Dr Beeching Got it Wrong

6 Locks, 4½ Miles. Now moored by Bridge 22 Middlewich Branch, Shropshire Union Canal

It has been a glorious day for cruising with a cool breeze just to spoil it all. Now it's the end of the tourist season things are starting to get very quiet on the cut with just a handful of boats on the move. Where we are moored is above what I presume you would call the Weaver Valley with the river Weaver wending its way towards Northwich and a large lake or Flash as they call them around here which has been created by subsidence from the salt mining. Very picturesque.

Now last night on BBC4 there were 3 programme's about British Railways and the aftermath of Dr Beeching's 1963 report on reshaping British Railways. It would appear that he wielded his axe too far and about 1/3rd of the lines that got the chop should have been retained and then perhaps there wouldn't be the congestion on today's roads. Talking about roads, this is where MP Mr Marples comes along and is only too happy for the railways to be closed as it gives him the opportunity to build roads and motorways and amass his fortune. Nice one if you can get it. Now politicians have come to their senses and are starting to talk about rebuilding the railways.

Another of last nights programme's was about walking the tracks along old disused railways lines and last night the young lady presenter was walking the Peak District. This showed that most of the infrastructure of the line was still in place,bridges and tunnels etc: (she had to get special permission to go through he tunnels as they are all sealed up and locked) and it looked as if it would only take replacement of track for the line to be re-opened. An interesting thought when David Cameron of the Conservative party is talking about a high speed line from Heathrow, London St Pancras, Manchester and Leeds instead of building runway 3 which would prove to be quicker and more environmentally friendly. With the problems the Aviation industry are having with fuel prices and airport congestion is sounds like a good scheme to me. Bring back the railways!

The final programme was of Victoria Woods the comedienne travelling from Crewe to the very top of Scotland and back via the East coast lines. This was both enlightening and entertaining as she had to change trains many times and from main line operation to single track lines . The scenery was stunning at times and something you can never enjoy driving along a motorway at 70 MPH. There is something to be said for train travel. One observation that came out which I thought very apt was that train travellers moaned about late trains or non arrivals back in the 60's and poured out onto Britain's roads when cars became more affordable. Now they moan and grizzle about the traffic congestion and delays, can't win can they! At least on the train you can read the paper or work on your laptop, you can't do that driving your car. Its all a matter of priorities.

It has been a well known fact for decades that freight on railways is the money maker and passenger services are just a public amenity running at a loss so what's so different with buses that Dr Beeching was so much in favour of running instead of trains. They are subsidised by tax payers, so should they be axed? I think not but as the old saying goes it doesn't pay to have all your eggs in one basket, so as far as public transport is concerned there is a place and need for road, rail and air to spread the load evenly. Politicians need to start thinking outside the square and not about personal gain, after all they are in parliament to represent the people, aren't they?

1477 locks, 3105 miles, 51 Tunnels, 42 swing bridges and 39 lift bridges since Nov 2006

Black sky overhead.

0 Locks, 8 Miles. Now moored at bridge 176 Trent & Mersey Canal.

Despite the weather forecast and the black clouds all around it was time to move on. We waited until one heavy downpour passed over and then we were away. The funny thing was that as we headed south the weather improved and for quite a while we were cruising in sunshine, weird.  We did eventually have to put up with a couple of light showers but nothing too bad.

Along the way we spotted a cygnet standing on the bank all alone and not looking very happy. Hopefully it was the wet weather getting the better of him and he wasn't sick. There were no other swans around for about 3 miles. Later we picked up a huge length of timber across our bows which must have been about 20ft long  and about 10 x 6 in size. It looked like a piece of an old jetty that had broken away. The only way I could shift it was to go close to one bank and snag the timber in the reeds and spin it round to slide off the bow.

After find a mooring, the sun came out for a while and I took advantage of it and went fishing  which only produced 8 tiddlers. When I spoke to the proprietor of the fishing tackle shop in Northwich yesterday he said that it hadn't been a good season as his sales of bait were down by 1/3rd compared to last year. I know that I had a lot of better catches last season compared to this season.

