A SELECTION OF POSSIBLE ROUTES FOR YOUR CANAL BOAT CRUISE

How far you go depends a lot on how energetic you want to be. Canal boat cruising from dawn to dusk will certainly cover a greater distance than a plan which includes stops and time to explore. Also a route with many locks will be much more energetic than one with very few.
The routes suggested here are not exhaustive, but give you a sample of the sort of canal boat holiday you might have.

Speed travelled is approximately 3-4 miles per hour, and the same applies to number of locks per hour, but you are not in a hurry to get anywhere - the enjoyment is in the plodding along gently and admiring the scenery and wildlife, stopping at canalside pubs and exploring the towns and villages along the way.

Circular routes may seem attractive at first sight, but they entail a cruising schedule that you may not wish to keep to later in your week. A return journey back along a canal will look quite different from the outward trip, and gives an opportunity to visit places, shops and pubs that you may have missed on the way out.

We have a brochure available with details of activities and places to visit close to the canal. Please enquire.

We have included mileage and locks for each route and (in brackets) approximate cruising time (one way) from our boatyard to places mentioned. Don’t forget to allow the same return time!

Llangollen Canal
(50 miles and 26 locks each way)

A week gives you time to cruise along this lovely waterway. There is much to see and explore. Llangollen itself is a most beautiful little mountain town with interesting shops, steam railway, ruined castle and beautiful walks into the mountains. On the way up the canal you cross two of the finest Aqueducts in the world - Chirk, which runs parallel to a large railway viaduct, and the magnificent Pontcysyllte, over 1000ft (300m) long and 120ft (35m) high over the rushing waters of the River Dee.
The quiet and gentle pastures of Cheshire and the rolling hills of Shropshire give way to the impressive mountain scenery that adorns the upper River Dee valley to Llangollen.
If time allows, a detour may be made onto the first few restored miles of the Montgomery Canal, which will eventually carry boats to Welshpool and Newtown in mid Wales.

A selection of places to visit on this journey include:
Wrenbury Village & church (6hrs)
Whitchurch (10 mins walk) (10hrs)
Ellesmere small town & lakes (15hrs)
Chirk village and golf course (19hrs)
Llangollen attractions too many to list (23hrs)

Shropshire Union Canal
Beeston to Wolverhampton
(49 miles and 27 locks each way)

The “Shroppie” carries the traveller southwards through some magnificent scenery. Much of it’s course is remote, but there are wayside inns and several towns and villages within easy reach.
This canal has a totally different character to many other others, as it strides boldly across valleys on high embankments and digs deeply through narrow rock cuttings.
Locks are grouped in easy to work ‘flights’ at Audlem and Market Drayton. There are plenty of canalside pubs to slake the thirst and hunger of the traveller.
The countryside is rolling Shropshire hills at it’s best and the long embankments at Nantwich, Shebdon and Shelmore offer unrivalled views.

A selection of places to visit include:
Nantwich medieval ‘salt’ town (3½hrs)
Hack Green ‘Secret’ Bunker (5 hrs)
Audlem pretty village (6½hrs)
Market Drayton small town &
home of Gingerbread (11 hrs)
Norbury Junction canal workshops
and branch to former (17 hrs)
Shrewsbury Canal
Gnosall useful shops and pubs (18 hrs)
Wheaton Aston useful village (20 hrs)
Brewood pretty village with good shops (21 hrs)

Bridgewater Canal
to Lymm or Manchester
( To Lymm 42 miles & 14 locks each way)

From our boatyard you cruise on the Shropshire Union main line to Barbridge Junction and turn left onto the Middlewich Branch. At Middlewich turn left again onto the Trent & Mersey canal which you follow to Preston Brook where it joins the Bridgewater Canal.
The countryside to Middlewich is quiet, undulating farm land and the canal follows the River Weaver valley with views of Winsford Flashes (salt mining subsidence lakes).
Middlewich (‘wich’ or ‘wych’ means salt) is a pleasant town with useful shops and boatyards. Once out of the town, the canal follows a tortuous course along the beautiful wooded valleys of the Rivers Dane and Weaver, skirting around Northwich to arrive at Preston Brook and the Bridgewater Canal. On the way it passes the magnificent Anderton Boat Lift (now fully operational) and travels through 3 rather crooked tunnels.
The Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal was the first canal of ‘The Canal Age’. It is broad and deep and carries you to the charming town of Lymm with excellent shops and pubs.

