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The Cheshire Ring

Bridgewater Canal (1765, 1773)
Preston Brook Jcn - Bollin Embankment - Waters Meeting - Castlefield Jcn
Rochdale Canal (1804)
Castlefield Jcn - Rochdale Nine Ducie Street Jcn
Ashton Canal (1796)
Ducie Street Jcn - Portland Basin - Dukinfield Jcn
Peak Forest Canal (1800)
Dukinfield Jcn - Woodley and Hyde Bank Tunnels
- Marple Aqueduct Marple Locks - Marple Jcn
Macclesfield Canal (1 831)
Marple Jcn - Bollington Aqueduct - Bosley Locks Red Bull Aqueduct - Hardings Wood Jcn
Trent and Mersey Canal (1777)
Hardings Wood Jcn - Middlewich Locks - Anderton Lift - Preston Brook Tunnel - Preston Brook Jcn

Allow 55 hours travelling.
30 miles wide canal, 72 miles narrow canal, 102 total miles including a 40 mile lockfree pound.
4 tunnels, 2 aqueducts, 83 narrow locks, 9 wide locks.
Seven Wonders: Anderton Lift.

Created after early successful campaigns for the repair of a canal breach and the restoration of key segments (1968, 1971, 1972) this is one of the original cruising rings.
It takes you though gentle Cheshire Countryside and passes by rearing gritstone escarpments but at its heart is metropolitan Manchester with lots of places to visit within half an hour of moorings. It climbs past the Pennines to some of the highest water in the country and drops down close to the tidal Mersey. It includes two early canals and one from the end of the first canal mania age. Some try to race round the circuit in a week travelling for most daylight hours, but I believe that leaves too few hours for coming onto land.

Visitor attractions
Dunham Massey Hall
250 acre deer park, beech avenues, working Elizabethan mill - 30 room mansion with furniture, paintings, silver, kitchen, laundry and stables.
Tie up near Bridge 27.
Old Trafford (Tel: 0161 872 0199)
Manchester United Museum and Trophy Room.
Tie up at Throstle Nest Footbridge (Bridge 96).
Museum of Science and Industry (Tel: 0161 872 0199)
Celebrating the saying ‘what Manchester does today, the world does tomorrow’ . Includes exhibits of early computers, aviation, printing and textile machinery.
Tie up near Castlefield Arena. Allow a few hours.
Granada Studios Tour
Coronation Street and all that jazz.
Tie up near Castlefield Arena. Allow a few hours.
Metrolink Trams
Comfortable public transport as it should be.
Tie up near Castlefield Arena. Use G-Mex Tram stop.
Bridgewater Hall (Tel: 0161 907 9000)
Home of Halle Orchestra. Foyers open 7 days a week.
Tie up near Lock 89 or enter the basin.
Velodrome
Cradle of some of Britain’s Olympic cyclists.
Tie up near Lock 8 on the Ashton Canal.
Lyme Park
1377 acre deer park, Lyme cage folly, costumed attendants, gardens, fishing, horseriding.
Tie up near Bridge 15. A longer walk east.
Paradise Mill, Macclesfield
Fine work in silk from the country’s leading centre.
Tie up at Bridge 40.
Mow Cop Trail
Energetic waymarked walk to ‘The Cloud’ and super views across the Cheshire Plain.
Tie up at Bridge 72.
Little Morton Hall (National Trust)
Fine timber-framed manor house (1500s) with long wainscoted gallery, chapel, priest’s hole, furniture, knot garden and moat.
Tie up at Bridge 85. Get there before the coaches.
Salt Museum, Northwich (Tel: 01606 41331)
Creator of flashes, destroyer of buildings. underminer of canals (1958). supplier of essential life force. Tales of salt working since Roman times.
Tie up at Bridge 184. A longer walk west.

