Church Lawton to Hassall Green (Trent & Mersey Canal)

We are only going a few miles today as there are a lot of locks in this stretch of the canal so we are trying to split them up a bit so we don’t have to do too many in one day, so today we are doing 10 and then we have another 10 to do tomorrow.  This stretch is sometimes called ‘heartbreak hill’ because of the all the locks, but is known to the old boatmen as the ‘Cheshire Locks’.

Into the first lock of the day

Going down!

The sun was shining as we set off and it was very warm.  The first two locks are close together and they were set for us so we were soon through there and on along the canal.

 

Mow Cop still in the distance

There is a bit of a gap then four locks close together.  We worked our way through.  They are nice locks to do and empty and fill quite quickly and would you believe it we still had distance views of Mow Cop, we must surely lose sight of it soon.  It’s funny before we knew what it was, we never took any notice of it and now we know we keep getting glimpses of it, but then when you are at the top you can see for miles so I suppose it makes sense you can see it in the distance for miles too.

Kev shutting the gate

Lock by row of nice cottages

The canal seems very quiet now, I suppose the kids are going back to school now although even in the school holidays nowhere was that busy.  We only saw a few boats today.

We chugged on to the next lock and soon through there and onto the last two locks for today which are close together so it didn’t take too long to get through them.

Last lock for today

We were then at Hassall Green and we moored up there.  There are no shops or pubs here these days, there used to be, but they have all closed down.

We had lunch then went for a walk down the locks and sat on one of the lock beams for a bit as it was such a lovely sunny afternoon then we walked back up and sat on a bench by the lock just along from where we are moored and watched a couple of boats come through.

We are staying there tonight then off down 10 locks tomorrow to Wheelock so let’s hope the sun is shining again.

Moored at Hassall Green