A lock, a tunnel and a steam engine

[davidwheeler]

It is October 1969. We had hired a motor boat from Canal PleasureCraft of Stourport for two weeks, for £50. To get to Llangollen and back.

 

But when we got to Trevor, just across the aqueduct, we found the canal blocked. No doubt there had been closure notices pinned on British Waterways boards. So we decided to go back the long way round.  

 

Our boat was 'Water Rat', 26 feet long, two berth. 2 1/2hp  Stuart Turner petrol engine, maximum speed 2 1/2 mph - measured, desperately,  against a standard British Waterways mile. Pretty good in its day but not perhaps quite up to current day hirer expectations. We liked it a lot. I will attach a copy of the specification (with permission) if I can. The inventory is not complete because it misses out the spade. Absolutely vital to deal with the Elsan contents. No sanitary stations. Plenty of water points, railway stations, public telephones, public houses,  letter boxes and other necessaries but no sanitary stations. 

 

To keep this short and less boring, it will be about one day and a bit.

 

We arrived at Middlewich late in the afternoon and it did not look encouraging. We walked to the junction lock to see if the Trent & Mersey looked more promising and it did not. A woman came out of the lock house and eyed us. She wanted to know what we were doing. We told her we were in the boat up there and we were a bit worried. She told us to bring the boat right up to the lock, we would be all right there. We did as she told us. I expect most people did. 

 

The next morning at 8.30 we set off down the lock. She saw us out with a nod. Not too auspicious a start, with a polythene bag wrapped around the prop. A policeman kept us company while we freed ourselves, swinging around in the cut. The weather was grey and misty, the countryside was greyer but the water clear. We could see fishes. After a couple of locks a lump of wood jammed the propeller. Outside the Cerebos Salt factory. Things were getting a little bit challenging when we met the first of the doubles, the paired Wheelock Flight. Of the eight, two had only one of the pair operative. Which was shown on booklet 13 had we looked closely but we hadn't.  Several times I made the wrong choice. 'This one. No not this one, that one!' Several times the steerer entered the lock and had to back out again. Then she placed the bows firmly between the two locks and refused to go further. The weather and things got ever gloomier and the wind got up as well. 'Water Rat' was a jolly little boat but got blown about a bit. Especially when stationary waiting for a decision as to which lock to aim for. It was a relief when we got to Thurlwood Steel Lock because here surely things would work. Have you been through Thurlwood Steel Lock? There are those of us who have and those who have not. We have. The instructions were detailed, the lock was very slow and I remember it being very hard work. Whether the gates had to be raised by hand winding or whether there was electricity I cannot now remember. It was laborious.  We were glad to get out of it. 'Bloody useless!' I wrote in Booklet 13, although a bold attempt to overcome the subsidence problems.  So on we went through more paired or not-paired locks in increasing gloom until we reached the northern portal of the Harecastle.

 

Now Booklet 13 states clearly this: " Navigation in accordance with times exhibited on Notice Boards". On the 11th October 1969 there was no such notice board apparent at the northern portal. I will swear as to that, because we searched for information and there was nothing. The whole place looked neglected and despondent. Like we did. We wondered whether it was closed and whether we had enough time to get back to Stourport if we had to turn round. We rather thought not. The night did not get better than the day.

 

But sharp on 8 am next morning a rap on the boat's roof and "Are you ready to go through?".  And off we went, into the tunnel. It was grey to start with, with mist, but as the pumps at the other end started to shift the air, it became clear and black. Absolutely and completely black. We had a spotlight in the front bulkhead, perhaps from something like a Morris Minor and not very powerful. We had the cabin light on as well. Beside us reassuringly was the towpath, but as we went on the towpath began to sink, and the handrail followed as did the tunnel vault which gradually leaned down towards us until we could no longer see across the boat's roof but only round the sides and we lost control. The boat bumped and scraped from side to side, showering us and it in damp lumps of cold oxide sludge, bruising, denting and knocking off bits of the boat's hand rails. We stopped, gathered ourselves and set off again, creeping forward in this stygian gloom, on and on until after hours it seems, suddenly, as the noise of the pumps got louder and louder, the tunnel portal gate opened and there was a large half-moon of light. Out we surged, us and the boat dark red and filthy. The tunnel keeper lent us a big mop. He said he had not seen a CPL boat through the tunnel before. We were the only boat expected that day. There had been no boat through the day before. But it was end of season.

 

On we went through Stoke and its then active industry until we reached Trentham and country again. And the massive and imposing five chimneys of Meaford Power Station, where we stopped. Not for the power station, but for 'MEA2', the CEGB steam locomotive, shoving its coal trucks around.  Puffing and clanking and jostling about.  I would add a picture of this engine but I cannot since I do not have permission. But you can find it on the internet if you choose.

 

So there we were. In a day and a half, three things: two have gone and one completely changed.

 

When we got back to Stourport we showed Mr Abbot what we had done to his  boat. He told us that we weren't supposed to take the boat through the Harecastle but that he had not thought to tell us because he didn't think that we would get that far. 'Quite an adventure you have had!' he said.  He didn't seem to mind at all. In fact he seemed quite pleased.

 

 

 

[David Mack]

3 hours ago, davidwheeler said:

A woman came out of the lock house and eyed us. She wanted to know what we were doing. We told her we were in the boat up there and we were a bit worried. She told us to bring the boat right up to the lock, we would be all right there. We did as she told us. I expect most people did. 

Would that have been the redoubtable Maureen in 1969?

3 hours ago, davidwheeler said:

When we got back to Stourport we showed Mr Abbot what we had done to his  boat. He told us that we weren't supposed to take the boat through the Harecastle but that he had not thought to tell us because he didn't think that we would get that far.

In 1993 we took Dabchick from Bidford Boats through Froghall Tunnel, scraping paint off the handrail in the process. They weren't concerned about the paint loss, but delighted one of their boats had got so far from the base. 

(We also got to Llangollen, and I had my foot in plaster for most of the three week trip, but that's another story).

[GilesMorris]

Thank you for posting that - many memories. A pretty ambitious journey. For context, the normal week's trip for hirers at the company I spent my summer Saturdays working for at the time was a one way trip between Wheaton Aston (around 8 miles north of Autherley Junction) and Llangollen.

[pearley]

You were 10 years ahead of us. Thurlwood Steel Lock was still there but out of use in 1980.

[David Mack]

6 hours ago, pearley said:

You were 10 years ahead of us. Thurlwood Steel Lock was still there but out of use in 1980.

Would have been about 1981 when we passed in a hire boat. Wanted to use the Steel Lock, but it was out of use. We still crawled all over it though.

[GilesMorris]

12 hours ago, pearley said:

You were 10 years ahead of us. Thurlwood Steel Lock was still there but out of use in 1980.

I was lucky enough to use it a couple of times. It was an odd structure - so large yet so wobbly

[davidwheeler]

I was going to add this. I think I still will. It is a photo of the motor boat 'Water Rat'. And of its steerer. Because the grey and the gloom did fade away. And the sun did come out. And it stayed out, more or less, for the next fifty years.