Waterway distractions
Lymm Dam
Fishermen surround this water set in idyllic surroundings. Supply reservoir for the canal. Tie up at narrow A6144 Lymn Bridge. Wooded walk
Bollin Embankment
Narrowest part of the Bridgewater. A spectacular breach ( 1971) forced a two year closure but a new concrete channel was built with public money.
Tie up near Dunham.
Castlefield Basin
Series of specialised wharves for all manner of goods brought here by the very first cross-valley canal.
Tie up alongside the events arena.
Salford Quays and River Irwell
Manchester Ship Canal is no longer big enough for today’s ships but lock down, turn right. go past the former entrance to the Manchester. Bolton and Bury Canal up to the limit of river navigation by the Mark Addy pubside moorings. Turn left and tie up near The Lowry in one of the vast docks built at the end of the canal for 20th century ships. (Tel: 0161 872 2411) Drop down to the river through Pomona Lock. There and hack in 2 hours
Rochdale Nine
Wide locks pass the heart of Manchester night life. Chinatown and gay pubs nearby.
Two mile link that is now a passage free of charge.
Portland Basin: Tameside Heritage Museum
Industrial heritage displayed in rebuilt warehouse.
Tie up in the basin. Canals Festival mid July.
Marple Aqueduct and Locks
Goyt Valley spanned by Benjamin Outrarn’s threearched. 1 00 foot high Scheduled Ancient Monument. 16 locks climb 214 feet through woods past local parkland and leafy suburban houses.
Tie up north of the Aqueduct. Energetic walk on waymarked path into the valley. well worth the trouble.
Bosley Locks
12 locks descend 118 feet in magnificent surroundings. Telfords only locks on the Macclesfield Canal.
Heartbreak Hill
26 sets of locks were made into pairs ( 1 835) to reduced waiting time on this busy waterway. Chamber of Lock 53 was rebuilt in steel after being wrecked by salt-induced subsidence. but was heavy to work and ignored by boatmen.
Twenty nine locks in ten miles.
Middlewich Big Lock
Sole wide lock at the north end of Trent and Mersey Canal built to let barges away to Manchester and Wigan but negated by the narrow tunnel at Preston Brook and the rebuilt dimensions of Croxton Aqueduct.
Only one stop lock until Manchester 40 miles away or Wigan 54 miles away
Three Tunnels
Wide passing pounds separate Barnton (1716 feet) and Salterford (1272 feet) Tunnels. Together with Preston Brook Tunnel (3717 feet) they allow the canal to hug the steep side of the Weaver Valley.
Tie up and await your hourly slot. On the hour northbound. on the half-hour southbound.

Worth a detour
Worsley Delph and Barton Aqueduct
Duke’s mines at Worsley, original source of coal to Manchester. Huge Barton Swing Aqueduct built by Manchester Ship Canal Company after it bought both the Bridgewater Canal and River Irwell Navigation.
5 miles, 0 locks each way. Allow 2½ hours.
Anderton Lift (2002) and Weaver Navigation
Wide navigation under huge swing bridges that let sea going cargo ships up as far as Winsford.
Narrowboats pass under without disturbance. Vale Royal cut, turn at Winsford Bottom Flash.
7 miles, 2 locks each way. 5 hours plus time for passing through lift. Book the lift in advance.
Peak National Park and Bugsworth Basin
River Goyt Valley, Millennium Walkway to the Tons, Bugsworth Basin - a huge canal/tramway interchange and major limestone source. Now under re-restoration.
 7 miles, 0 locks each way. Allow 4 hours
Harecastle Tunnel to Etruria
Experience the second longest tunnel. Go to original Wedgwood pottery site and Bone and Flint Mill. 5½ miles, 0 locks each way. Allow for waiting at the tunnel and 3 hours.

Suggested Guide Book
Exploring the Cheshire Ring British Waterways, 2000

Tourist Information
Altrincham Tel: 0161 9125931
Manchester Tel: 0161 234 3157
Ashton-under-Lyne Tel: 0161 343 4343
Macclesfield Tel: 01625 504114

Cruising Maps
GEOprojects: Trent & Mersey Canal map 1, Preston Brook to Fradley Junction
GEOprojects: Macclesfield and Peak Forest Canals with the Ashton Canal

Back to Cheshire Ring

Clear Text Pages
East London Ring

East London Ring
Two parks, Three Mills and a basin.