Middlewich useful town (7hrs)
Anderton Lift (11 hrs)
Preston Brook Bridgewater Ca. (13 hrs)
Lymm pretty town (16 hrs)
Dunham Massey Hall (N.Trust) (17½hrs)

Four Counties Ring (Shropshire Union, Staffs & Worcester, Trent & Mersey and Middlewich Branch Canals)
(120 miles, 106 locks on circular route)

This is a hardworking circular route for 1 week, with little time for visiting places, or a leisurely 2 weeks with plenty of time for excursions off the canal.
On this cruise you travel southwards along the Shropshire Canal over high embankments and through deep cuttings. The main flights of locks are at Audlem and Market Drayton, all are easy to operate and in beautiful surroundings. The canal strides boldly across country in a direct line reaching Autherley Junction, near Wolverhampton, where you turn left onto the Staffs & Worcester Canal. What a contrast to the ‘Shroppie’. The canal twists and turns, in one place travelling 3 miles to cross a half mile valley. After a 7 mile summit, the locks start again at Gailey and are spaced out all the way to Stafford. At Penkridge there is a large open air market. Then you cruise through open country past Stafford to the picturesque Tixall Wide (a large lake to please the local landowner) and Great Haywood Junction. Alongside is Shugborough Hall, home of the Earl of Lichfield, with the Staffs county museum housed in the stables, well worth a visit.
Here you join the Trent and Mersey Canal, and the heavier locks begin. The canal climbs slowly to it’s summit at Etruria passing through the busy town of Stone and past the Wedgewood Pottery (also well worth a visit).
At Etruria (Stoke on Trent) the Caldon Canal branches off into the Staffordshire Moorlands to Leek and Froghall. After an industrial, although impressive, start this canal is exquisite! If you have 2 weeks don’t miss it! It will take you 4 days to fully cruise, and worth every moment.
On the main line your route continues past Etruria’s shopping parks (and Waterworld) to Harecastle Tunnel where boats are shepherded into the 2926 yard tunnel by resident keepers. Soon after, at Hardingswood Junction, the Macclesfield Canal branches away.
You now travel (work) your way down ‘heartbreak hill’so called by the old boatmen because of the large number of locks (26 to Wheelock) before there is a break. The remaining 5 locks dropping the canal to Middlewich are well spaced. At Middlewich Wardle Junction turn left onto the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union to return to Barbridge and on to our boatyard at Beeston.

Cruising times from Beeston:
Audlem (6½ hrs)
Market Drayton (11 hrs)
Norbury Junction (15½ hrs)
Autherley Junction (21 hrs)
Penkridge (25½ hrs)
Great Haywood Junction (30 hrs)
Stone (34½ hrs)
Etruria (Stoke on Trent) (39½ hrs)
Kidsgrove (42 hrs)
Middlewich (51 hrs)
Barbridge (55 hrs)
Beeston (57½ hrs)

River Weaver via Anderton Boat Lift

From the Trent and Mersey Canal the Anderton Boat Lift gives access to the River Weaver. This marvel of Victorian engineering consists of 2 tanks, each capable of raising/lowering 2 x 70ft narrow boats or 1 x 14ft wide barge, through a height change of 50 ft between the two navigations. Having been un-usable for nearly 20 years, a major reconstruction has been carried out on the structure. Restoration is now completed and the lift was reopened for public use at Easter 2002.
The Weaver is a river of great contrasts. Originally only a very minor river, it has been enlarged several times over the last 300 years, and is able to accommodate small coasters, which still occasionally penetrate upstream to Anderton wharves.
The salt and chemical industries that were once the lifeblood of the river are now only evident on 2 miles of the 20 miles Navigation. The remainder wanders through a tranquil and often beautiful vista of woods and fields. Banks are generally low, as on a narrow canal, giving good views of the surrounding countryside.
The 4 locks are only operated by resident keepers during normal working hours. Take note of the particularly impressive
masonry on locks, navigation structures and high level railway bridges. All the swing bridges (for ships) have plenty of clearance for narrowboats.
Excellent shopping is available in Northwich, with good moorings, where the navigation passes right through the town centre. Winsford’s salt industry has mostly been landscaped into the Weaver Valley Park, but the only rock salt mine in the country may still be seen alongside the river. The main shopping centre is less than ½ mile from Winsford Bridge. The official Navigation ends at this bridge. The large Winsford Flash (lake caused by subsided ground) looks inviting, but is extremely shallow in parts. Boats should not attempt to cruise this water.
Please note that The Weaver is a river navigation, with much deeper water than narrow canals, and stronger water currents at times of heavy rain.
Advice on moorings downstream of Anderton should be sought from the Lock Keepers, who will know if any shipping is due.