Since we have battened down the hatches for the night we have had heavy rain and hail so I hope it improves before tomorrow.

1471 locks, 3100½ miles, 51 Tunnels, 42 swing bridges and 39 lift bridges since Nov 2006

Exploring the Anderton Lift

Still moored above the Lift.

Once we were all sorted on our mooring we decided it was ice cream time so we returned to the visitor centre for the said ice cream's and another look at the displays in the visitor centre.

Well there is only one way to describe the lift and that is from the beginning which was 1875. The original lift was built to try and speed up the shipment of salt to Liverpool as it was originally transshipped from barges on the Trent & Mersey down chutes to larger vessels down on the Weaver. With Brunner Mond building a new plant on the other side of the Weaver they also needed to get coal delivered and salt shipped out, so the lift was built to speed up the whole process. Barges carrying fragile freight from the Potteries would also be able to take advantage of this short cut because they couldn't use the chutes to transship their loads.

The original design of the lift was, as it is now, hydraulic except that originally is used water whereas now it uses oil. The water was the downfall in the beginning because it was so toxic that it corroded everything and the hydraulic system was for ever breaking down. Repairs using copper just aggravated the corrosion as it react with the metal causing more problems.

In 1887 Colonel J Saner joined the Weaver Navigation trust and in 1908, after a 6 month closure converted the lift to an electric system using electric motors, cables and balance weights. The modifications entailed building another deck on top of the existing structure to carry the motors, gear wheels and pulleys and they also had to reinforce the framework holding it all up. Most of this is still visible on top of the lift but is no longer in use.

The lift continued in this guise until usage dropped away until 1983 when it was declared unsafe and closed. When the lift started in 1875 the tonnage passing through was 31294 tons and it peaked in 1906 at 192181 tons and there after declining. After closure English Heritage declared it a monument to the industrial era worthy of restoring so along with the Trent & Mersey Canal Society and many others the task of restoring it took place. Using corrosive resistant materials the lift was re-built to the original hydraulic design and re-opened in 2002.

A lot of the old equipment is still on display and the old counter balance weights have been made into a maze to amuse the children.With the visitor centre, viewing platform, picnic area and the trip boat Edwin Clark, named after the lifts founder, the lift is a very popular tourist attraction. The trip boat has also been used for functions and a wedding so its future looks secure. We feel privileged to have travelled on/in this amazing piece of 19th century machinery which was years ahead of its time. Long may it continue.

Norwich Swing Bridge in Action

0 Locks, 1½ Miles. Now moored above Anderton Lift, Trent & Mersey Canal.

What an interesting day today turned out to be. To start off we had to wind, pass back under the Town swing bridge to the BW facilities block. Just as we were mooring up the tug from Anderton arrived pushing the dredger. Not thinking I went for a shower while Dot filled the water tank. I had no sooner got into the shower when the thought struck me that they might open the swing bridge to allow the dredger to pass up river. Sure enough, Dot called out that they were opening the bridge and luckily she was able to photograph the whole thing. I made a quick exit from the shower but it was too late as the bridge was closed and traffic flowing once more.

We had started the morning in bright sunshine but this was short lived because by the time we left the BW facilities it was raining quite steadily and continued until we reached the Anderton Lift. We were the first to arrive at the holding moorings for the lift which was a good sign that we would get onto the first trip at 11.45am.

After booking in at the reception centre we had a quick look around the visitor centre when I heard a steam whistle emanate from the Trent & Mersey Canal outside, upon investigation it turned out not to be an old restored boat but a new boat with a boiler and 2 cylinder stream engine mounted in what is normally the back cabin. The eccentric owner had the side door open for all to see inside and was happily chatting away to some onlookers about how he had built the boat. It transpired that a lot of parts had been imported from the USA and arrived in its original packaging dated 1940. Somebody must have a rather large warehouse to be able to store stuff for that long.

