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Middlewich Folk and Boat festival


TheBiscuits

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23 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

These signs were between Big Lock and the bottom of the Middlewich flight, now you are saying there were non available but before you said " Empty mooring after empty mooring, all reserved for potential trade boats. We had no option but to continue south down the Trent and Mersey." If you look at the notice they were not reserved until the 11 of June, I stayed on the 10th for one night   they were empty on the 9th and you passed on the 8th. There was no reason why you couldn't have stopped.

You are are quite right. The signs do have dates. However as you cruise by there is no way I can see or read such small print (especially at my age). All I could see was ‘No Mooring. Trade Boat Only”. And yes, they were all empty spaces.

i guess the counter argument is, that is all the spaces were empty, we could have got closer to read the fine (very fine) print, but we didn’t.

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4 hours ago, dmr said:

No, but as we walked past we thought how tragic it would be if it was not resurrected as a boatyard of some sort, with that lovely black and white canopy reaching over the towpath its perfect. Also that bit of canal was always interestingly busy (hectic) and fun to navigate, now its dead.

On which subject, Companies House shows that the Chugalong Hire Company is now in liquidation :(

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1 hour ago, dmr said:

I am almost certain that at least one of the boats last year was a rather "long term" dumper. I do agree that a couple of the traders were somewhat hostile to other boaters which is rather sad. We were warned about a "troublesome boat" who moved to make a space for us when asked, and although maybe a bit scary looking turned out to be a decent bloke. A couple of boaters had been very hostile to traders the year before so these things just come back to bite!

 

There is no easy answer. If CaRT don't put the signs up early then boaters rightly feel they were not warned, especially if they have settled in for the festival, if the signs go up early like this year then short term visitors are denied a mooring. Think it was the year before last that the signs went up in good time but an angry boater walked along and removed every one.

 

 

...............Dave

 

I can see both sides, I wasn't there the year before and I find it sad to hear that the issues I encountered were possibly due to hostile boaters the year previous. This however was my first encounter with the trading community in this festival environment and it wasn't a good first impression

 

What upset me at the time was that even after I'd explained my point of view, and the fact that I'd actually cut short a family visit to make space, was that I was essentially being accused of only mooring there to cause trouble.

 

I understand that troublesome boats are.... well troublesome.

 

Anyway, it seems clear to me from this brief discussion that you wouldn't have been one of the hostile traders. I understand the situation clearer and you have improved my thoughts on reserved trading moorings so thankyou for that.

 

Happy trading.

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40 minutes ago, Derek Porteous said:

You are are quite right. The signs do have dates. However as you cruise by there is no way I can see or read such small print (especially at my age). All I could see was ‘No Mooring. Trade Boat Only”. And yes, they were all empty spaces.

i guess the counter argument is, that is all the spaces were empty, we could have got closer to read the fine (very fine) print, but we didn’t.

Maybe the sign should be 'No Mooring - Dates' in the large text and 'trade boat only' in the small text?

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4 hours ago, dmr said:

No, but as we walked past we thought how tragic it would be if it was not resurrected as a boatyard of some sort, with that lovely black and white canopy reaching over the towpath its perfect. Also that bit of canal was always interestingly busy (hectic) and fun to navigate, now its dead.

 

...............Dave

On this note, as much as I love cruising extensively I do have the need to earn money... at some point.... maybe.

 

If I could combine the two and maybe earn from the cut that would be pretty nice.

 

Are we discussing the yard at the top of the locks, the bottom of the locks or the run down buildings known as town wharf? 

 

I think from what's been said and my fading memories from a year ago it's the bottom of the locks, if so who should I enquire with. i.e are they CRT or private. I feel that knowing I personally don't need much income and would prefer a lifestyle type business I might be able to do something here.

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3 minutes ago, Tecka said:

On this note, as much as I love cruising extensively I do have the need to earn money... at some point.... maybe.

 

If I could combine the two and maybe earn from the cut that would be pretty nice.

 

Are we discussing the yard at the top of the locks, the bottom of the locks or the run down buildings known as town wharf? 

 

I think from what's been said and my fading memories from a year ago it's the bottom of the locks, if so who should I enquire with. i.e are they CRT or private. I feel that knowing I personally don't need much income and would prefer a lifestyle type business I might be able to do something here.