Hertford Union Canal (1838)
Hertford Union Jcn - Victoria Park - Old Ford Jcn
Lee Navigation (1769)
Old Ford - Three Mills - Bow Locks Limehouse Cut (1770, 1968)
Bow Locks - Limehouse Basin
Regent’s Canal (1820)
Limehouse Basin - Mile End - Hertford Union Jcn

Allow 4 hours travelling on the ring itself plus 9½ hours from hirebase to ring.
6 miles of wide canal, 8 wide locks.

A tiny ring lined with attractions open at weekends provides a gentle target from the nearest hirebases.

Visitor attractions
Bow Wharf
Quayside fun, redeveloped from former glue factory warehouses, Jongleurs Comedy Club, real ale and other pars. (Jongleurs Tel: 020 7564 2500).
Tie up near Hertford Union Junction.
Victoria Park
Major green lung developed in Queen Victoria’s days follows the canal for almost a mile. Tie up at Three Colt Bridge.
Three Mills Visitor Centre (Tel: 020 8983 1121)
Early (1776) environmentally sound energy source. Incoming tides are held back in a 50 acre lake and then released under waterwheels to produce over 150 horsepower driving eight pairs of millstones.
Tie up next to the mills. Open Sunday afternoons.
Dr Barnardo’s Ragged School Museum showing East London conditions of poverty and charitable moves to improve education in late l800s. Lord Shaftesbury assisted.
Tie up near Johnson ‘s Lock, No 10.

Waterway distractions
 Sir George Duckett’s Cut (1830)
Sir George, owner of Stort Navigation, paid for this short canal with three wide locks but he set toll charges too high and it failed. Sold to Regent’s Canal.
Now known as the Hertford Union Canal.
Bow Back Rivers
Complex of tidal creeks and canalised water at the mouth of River Lee as it discharges into the Thames. Now protected by a flood barrier on Bow Creek.
Tie up near Old Ford Lock Walk the towpaths.
Limehouse Basin
Barges and narrowboats crowded the basin to offload direct over the side from seagoing ships. Now a haven for all kinds of boats - masted seagoing yachts and wide beam barges.
Tie up in the basin.

Tourist Information
London Tourist Board
Tel: 09068 663344 (Premium rate line)
Website: www.londontouristboard.com

Cruising Maps
GEOprojects: Lee and Stort Navigations with the East London Ring
GEOprojects: Grand Union Canal map 3, Fenny Stratford to the Thames

Back to East London Ring

Clear Text Pages
Stourport Ring

Birmingham Canal Navigations (1769-1863)
Aldersley Jcn - Wolverhampton - Coseley - Tipton Spon Lane - Soho - Gas Street Basin
Worcester and Birmingham Canal (1815)
Gas Street Basin - King’s Norton Junction Tardebigge - Hanbury Jcn - Diglis Basins
Severn Navigation (1812, 1842)
Worcester - Stourport
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal (1772)
Stourport - Kidderminster - Cookley - Kinver - Stourton - Botterham - The Bratch - Aldersley Jcn

Allow 50 hours travelling.
65 miles of narrow canal, 13 miles of river, 8 tunnels, 119 narrow locks, 3 wide locks.

Drop down from the Birmingham plateau through the longest lock flight, test the waters of the River Severn, climb gently up the attractive Stour Valley. Plenty to see in Worcester and Birmingham.

