Heartbreak Hill

[Ricco1]

I'm coming out of Red Bull Services tomorrow, just had the boat blacked. Highly recommended. Anyway, I'm going to head west along the Trent and Mersey. I'm aware that there's a long series of locks known as Heartbreak Hill. I'm not keen on doing long cruising days, a few hours is enough for me.

 

Can anyone recommend somewhere to stop for a day or two? Or are the locks that close together that I just need to carry on? Ideally I like stopping somewhere open rather than tree lined. Also somewhere where I can get my motorbike off the boat and towpath. Not bothered about pubs, somewhere out of the way is fine.

 

Any recommendations?

 

Cheers.

[matty40s]

I'm coming out of Red Bull Services tomorrow, just had the boat blacked. Highly recommended. ...

 

Good to see you are learning from the forum, every two years if normal bitumen based stuff....

[Ricco1]

2 pack epoxy but scraped and pressure washed rather than blasted first. £350 for my 35ft boat, good value.

[Keeping Up]

There are plenty of potential stopping places including Church Lawton (pretty) Rode Heath (Broughton Arms is good) Hassal Green (no pub any more AFAIK) and Wheelock (can get busy).

[Horace42]

Heartbreak Hill is largely psychological. Very nice stretch of canal all the way. Plenty of moorings, but we try to keep upwind of the senescent noise from the M6 motorway if mooring overnight.

[ValandPete]

Think of them as the Cheshire Locks. Break them down into flights and enjoy the lovely and varied countryside. Places to moor that are peaceful. I don't find the motorway intrusive, it is a steady hum, unlike the racket from trains breaking and squealing on bends. I recommend Church Lawton on a Sunday for the sound of church bells. There is a practice evening but can't remember which day.

 

Val

[Arthur Marshall]

If you don't want ths village, theres a nice mooring at Paddys Wood about a mile after Wheelock. Cant remember if theres road access though. I stopp atChurch Lawton too, and Rode Heath. Nowhere really after Wheelock till Middlewich.

Edited June 19, 2016 by Arthur Marshall

[Ricco1]

I'm trying to get a feel for it: is it a few hundred yards between locks; one after the other; or varying distances?

[Paul C]

It varies throughout - there's a couple of locks so close together that it makes it very awkward to pass another boat in the pound. And other miles apart. There's no pattern to it at all, really. As a singlehander it basically doesn't matter though (IMHO).

[GoodGurl]

I'm trying to get a feel for it: is it a few hundred yards between locks; one after the other; or varying distances?

varying distances, some are close together some are a bit of a walk, the paddles are heavy on all of them ( i have just done them all)lots of moorings in between them, shallow pounds at wheel lock. oh and dont forget middlewich festival is kicking out monday so will be busy.

[Jamm]

The pound at Malkins Bank, by the golf course and boatyard arm, there is one set of mooring rings on either side of the arm. This is handy before tackling the Wheelock flight.

[mayalld]

I'm trying to get a feel for it: is it a few hundred yards between locks; one after the other; or varying distances?

 

It varies!

 

I've always hypothesised that it got its name and reputation (and it is a fairly recent name) because of the "neither one way nor the other" setup.

 

Basically, it is a very spread out flight, with a couple of places where two or three locks come very close together, which means that (unlike Bosley, say) you don't get the advantage of a mile of locks where the lock wheeler doesn't bother getting on board again, then loads of lock free cruising, but several short stretches where it hardly seemed worth getting on board again.

 

If you are new to the flight, you tend to find that as soon as you get on board because you can't see another lock ahead, you go round a corner and see another!

 

Of course, as a single hander, this is rather academic to you, and what you want to know is that the whole length from Hardings Wood to Wheelock is a wonderful stretch of canal with loads of mooring opportunities between the mini-flights of locks.

[cuthound]

2 pack epoxy but scraped and pressure washed rather than blasted first. £350 for my 35ft boat, good value.

Good choice, not sure there would have been much bitumen left by the time you got to the bottom of Heartbreak Hill

 

Edited coz I got confused between the space bar and the letter "v" key.

Edited June 20, 2016 by cuthound

[Ricco1]

It would have been £315 for bitumen, paying the extra was a no brainer. It's taken a couple of days to set properly but seems tough as hell now.

