Going nowhere slowly...
- workingways2022
- Aug 28, 2025
- 7 min read
Where has the time gone? My last blog finished at Easter! Little did we know then that we'd still be on the Macclesfield Canal now. But more of that later...
Every four years boats need to have a Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) inspection and ours was looming, as Jasmine had last been inspected just before we `bought her. The difficulty was finding an examiner. Ideally we'd need one who was gas safe registered, or, as liveaboard boaters, we'd need to have a bubble tester fitted. The first one we found suddenly went AWOL and wouldn't get back to us to confirm he could do it and time was running out... Luckily we popped into the chandlery at Freedom Boats in Macclesfield. Just by chance a BSS examiner was in there buying something, plus Kev at the wharf said he
could fit a bubble tester for us - hurrah! The work and the inspection took place a couple of weeks later. Our examiner, Rupert, was incredibly thorough, but two hours later we'd been given the thumbs up, so all good. Phew!
Whilst near Macclesfield, we were able to go to the Treacle Market. It was a warm and sunny April day, a jazz band was playing and we enjoyed a Kickback coffee and a lovely browse around the many (140 apparently!) stalls. The train station has also been handy for trips to London to visit our new grandson. Back aboard, we visited the Floating Farm Shop boat and generally enjoyed being in Bollington with it's lovely pubs, handy refill shop, weekend cricket matches and friendly folk club. On the May bank holiday we did the steep climb up to White Nancy, walked along Kerridge Ridge, had a picnic with a view across to Rainow and returned back through Waulkmill Wood and its spectacular bluebells, finally hearing a brass band playing for VE day as we returned via the recreation ground. We were moored by a friendly boater, Rae, who kindly offered to water my roof garden while we were away. When we got back we went out for a lovely Sunday lunch at the Vale Inn with some friends and Rob excelled at his lemon drizzle cake making!
After a stay in Higher Poynton we moved nearer Marple where we were able to walk to Rose Hill station and catch a train into Manchester to meet our
boater friends Lynne & Nigel. We had such a lovely day, exploring the city by foot and tram, eating a tasty takeaway lunch in the sun and introducing them to Castlefield Viaduct garden (a lot more colourful than when we last visited in November). Then it was back onto the Upper Peak Forest Canal and a lovely mooring
where the owners from the house below us would climb over their low wall onto the towpath each day to check and feed the orphaned ducklings nearby. We also got to know Vinnie, the Irish boatman - a well-known character in this area! It was a warm and sunny spell and after work and boat jobs we'd enjoy a nice glass of wine sitting on the back deck.
For Rob's birthday we went on a carefully curated (by yours truly) magical mystery tour walk - through the lovely hamlet of Strines, up onto a beautiful ridge, past Three Chimneys (believed by some to be inspiration for The Railway Children), taking in the striking Mellor Cross, which we could see from our mooring, up to Mellor Moor, a picnic in a peaceful quarry, a pint at the Devonshire Arms, then up to St Thomas's church, a look at the old fort and roundhouse, down through a newly planted vineyard, and back past the remains of the historic Mellor Mill and Samuel Oldknow's house. I also took him for a meal at Kambuja, a Cambodian restaurant in Marple (well recommended), and he treated himself to a cigar box guitar from the Dirt Pie Guitars stall during another visit to the Treacle Market.
We had a daytrip out to Glossop to use the laundrette, grabbed a bite to eat in the sunny market square and then drove up the infamous Snake Pass and walked up to the crash site of the US airforce B-29 Superfortress 'Over-Exposed', a reconnaisance aircraft
which crashed in 1948 and then left in situ as a moving tribute to the crew who all died. Another day I went to an open day at St Paul's in Strines - an old 'tin tabernacle' church, originally intended as temporary, but still going strong over 140 years later! The folk were incredibly friendly and the coffee and cake were delicious. They even gave me cake to take back to Rob!