Visitor attractions
Black Country Living Museum
Period dress, old money. tram rides. Vast collection of real buildings brought together into a village after being dismantled from redevelopment sites all over the Black Country. Seek out lime kilns to see huge scale of Lord Ward’s industrial operation (1778). No wonder the woods above are pockmarked like a WWI battlefield.
Tie up actually in the museum itself
Brindley Place
Heart of Birmingham with restaurants, bars, cafés, museums, theatres, galleries and huge pedestrian shopping areas.
Tie up near Broad Street Bridge.
Cadbury World (Tel:0l 21 45 1 4180)
Chocolate makers fantastic fantasy. Great trip for the kids. Tells the story of how we came to eat so much and how Coronation Street got involved. Sadly does not relate Cadbury’s long association with canals (1915-1930, 1966-1968). Regular runs in distinctive livery to Liverpool for sugar, to Cheshire for milk and to deliver cocoa and chocolate to London.
Tie up near Bridge 77.
Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings
Three-seater earth closet from Leominster is the smallest of the rescued and rebuilt structures. Others include local nail works, working windmill, timber framed houses and the Guesten Hall roof from Worcester Cathedral Priory sitting on a new hall. UK Telephone Kiosk Collection. (Tel: 01527 831363)
Tie up at Stoke Wharf or Bridge 48. Walk north.
The Commandery, Worcester
War Rooms of Charles II prior to battle (1651).
Tie up above Sidburv Lock 3, alongside the entrance.
Severn Valley Steam Railway (Tel: 01299 4038
Upstream beyond the current limit of navigation Bewdley, Hampton Loade ferry and Bridgenorth. 16 mile railway that may go to Ironbridge one day.
Tie up in Kidderminster above Lock 6. Cross highway into town and beyond to Railtrack’s station.
Kinver Edge
Wooded ridge with magnificent views, popular with Birmingham people since Victorian times.
Tie up above Kinver Lock.

Waterway distractions
Wolverhampton Lock Flight
21 locks in a mile and half. The Birmingham Canal Company’s finale (1772), linking the plateau to the wider canal network for the first time. Passes Racecourse and ends amid a rural cutting.
Gas Street Basin
Worcester and Birmingham Canal’s 20 year stand-off with the Birmingham Canal Company meant double handling across the 7 foot Worcester Bar. Today’s attractions are pubs and clubs clustered around the heart of the canal system. Flood-lit towpaths at night.
Tie up for an afternoon and walk the towpaths.
Tardebigge Locks
Thirty locks climbing 217 feet plus the six at Stoke provides a baptism of fire - 36 locks in four miles. The top lock might have been a small boat lift, but the failed experiment has left us with a 14 foot chamber.
Aickman - Rolt Plaque
The top lock of the flight was practically in the middle of nowhere when Robert Aickman walked from Bromsgrove station to meet his fellow author Tom Roll, living here with his wife Angela on their narrowboat ‘Cressy’ (1946). This historic meeting led to the founding of the Inland Waterways Association which campaigned for over 50 years for Governments to recognise all inland waterways as an asset not a liability. Present  Government now accepts this view and encourages everyone to use the water, hedgerows and towing paths for the recreational opportunities they offer.
IWA commemorative plaque tells the story by Lock 1.
Bittell Reservoirs (1815, 1832)
Lower Bittell Reservoir was provided solely for millers on the Rea and Arrow Rivers downstream. Upper Bittell feeds the canal itself.
Tie up near Bridges 65 or 66. Short walk north.
Stourport Basins
Two sets of narrow staircase locks and two vast ‘barge’ locks sized for Severn Trows lead from the variable levels of the River Severn into the calm of two large basins. Two major commercial buildings complete the picture - The Tontine Hotel built for passengers and the Clock Warehouse built for goods.
Tie up just outside the basin, but give them a whirl.
The Bratch (30 feet) (3 locks)
Much photographed locks and octagonal toll office, generally supported by groups of gongoozlers, Locks are apparently close enough to be a staircase, but actually work by disposing of the water through swirling culverts to hidden pounds to one side.
Take instructions from the lock keeper
Aldersley and Autherley Junctions
A pair of turnings off one of the oldest canals in the country (1772), one climbs up to Birmingham (1772), the other is the start of Telford’s straight-as-a-die link to Liverpool (1835).
See remains of toll keepers‘ cottages and stables.

Short cut
Climb up to the Birmingham plateau by the route Lord Dudley intended. Turn right at Stourton Junction into the Stourbridge Canal, past the Town Arm to Parkhead. Then through the wide towpath-lined Netherton Tunnel (9080 feet) to Dudley Port Junction.
13 miles, 29 locks. Allow 11 hours. 9 miles and 11 locks less, thus saving 5 hours.

Worth a detour
Lapworth Locks
Lock-free run to the top of a flight of 26 locks.
10 ½ miles, 0 locks each way. Allow 6 hours.
Tewkesbury
Run down to the River Avon, past Upton upon Severn.
16 miles, 1 lock each way. Allow 9 hours.

