Food shopping guide for the Llangollen Canal

[Michael Donning]

Hi all!

We did a 2 weeks hireboat trip in mid July to Llangollen + Chester. One thing that I didn't expect to happen so often was shopping for food. But we had 3 constantly growing teens in the crew which ate us out of boat and home. Another reason may've been also that we arrived (from Germany) by plane. So we did only some essential food shopping before getting afloat on our Snowmane of Chas Hardern Boats.

 

Considering that. I thought that it might be helpful to post some notes and maps on the topic food shopping for other canal visitors.

 

Generally, I propose that you bring a backpack or just any other convient bags (i.e. IKEA bags) for shopping. This depends also on how many hands you have to carry the food (count only one hand for each teen as the other is constantly occupied by the phone). The footpaths which I marked on the maps are often NOT quite suitable for anything with wheels.

 

Nantwich (Shopshire Union Canal):

Ok, Nantwich is off topic. But I'll add it anyway as it is quite close to the Hurleston Locks/Llangollen Canal and we actually DID do shopping there.

We had to search quite a bit for a mooring spot here. The town seems to be popular. At least in summer and on a saturday. Our walk went through a quiet residential area where we spotted at least 4 cats ? and then through the park along the River Weaver.

 

 

Wrenbury:

There's a SPAR at Wrenbury. Despite its small size you find nearly everything in there. We took the public footpath across a field from liftbridge 19 which (officially) crosses a graveyard. For me, this little village resembles somehow a location of the Midsomer Murders tv series.

 

 

Whitchurch:

You might have to fiddle a bit with the winding holes when coming from north. The footpath follows the former continuation of the Whitchurch Arm. Therefore you avoid any steep climbs. ? Quite a walk but not boring.

 

Ellesmere:

You'll find the Tesco right at the end of the Ellesmere Arm. But it can be difficult to find a mooring spot here in the summer. You may consider mooring on the Llangollen outside the Arm. The walk isn't far anyway.

 

I'll skip Chirk. We saw on the map that you could moor up right after the Chirk Tunnel (North side) and walk to a SPAR. But surprisingly we spared this one.

 

Llangollen:

In Llangollen, you moor along the canal or in the marina. In any case, if you stay longer than 4 hours then you have to pay a fee of 6£ per day. For this, you'll get water and shore line (if you brought a 16A, "blue", camping type cable, I think) at each mooring spot. I marked the Llangollen Wharf where you can obtain the ticket or ice cream or narrowboat themed towels.... The horse drawn boats also start there.

 

Obviously, there are some shopping opportunities in Llangollen. We found the walk along the river Dee to get to the ALDI actually quite pleasant.

 

Edited August 1, 2019 by Michael Donning

[Guest]

Great idea and helpful images. 

[Graham Davis]

Whilst a good idea they only show supermarkets, and when on holiday we try to use as many small independent retailers as possible, especially butchers and bakers. I know there were plenty of those in Nantwich and Ellesmere. 

[Michael Donning]

We actually fetched some Welsh Oaties from Gerrards bakery (I think) in Llangollen. Butchers weren't a topic as our family of five had only one meat eater which wan't interested in doing his own shopping. But if certain butchers and/or bakeries are recommended here for those locations then I can update the maps at a later time.

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, Graham Davis said:

Whilst a good idea they only show supermarkets, and when on holiday we try to use as many small independent retailers as possible, especially butchers and bakers. I know there were plenty of those in Nantwich and Ellesmere. 

Perhaps you might like to take some time to list them. 

[Kudzucraft]

This sort of information would be a great thing to add to Open Canal Map! Not sure if it can but maybe the owner is open to the idea of letting us add to it?

[Michael Donning]

Much of that information (shops, pubs, etc.) is already available in the Openstreetmap project. I think I remember that the author of the Open Canal Map had some discussion with the OSM guys about the project name (I don't know how it turned out). Anyway it could as well be added separately to the OCM.

