Chester

Thursday 11^th July; bridge 116 to Chester

After overnight rain it was a damp morning – not quite raining, but not dry either, so waterproofs were needed.  It’s many years since we were last this way and we remembered virtually nothing about the canal except the Northgate Staircase locks, and we’re not going down them this time.  A few hundred yards before Christleton lock we were hailed by a moored boat – were we making for the locks?  So we had a locking partner.

Probably Tarvin lock, the middle of the five into Chester

Linda and Frank had recently moved onto their new boat Coddiwompling.  It’s a real word, and means ‘travelling purposefully towards an unknown destination’, which is entirely appropriate for continuously cruising boaters.  At Chemistry lock there was an unusual sight, a very new-looking penny-farthing.  Of course he had gone by before I got the camera focused.

We planned to moor before the winding hole at Cow Lane bridge, as we will be turning round tomorrow.  We went up to Ellesmere Port and the museum with Chuffed and didn’t particularly want to do that this time, so there seemed little point in going down the Northgate staircase to the Tower basin when we could wind before it..  Coddiwompling pulled in behind us.  They wanted to go down the staircase today, but had heard that there was a stoppage, although no alerts have come through.  We had lunch then went for a stroll through the city centre, enjoying the buskers and general ambience.

Clock tower on the city wall

We were surrounded by a whirring flock of pigeons as we found a way up onto the City Walls.  They have a large dovecot to live in.

The pigeons in the photo were about a fifth of the total number

We walked along the walls, past King Charles’ tower above the canal.    It was used as a lookout in the Civil War, and it was said he watched the approaching Parliamentarian army from there before fleeing for his life.  We could see glimpses of lock beams through the trees below and suddenly found ourselves at the corner of the wall above Tower basin.  We made our way down to the canal and went to look at Taylor’s dry dock which is currently protected by builders’ fencing.

Transport Trust plaque

We walked back to the boat along the canal, passing two boats waiting at the open bottom lock of the staircase.  They had been there for most of the day. 

Bottom of Northgate staircase

The middle chamber was taped off to keep the public out (just about visible at the top of the steps), but we were able to slip round the lock beam and stand on the footbridge above the middle lock, which had been drained.  The bottom was mostly covered by a heap of mud, bricks and rubble with clear channels down the sides, probably kept clear by water flows.  A CRT chap was there to keep us in order.

A paddle had failed and was in the process of being replaced.  The guy in the lock is apparently the local expert on such repairs.  He had offered up the new paddle, which was a little too large, and was working on the edges with a plane to ensure a good fit.

The chamber is very deep and seems even deeper when you look at the top gates behind you, with all the weight of the water in the top chamber behind them.

And that's not showing the bottom of the chamber which was a few more feet down

We watched as they started to test the new paddle before we went on our way.  Dave took Jess back to the boat while I nipped into Tesco’s for a couple of things, before we had a think about where to go to eat tonight.  Dave’s knee was painful and we didn’t want to walk too far – so the Lock Keeper it was, less than 100 yards away opposite the winding hole.  Dog-friendly (though with no free biscuits for the dogs, I would say 'tolerated' rather than 'friendly').  But the fish and chips was excellent, and so was the beer - Timothy Taylor's Landlord.

The staircase had re-opened soon after we had seen the work going on, and never did appear on the stoppage alerts.  The two boats who had been waiting all day below the staircase passed our mooring at about 5pm.

5 miles, 5 locks