Tourist Information
Wolverhampton Tel: 01902 312051
Dudley Tel: 01384 812830
Birmingham Tel: 0121 693 6300
Worcester Tel: 01905 726311
Kidderminster Tel: 01562 829400

Cruising Maps
GEOprojects: Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal with the River Severn and the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal
GEOprojects: Worcester and Birmingham Canal with the Droitwich Canals
GEOprojects: Birmingham Canal Navigations

Back to Stourport Ring

Clear Text Pages
Lancaster Canal

Northern Reaches (1819-1962)
Kendal - Tewitfield (currently unnavigable)
Lancaster Canal Long Pound (1797)
Tewitfield - Lune - Lancaster - Glasson Jcn - Preston
Ribble Link River Douglas Navigation
Haslam Park - 3 rise staircase - Savick Brook Tidal River Ribble - Tarleton Tidal Lock

Allow 12 hours travelling the single pound from Preston to Tewitfield. The canal will never be part of a ring, so all hirings require a return to home base (thus a current maximum of 28 hours travelling, with the possibility of many side trips by public transport).
42 miles of wide canal, 3 mile branch.
3 aqueducts, 6 wide locks to Glasson.

A peaceful isolated canal running through rustic Lancastrian countryside and passing close to the county town until the hills start to come close in anticipation of a National Park. Uniquely, no locks.

Visitor attractions
Morecombe Bay
Sandy beaches of the shallow Morecombe Bay make a wide open panorama at low tide where once a coach and four made the short journey across the sands.
Tie up near Bridge 118 at Hest Bank
Judges’ Lodgings
Once used only twice a year. Prosperous family home from 1700s displayed in a 1612 town house. Barry Elder doll collection.
Tie up on Lancaster’s moorings near Bridge 99.
Avenham Park
Alongside the Ribble, the line of the original tramway river crossing can still be followed along a reproduction in concrete of the original timber trestle bridge - gives foot and cycle access.
Tie up at Ashton Basin. One mile walk

Waterway distractions
‘Waterwitch’trip boat (Tel: 01722 746914)
Five miles south of Kendal, the Lancaster Canal Trust runs free trips at Crookland Bridge.
Summer Sundays only.
From M6 J36, join A65 and go north to B6385.
Tewitfield Lock Flight
Abrupt end, noisy motorway. Eight stone chambers end in weirs. Start of a 15 mile walk to Kendal.
Tie up alongside others near Capernwray Arm.
Lune Aqueduct (664 feet) (1797)
Five masonary arches cross the Lune in John Rennie’s superb but simple grand design.
Tie up near Bridge 108. Walk down to the riverside.
Maritime Museum (Tel: 01542 64637)
Sea port fishing and canal displays in former Custom House, Lancaster (1764).
Tie up near Bridge 99 to Damside.
Long Pound (41 miles)
The longest length of canal on a single level in the country. It was the pride of the company which allowed horse-drawn ‘Swift boats’ purchased from Scotland to give a faster and smoother service than the competing stage coaches or railways.
No need to emulate the 3 hour Lancaster to Preston timetable.
Original canal drawings (Tel: 01772 263039)
Over 50 original documents about the Lancaster Canal are held by the Records Office in Bow Lane. Includes original engraved plans (Ref: DDPD 25/34).
Tie up at Ashton Basin. Closed one week per month.
Preston Riversway (Tel: 01772726711)
Preston Dock in another guise. Basin opens onto the Ribble two miles upstream from new Ribble Link.
Tie up at Ashton Basin. One mile walk or sail in!

Worth a detour
Glasson Branch (1825)
Six wide locks down to the huge sea basins.
3 miles, 6 locks, Allow 5 hours travelling.
Ribble Link to Tarleton (2002)
An adventure unlikely to be available to hireboats, this link will only be available at certain states of tide and with advice from British Waterways lock keepers. One way working in the tidal Savick Brook.
9 miles, 9 locks. Allow 12 hours travelling.

Future possibilities
Restoration of the waterway approach to Kendal and
the Lake District is currently entering the agenda of The Waterways Trust.

Tourist Information
Lancaster Tel: 01524 32878
Garstang Tel: 01995 602125
Preston Tel: 01772 253731

Back to Lancaster Canal