 

By the way, I forgot to add the proper disclaimer about my map source. Here it is:

Map Data: © OpenStreetMap-Contributors, SRTM | Map display: © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA)

[Nightwatch]

In Trevor, a plod up the hill and there is a supermarket. Can't remember which one it is, but it's there, I promise. 

[tree monkey]

9 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

In Trevor, a plod up the hill and there is a supermarket. Can't remember which one it is, but it's there, I promise. 

Yes it is and it's a Tesco 

[cp140405]

That is a great post! Thanks. We have hired a narrowboat out of Chirk for three weeks in June next year and plan on doing the Four Counties ring. Thankfully, our food bill and the load we have to carry back to the boat will be somewhat lighter as there will just be the two of us (our food bill for four went down by 1/3 when my son... 6'4" and 220lb... all muscle... moved out!)

We also plan on having Tesco deliver a "start off order" when we get aboard the boat.

[Slim]

I've got the First Mate's Guide series of books on board. They're a bit old now so a little out of date. I don't know if they are still available but somehow doubt it. They give all the facilities, shops, POs, doctors, dentists, vets etc together with bus stops, routes, short cuts and emergency phone numbers. The one bit of information they're light on is pubs.

 

Frank

[Alan]

There's a small Spar outlet at the petrol station by the roundabout behind Whitchurch Marina.

 

 

[Alan]

There's also a petrol staion opposite The Horse and Jockey at Grindley Brook which sells some basic essentials,accessed through the hedge by the bottom locks.

[tree monkey]

10 minutes ago, Alan said:

There's also a petrol staion opposite The Horse and Jockey at Grindley Brook which sells some basic essentials,accessed through the hedge by the bottom locks.

Which used to sell red diesel and paraffin from the pump very cheaply, not been for a few years so may have changed 

[cuthound]

On 03/08/2019 at 09:21, Slim said:

I've got the First Mate's Guide series of books on board. They're a bit old now so a little out of date. I don't know if they are still available but somehow doubt it. They give all the facilities, shops, POs, doctors, dentists, vets etc together with bus stops, routes, short cuts and emergency phone numbers. The one bit of information they're light on is pubs.

 

Frank

 

Still available as a free download, or bettervstill make a small donation to the author.

 

http://www.firstmateguides.co.uk/

[Slim]

Tried to open site but it looks as if it's been taken down. Shame

[Michael Donning]

There's a site which archives many sites. In that archive there's still a copy of the firstmateguides site:

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20181102231509/http://firstmateguides.co.uk/

[David Mack]

47 minutes ago, Slim said:

Tried to open site but it looks as if it's been taken down. Shame

Worked for me just now.

[cuthound]

1 hour ago, Slim said:

Tried to open site but it looks as if it's been taken down. Shame

 

Still works for me, I tried it before I put the link up and have just tried it again.

Edited September 27, 2019 by cuthound
To remove a space masquerading as a letter.

[Slim]

47 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Worked for me just now.

 

27 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

Still works for me, I tried it before I put the link up and have just tried it again.

Oh, I'll try again.

Many thanks

 

Frank

[dor]

Google maps shows many Spar and spar-type shops as well as supermarkets. 

[The Dreamer]

To be honest, these days, Google “convenience store near me”, or “butchers near me” or whatever, works every time!

[rusty69]

So does OsmAnd.... Offline too. 

[Timx]

On 27/09/2019 at 09:57, Alan said:

There's a small Spar outlet at the petrol station by the roundabout behind Whitchurch Marina.

 

 

I see on google maps there is an Aldi opposite McDonald s , but it doesn’t show the actual building, is it easily accessed from canal, where would best place be to moor.? Cheers

[tree monkey]

1 minute ago, Timx said:

I see on google maps there is an Aldi opposite McDonald s , but it doesn’t show the actual building, is it easily accessed from canal, where would best place be to moor.? Cheers

The Aldi has been built since I left the area but I think the whitchurch arm is the best bet