Cruising times from Beeston:
Middlewich (7 hrs)
Anderton Lift (11 hrs)
Upstream to Winsford (+3 hrs)
OR downstream to Runcorn (+4 hrs)

SHROPSHIRE UNION
Chester and Ellesmere Port
(21 miles & 9 locks each way) to Ellesmere Port.

A pleasant and very leisurely weeks journey.
From our boatyard you cruise through pleasant country to Chester where you pass through a deep rock cutting, outside the Roman city walls, followed by 3 staircase locks carved from rock, to moor at Tower Wharf. This is the main canal wharf complex for the city.
Chester is well worth visiting, having both historic interest in it’s ancient buildings and cathedral and also has an excellent shopping centre.
The well preserved ancient walls provide a circular walk around the old town, and ‘The Rows’(shops on several levels in the main streets) predate the modern arcades by several centuries.
Travelling further along the canal takes you past Chester Zoo to Ellesmere Port (port of Ellesmere in Shropshire) where you may see (but not cruise on) the Manchester Ship Canal. Here you may moor up in the old docks and visit the Boat Museum which displays a vast range of old working boats, canal artefacts and historical documents.

Cruising times from Beeston:
Beeston Castle ancient ruin (¾ hr)
Christleton outskirts of Chester (3hrs)
Chester Tower Wharf (6 hrs)
Chester Zoo (7½hrs)
Ellesmere Port Boat Museum (9 hrs)

TWO WEEKS OR MORE
The choice is endless, but here are a few suggestions. Any group of one week trips could be used, of course, but other alternatives include:

Cheshire Ring
Trent & Mersey, Macclesfield, Peak Forest, Ashton, Rochdale, Bridgewater Canals.
(125 miles & 110 locks on circular route)

The Macclesfield and Peak Forest canals offer a very attractive 2 weeks holiday, which could be turned into a circular route by travelling on the Ashton and Rochdale Canals to return via the Bridgewater Canal. However, impressive the industrial heritage of Manchester may be, you may find that the beautiful moorland scenery of the Macclesfield Canal will persuade you to return by the same route.
The Macclesfield Canal leaves the Trent & Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove (Stoke on Trent), and apart from a small ‘stop lock’ has only one flight of 12 easy locks at Bosley. It continues on one level then all the way to Marple and Whaley Bridge on the Peak Forest Canal.
Macclesfield is a large silk manufacturing town on the edge of the Peak District National Park. At Marple the upper Peak Forest Canal carries you through mountainous scenery to New Mills, Whaley Bridge and the vast Buxworth limestone loading basins.
If continuing round the ‘Cheshire Ring’ the lower Peak Forest Canal drops you down through 16 very deep locks at Marple, to pass over the very impressive
Marple Aqueduct and through a couple of
tunnels, to reach Dukinfield, junction with the Ashton and Huddersfield Narrow Canals (now fully restored).
Passing through the Ashton and 1½ miles of Rochdale Canal (fully restored into Yorkshire during summer 2002) you arrive at Castlefields (Manchester), junction of Rochdale and Bridgewater canals. This is an excellent safe mooring to visit the city centre and explore the excellent industrial museums and Granada TV studios. After a well earned rest on the lock free Bridgewater canal you return to Beeston via the Trent & Mersey and Middlewich Branch canals.

Cruising times from Beeston:
Middlewich (7 hrs)
Kidsgrove (16½ hrs)
Macclesfield (24 hrs)
Marple (27½ hrs)
Marple to Whaley Bridge
& return +(5 hrs)
Dukinfield (33 hrs)
Manchester Castlefields (40 hrs)
Preston Brook (48 hrs)
Middlewich (54½ hrs)
Return Beeston (61½ hrs)

Other Routes

For the adventurous, the Leeds and Liverpool is built on a grand scale. Deep wide locks carry the canal from Liverpool through Wigan, along Lancashire’s valleys and around the edge of the Yorkshire dales. This is definitely a 2 or 3 week trip from Beeston.

The Caldon canal branches off from the Trent and Mersey at Stoke on Trent. You travel along over 20 miles of the Staffordshire uplands on probably the most scenically beautiful canal to reach Froghall and Leek.

From the southern end of the Shropshire Union, one can cruise the beautiful Staffs and Worcester canal which continues down a rocky valley to Stourport and the River Severn

The rivers Severn and Avon ring may be cruised past Worcester, Tewkesbury and Stratford on Avon.

For the enthusiast the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) are a rewarding experience.

And for the real canalcoholic, the Huddersfield canal is now fully open, and with the Rochdale canal was also reopened in summer 2002, there are several combinations of hardworking long distance routes available.