River Weaver

The day was generally cool - even cold at times with a sharp wind. Occasional showers could be rather fierce as well.

We set off in reasonable time with a lock-free stretch ahead of us until Anderton. We had no plans beyond there, planning to investigate the lift options when we arrived. Another large flash reminded us that we were in salt country - the semi-submerged abandoned boat a reminder that at one time many of these flashes were where a lot of boats ended their days.

As we approached Northwich, industry returned at, at one stage, the canal passed through a huge chemical works.

We stopped at the service block just before the junction for the usual fill and empty. It was then only a short hop to the holding moorings for the Anderton Lift. Mike was completing the catch for the rear door so Christine went to investigate and returned having booked us in for the 12:50 descent as well as sheaves of instructions to read before the 'trip'. She also spotted The Cheeese Boat and returned from there with three interesting cheeses.

After the operator from the lift had been to check our licence and give us the safety briefing, we were told to move around into the holding trough. The gate closed behind us - another boat was coming down with us but, unlike us, he had done this several times before.

The gates between the holding trough and the movable caissons were then opened and boats boats moved forward. Once ready, we were let slowly down. Today, the impressive gear mechanism which are prominent on the top of the structure do not form part of the operation. Instead, a huge hydraulic ram supports the centre of each caisson and they counter-balance each other so that little force is needed to raise boats from the river level up to the canal.

Once at the bottom we emerged into the River Weaver and headed upstream. The river is surprisingly pretty, mostly green and often nearby industry is hidden from view. Half an hour later and we passed through the centre of Northwich and soon after arrived at Hunts Locks.

Only the smaller lock is currently operable, although even this one is large enough to dwarf a narrowboat! The upper edge of the lock is so high above the boats that the lock keepers drop a rope down for us to tie ours onto in order to secure the boat before the lock is filled. In fact it is a very smooth operation but also quite slow. We were amused to see that the signals at either end of the lock are semaphores, not traffic lights, although it did not seem that they are in fact in use.

Vale Royal Locks have only a few timed operations and we arrived at the holding pontoon with half an hour to explore before it was the next time. We were surprised to see that the holding pontoon is only large enough for one boat! only the large lock here is operational and even then only one of the lower gates has a functional mechanism. The keeper here has been in this post since 1980 and is quite vociferous about the waterways!

The gates are operated by hand using a capstan that pulls the gates via a chain below the water. A lever, rather like old hand railway points levers, changes part of the mechanism and a t-shaped handle engages a clutch mechanism. The gates are supposed to be operated by a water-driven motor but this only works for one of the upper gates. Hence the lower gate and the swing bridge across the centre of the lock are hand powered! This is perhaps the largest lock we have ever used. The photo shows only half the lock length.

The next section, passing the Vale Royal mooring is a long straight but returned to bends around the salt works before Winsford. Windsfor Rock Salt Mine - Salt Union - is Britain's oldest working mine (although it did close for some time) There arehuge piles of rock salt on the river bank.

We continued upstream to Winsford as the map from British Waterways that we were given at Anderton indicated a mooring at Winsford and, perhaps we might find an internet connection - there was none at Anderton nor on the river since. But first we had to wind - this was not as easy as we had anticipated and the second bridge proved to be the widest point and only just enough. What a 70 foot boat would do was unclear!

We soon realised that the mooring was not safe to use with a narrow boat - the edge profile was meant for much higher boats so we failed to stop. So no paper and no chance to find a church for tomorrow morning. There was little option but to return downstream. With no usable mooring that we could find at the swing bridge - which might have made it possible to walk into the village of Moulton, it was back to Vale Royal moorings for the night.