On the roof he had built a 6 foot chimney so that he could see where he was going while under power instead of having smoke in his face continually. Naturally it had to be hinged to pass under bridges etc; with steel cables to lower and raise it. The other thing was 2 brass steam whistles of different tones which he had also imported from the USA. They sounded like an LNER and LMS railway loco whistles to me.

By this time it was time for us to return to the boat to prepare for embarkation onto the lift along with another boat that had just arrived. The whole loading process and the trip up to the top went very smoothly with 2 boats in the other caisson going down onto the Weaver.

Just as we pulled out off the holding pen onto the Trent & Mersey Canal a hire boat left its moorings near the winding hole. Instead of getting out onto the correct side of the canal he stayed close to the towpath and then all of a sudden decided to change course across my bows. I hit reverse but with the strong wind blowing finished up across the cut. The hire boat also went into reverse but forget to take it out of gear once we had the situation under control and went careering backwards into the bank by the winding hole and got horribly stuck. We pulled into the mooring that he had just vacated and tied up and he was still trying in vain to turn the boat because by this time the wind had turned him around to face the wrong way. Eventually I suggested that he got the boat over to me somehow and throw me a rope so that I could pull his bow in the right direction. In doing this he managed to turn the boat on his own. What came next surprised me, he only wanted to move forward onto the holding moorings to go onto the lift. Ah well, all's well that ends well.

1471 locks, 3092½ miles, 51 Tunnels, 42 swing bridges and 39 lift bridges since Nov 2006

Floatel- Northwich's Floating Hotel on the River Weaver

Return to Northwich.

2 Locks, 10 miles. Now moored at Northwich town moorings.

We thought that we would get a quiet night last night being out in the country but no such luck. What with the strong winds and water lapping around the stern it was still a disturbed night.

Despite the weather forecasts for heavy rain it was only a light drizzle as we headed off back up river. As the morning progressed the wind got stronger but the rain never eventuated to much. After Dot had a long chat with Bryn at Saltersford lock we had a change of plans and decided to return to Northwich to do some shopping at the market and visit the Salt Museum. Again we had the river to ourselves except for 1 boat travelling in the opposite direction.

When we arrived in Northwich there was only one other boat on the moorings but by late this afternoon we have been joined by 4 other boats that presumably have come down the Anderton lift because we haven't seen them anywhere else.

This afternoon we wandered off up London Road to find the Salt Museum which turned out to be well worth the effort. We saw 2 short films on salt production and it's by products which are innumerable and another about the boatmen on the River Weaver. The old film footage taken within one of the factories showed men stripped to the waist working in the hot steamy conditions and there wasn't an ounce of fat on any of them. The speed at which they were working would make a 21st century worker cringe in horror.

The main display about the production of salt and the effect it had on the district was very enlightening, covering the subsidence of land due to many decades of mining and many buildings being rebuilt with wooden frames so that they could be re-levelled should minor subsidence occur again. However with wealth came squalor and sickness with many chimneys in the district pumping out acrid smoke from the use of low grade coal to heat the evaporating trays, the atmosphere wasn't exactly pristine. Also the coal burning ships that came up river added to the pollution.

One interesting display was the business in India prior to Independence. Salt was exported from the UK to India because of a shortage over there but the Indians had a Salt tax put on them which caused no end of hardship with many dying of the lack of salt in the diet and saw Mahatma Ghandi stir up a revolt with locals collecting salt from the beach against British orders.

There was also a temporary display of what is known as trench art by a soldier in the 1st World War and many press cuttings reporting on the war and its tragic stories. The artist had attended Art college prior to volunteering for service. He drew when ever the opportunity arose and filled many note books with pencil drawings.

The museum is a credit to the area and is well worth a visit but allow at least a couple of hours to take it all in.

1471 locks, 3091 miles, 51 Tunnels, 42 swing bridges and 39 lift bridges since Nov 2006

Northwich Town Bridge over the River Weaver

Erected by the Weaver Navigation Trustees in 1899, this is the first road swing bridge on floating pontoons and the first electrically operated swing bridge in Britain.