Better weather at Grindley Brook

Monday 10^th June; Old Man’s Bridge to below Grindley Brook

Thankfully the overnight rain had cleared by the time I took Jess out this morning, though it was very cold in spite of early sun. 

A good mooring away from those dripping trees

Following another shower, it was nearly 10 before we left, woolly hats and gloves on to beat the cold.  Hassel’s no 2 lift bridge, soon followed by the one at the Whitchurch Arm, soon warmed me up!  

Poppies, not so common these days

 

A striking tree beyond the poppies

The good offside moorings just after the Whitchurch arm were full, and we had to move on a good hundred yards before there was space to pull in.  Nicholson’s implies that the walk to the town centre is a mere half a mile – I set my sports watch to measure it, and it was over a mile from our mooring.   The Whitchurch Arm was originally a mile long, though now it’s only a quarter of that.   But it’s a pleasant walk up the arm, following the footpath to town along the Stagg’s brook.  The sun was out now, and Jess had a great time. 

Murals under the road bridge

We found a large Tesco at the far end of town, with a pet shop opposite so all our shopping needs were met!  We could have walked on the towpath back to bridge 31A, where there is access to Aldi, but they were unlikely to have had everything we needed.  A feasibility study was done, years ago now, on extending the arm and constructing a basin for mooring nearer town.  The original line has been built over, so a new cut would have to be made.  In the current financial climate I think there are other priorities, and somehow I’m not sure the funding would still be there anyway.

Fat chance.  But there is a picnic area!

We had lunch, then watered up above the Grindley Brook staircase.  There were two lockies on duty today, and we were down very quickly.

Staircase bottom lock

We did meet one boat on the lower locks, but it had been a fairly quiet day for the lockies.  Yesterday had been very busy indeed, as we had suspected from the stream of hire boats passing us yesterday at regular intervals.  We went on past the moorings at the bottom of the flight to find somewhere away from the road and a bit quieter, and we found one in the sun, with a pleasant view on the offside across fields to a distant wood.  It was an early stop today, so there was plenty of time for jobs.

Just over 3 miles, 2 lift bridges, 6 locks