Then it was my birthday and another magical mystery tour! This time we started with a bacon roll and coffee at the Bridge Cafe in Whaley, then drove up into the peaks, through some stunning scenery and spotted lapwings. We finally arrive at the Cat & Fiddle Inn - now the Forest Distillery where we were booked onto the Taste of Forest session. We were the only ones there so we had Chris all to ourself as he explained about the history of the pub and the company. As Rob was driving I ended up having all his tasters too - a variety of gins plus whiskey and rum - hic! After grabbing some food in Buxton we cleared our heads with a lovely walk up to Solomon's Tower. Luckily the weather was good that day, but the weekend was wet and chilly and we even lit the fire, but a tasty Sunday lunch in Disley warmed us up.
We continued along the Peak Forest and this time we went up the arm to Whaley Bridge,
where we had a nose at the work going on at Todbrook Reservoir - still being fixed after a breach in 2019 which evacuated the town and a much-needed source of water, as you will find out. We also went to a music session at the Whaley Nook, in a tiny backroom of a tiny pub, full of very talented musicians. Moving on to Bugsworth Basin, we enjoyed being hidden away down Mr Sattersfield's Branch, named after a Manchester lime merchant - a really peaceful spot, despite our neighbours running their engine for hours... It was the perfect place for a couple of barbecues, we walked to a great little craft market at the Transhipment Shed in Whaley, I found another lovely church with coffee, cake and friendly folk, and when it was really hot we were able to pull forward under a bridge to keep cool!
Having the car with us meant we could drive to Marple to see The Salt Path at the lovely old Regent Cinema, and visit the very cool Bohemian Bus Cafe in Furness Vale before a fabulous walk up into the peaks. We also met some local musician friends at Boarsfest, a mini music and beer festival at The Boars Head in Higher Poynton, as well as going to the friendly
music session at the Red Lion in High Lane, run by the lovely Ken, who can also often be found volunteering along the canal for the CRT. Returning late at night we heard a loud splash - most likely an otter, although we never actually saw it, sadly.
After a lovely trip to Devon, Rob fitted a second lithium battery which will really help us with our power needs - especially in winter. We then retraced our steps to Bollington - a very wet cruise which involved long stints sheltering under bridges and having lovely chats to the walkers and cyclists doing the same! Now that Bosley Locks were open again, our plan was to head down them
and make our way towards Birmingham. The locks were already restricted to three days a week, so when we heard from Vinnie that they'd be closing again, we had to make a quick decision about what to do. We would miss our towpath jams with Vinnie, with Rob on guitar and him playing his low whistle but we decided to get moving so we could get down them on the Sunday. Jasmine, however, had other ideas, as she decided not to start and by the time Rob had worked out the problem we heard that, due to a faulty cill at one of the locks, the whole flight had been closed early... We wouldn't be going anywhere fast (or should that be slowly?!).
We took our minds off our predicament by having a lovely night out listening to Richard Thompson playing a solo gig in the grounds of the stunning Gawsworth Hall, foraged blackberries and raspberries along the towpath and spotted mink swimming in the canal near Macclesfield (which we did report), before we moved on to
Danes Moss and reunited with our friend Rae. Sutton Reservoir, which was low when we'd visited back in April, was even lower now. We had a lovely walk to Gawsworth Hub for a coffee, then discovered Maggotty Wood (final resting place of Maggotty Johnson) and then braced ourselves for Storm Floris. However the more
unsettling event was four police officers visiting the boat ahead of us and eventuallyescorting the woman onboard away... Unsurprisingly, neither we nor Rae felt like staying after that, so we did a very slow moonlight (well, 9pm) flit and moved to Gurnett, arriving in the pitch dark. It was very handy for visiting the Macclesfield Sheepdog Trials though, which were taking place in a large field only two minutes walk from the boat.
With the lack of rain, the water situation along the canals has been getting precarious. We returned to Bollington and planned to wait there until the locks were fixed and hopefully some rain would bring some water. We made blackberry jam as well as wild plum jam and Rob finished off making a frame and clear perspex cover for our side hatch, which will provide extra insulation and added light. Rae kindly kept an eye on our boat while we had a quick trip away.
On our return we had to make a decision - stay where we were or move north to Whaley or south to Bosley, to one of the two sites that CRT have said they will try to keep in water. You'll have to come back next time to find out what we decided to do!
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Thank you so much :-)
A bumper edition! Great reading your blog as always, looking forward to the next one x