[Cheshire cat]

No good for Ricco1 but I believe The Romping Donkey is currently up for sale.

 

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-for-sale/property-35148630.html

[junior]

Loads of places to stop within the area known as 'The Cheshire Locks'. If you want to break it up into 3 chunks, my advice for mooring would be Rode Heath and Wheelock. That would give you 3 short days boating.

 

My advice though if you're single handing and heading to Middlewich would be to get cracking. There will be loads of boats leaving Middlewich this morning heading up the locks today & tomorrow which should make things easier for you being on your own.

[Fatjoff]

I'm trying to get a feel for it: is it a few hundred yards between locks; one after the other; or varying distances?

Can I recommend you try Google Earth? I use the satellite imagery to give me a feel of a canal I'm not familiar with. Didn't stop me missing my eastbound turning from the HBC onto the river Calder. I realised I'd gone wrong when I ended up at Brighouse. A quick check of Google Earth, and I saw where I went astray.

[Ricco1]

I've done, I think, 6 locks. Moored up now in a lovely spot in the middle of nowhere. Only problem is that the towpath is consistently too high to get my motor bike off. Hope the whole stretch isn't like this; I'll starve!

[Paul C]

I've done, I think, 6 locks. Moored up now in a lovely spot in the middle of nowhere. Only problem is that the towpath is consistently too high to get my motor bike off. Hope the whole stretch isn't like this; I'll starve!

 

Scratching my head a bit here, another 3 locks and you'll be in Rode Heath, there is a shop within walking distance of the canal. No need to starve.

 

Don't you have a map?

[X Alan W]

I'm coming out of Red Bull Services tomorrow, just had the boat blacked. Highly recommended. Anyway, I'm going to head west along the Trent and Mersey. I'm aware that there's a long series of locks known as Heartbreak Hill. I'm not keen on doing long cruising days, a few hours is enough for me.

 

Can anyone recommend somewhere to stop for a day or two? Or are the locks that close together that I just need to carry on? Ideally I like stopping somewhere open rather than tree lined. Also somewhere where I can get my motorbike off the boat and towpath. Not bothered about pubs, somewhere out of the way is fine.

 

Any recommendations?

 

Cheers.

Who & for how long have what were always referred to as " The Cheshire locks"been called "Heartbreak Hill" there seems now to be a good few places that are named differently to the long known names. Old brain faded boaters from back in the day think that a foreign language is being spoken & feel right "wallys "as we don't know where is being referred to " Suttons Stop" being called Hawksbury Jcn is OK as it is a place on the map but a set of locks called "Heartbreak Hill" could be any where on the system to me it would be a better name for the lock flight on the K&A

[Arthur Marshall]

If you're heading over to Nantwich, and don't want to trek into Middlewich, there's a good shop on the left where the 30mph limit kicks in, in sight of Kings lock. There are rings and a gate in the fence. Only other shops are at Rode Heath and Wheelock. If going north, plenty of moorings near the shops below the Middlewich flight by the park.

[mayalld]

I've done, I think, 6 locks. Moored up now in a lovely spot in the middle of nowhere. Only problem is that the towpath is consistently too high to get my motor bike off. Hope the whole stretch isn't like this; I'll starve!

 

It varies a lot.

 

Basically, due to salt mining, the subsidence in the area is quite severe, and this meant that over the years the banks of the canal subsided to the point where the water would spill onto the towpath, so they raised the height of the banks. In some places you can see where it has been done several times.

 

When you pass through Thurlwood lock, it is actually quite fascinating to see the extent to which the island wall has fallen away and dropped.

 

Eventually, they seem to have got wise to the idea that they were raising the bank a bit, then having to do it again a couple of years later, so they started raising if by a fair bit so that they wouldn't have to revisit it so often. As the subsidence has now all but ceased, some places have a very high bank.

[Ricco1]

I'm at Rode Heath now, it's nice here. There's a road nearby. Unfortunately it's fenced to prevent wheelchairs, sorry, motorbikes, being taken onto the towpath. No worries, it's a 5 minute push to the next bridge, no restrictions there.