Furness Vale.

0 Locks, 2 miles. Now moored at bridge 30. Upper Peak Forest Canal

We had all good intentions of leaving Bugsworth Basin yesterday afternoon however the arrival of Paul and Lynne on Nb Piston Broke changed all that because after we had had a cuppa and a chin wag it was getting too late in the day to move, an executive decision was made to leave first thing this morning.

Paul and Lynne moored at Bugsworth Basin. Gypsy Rover is in front.

Bugsworth Basin has a lot of interesting walks with plenty to see which makes it an ideal place to delve into the history books so to speak. However the down side is that unless you are a heavy sleeper or deaf you are lucky to get 5 hours peace and quiet at night.

Talking to Paul about the name of their boat he pointed out that Piston Broke does indeed have a broken piston but it’s mounted on the roof and came from a WWII Spitfire. Paul has rigged it up with blue LED’s inside it and rechargeable batteries connected to a small solar panel so at night time it lights up. What a neat idea.

We learnt of these current moorings from Paul and Lynne and they have followed us down with the intention of staying a few days whereas we will have to head back to Marple on Friday. This afternoon we all enjoyed a walk up into the village of Furness Vale to see what shops there are and have a look at the railway station.

Despite the headboard this train was the Buxton to Manchester train.

Station road Furness Vale. The old hall is now apartments with half of them empty.

The latter only consists of platforms with modern bus shelter type canopies and no ticket office. There is also a small signal box operating 2 points, 4 signals and the railway crossing. A similar sort of set up that we saw near Hawkesbury Junction which was due for closure at the end of May.

New Mills railway viaduct, Northern Rail.

1671 locks, 3528½ miles, 62 Tunnels, 49 swing bridges and 49 lift bridges since Nov 2006