge. Hovis our away across the Cheshire Plain. You soon pass was originally produced here, but production Ramsdell Hall, an imposing 18th century red-brick moved to Manchester i the early 1900s and manor with lawns gliding down to the canal. at the old mill they produced the wrappers. In The rst of the Macc’s ‘roving bridges’ is no 77, its 1830s peak, Maccleseld had 71 silk mills just before Congleton Wharf. These picturesque and was a world leader in nished silk. The and practical bridges allowed the towpath to change Silk Museum in Park Lane tells the story. sides without the boatman having to unhitch his Approaching Bollington you pass the impressive horse. At Congleton Wharf the original Maccleseld brick Adelphi Mill, now smart ofces but built in Canal Company building has been sympathetically 1856 as a cotton mill which later produced silk restored and converted into apartments. From and even WWII parachutes. There are pleasant the attractive moorings it’s about a mile into town moorings on the high aqueduct across the and there are two handy pubs. Leaving the wharf main road through town. Bollington has good is Dog Lane Aqueduct, one of Telford’s cast-iron shops with two butchers, a Co-op, a nice baker, troughs raised on stone pillars with ornate railings. pubs and several stylish restaurants including Downloaded by David A Calverley fromThe waterwaysworld.com canal passes through Congleton Hightown the excellent Lime Tree in the High Street. 64 | JULY 2013 | www.waterwaysworld.com Cheshire Ring ABOVE LEFT: Bosley locks. ABOVE: On the Bosley ight with the Cloud in the distance. LEFT: Cruising at the edge of the Peak District.