Top of the locks, a couple of hundred yards up from the top lock. Quite a big plot of land with a couple of nice old brick outbuildings plus the main bit facing the cut with a rather nice canopy over the towpath. Also a house which I assume is part of the same operation, was a rather nice cafe but now closed.  The old drydock on the tight bend below the top lock was part of the same operation. Dunno who owns it but I suspect CaRT, they had the key as they unlocked it to give festival boaters access to the Elsan point.

 

Kings lock yard and Chandlers is just a little way up in the same pound so serious competition for any chandlery type business.

 

Town Wharf is another sad place looking for an inspired new owner.

 

...............Dave 

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14 minutes ago, dmr said:

Top of the locks, a couple of hundred yards up from the top lock. Quite a big plot of land with a couple of nice old brick outbuildings plus the main bit facing the cut with a rather nice canopy over the towpath. Also a house which I assume is part of the same operation, was a rather nice cafe but now closed.  The old drydock on the tight bend below the top lock was part of the same operation. Dunno who owns it but I suspect CaRT, they had the key as they unlocked it to give festival boaters access to the Elsan point.

 

Kings lock yard and Chandlers is just a little way up in the same pound so serious competition for any chandlery type business.

 

Town Wharf is another sad place looking for an inspired new owner.

 

...............Dave 

It is all owned by CRT and I understand they have a new tenant but its not been announced who it is. A very handy dry dock but needs a few bob spending on it.

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1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

It is all owned by CRT and I understand they have a new tenant but its not been announced who it is. A very handy dry dock but needs a few bob spending on it.

Thanks both to you and dmr. 

 

As I said fading memories put me wrong. I do remember they were nice buildings and seemed to be thriving last year so am surprised to hear they are no more.

 

I certainly don't have enough finance to have taken on a lease of this size anyway, let alone enough to improve anything. Also the scope wouldn't mean a lifestyle business I suspect.

 

Good luck to the new tenant.

 

Town Wharf could/should be something special. It appeared to me to have been up for sale for some time... Again, would need finances significantly more substantial than mine though. I've seen community initiatives take on things like this, if my impression of length of sale is correct maybe CRT could consider something like this.

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8 minutes ago, Boater Sam said:

The situation was worsened by the Shropshire Union branch being inaccessible, lots of moorings for private boats normally available there.

Moored above Stanthorne we never saw a single boat all weekend, in fact not seen any for months.

I suspect most hire boat and other canalside businesses are not exactly making a fortune,  the breach will likely hurt them. Most holidays will be pre-booked but a few people might not return next year and some last minute offers might not be taken up. However we talked to some Canadian hirers on an Andersons boat and they had enjoyed themselves, rather than dash round the four counties they had just explored and been up the lovely Caldon canal.

 

CaRT hope to open the Middlewich branch for Christmas so you might still see a boat in 2018! There are still a lot of hire boats going through the big lock, maybe a few more will discover the Weaver.

 

...............Dave

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3 minutes ago, dmr said:

I suspect most hire boat and other canalside businesses are not exactly making a fortune,  the breach will likely hurt them. Most holidays will be pre-booked but a few people might not return next year and some last minute offers might not be taken up. However we talked to some Canadian hirers on an Andersons boat and they had enjoyed themselves, rather than dash round the four counties they had just explored and been up the lovely Caldon canal.

 

CaRT hope to open the Middlewich branch for Christmas so you might still see a boat in 2018! There are still a lot of hire boats going through the big lock, maybe a few more will discover the Weaver.

 

...............Dave

And boom... Your comment reinvigorated my fading memories and I now believe the yard I thought had been talked about (bottom lock) is the Anderson base (or should maybe be said second base)

 

The Caldon and the Weaver were both great when I did them last year. Although tbh, every bit of canal I've done in the three years I've been aboard have been.

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I was there and it was a great weekend. we ended up with two boats with friends on board moored on the outside of us on the Saturday night and much beer was consumed. Sunday finished with what was for me, the best band of the weekend. The Electric Swing Circus. Pity the beer tent ran out of both of their dark beers though

Edited by captain birdseye
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24 minutes ago, captain birdseye said:

I was there and it was a great weekend. we ended up with two boats with friends on board moored on the outside of us on the Saturday night and much beer was consumed. Sunday finished with what was for me, the best band of the weekend. The Electric Swing Circus. Pity the beer tent ran out of both of their dark beers though

We have only ever made it to the main festival site once, we trade all day then do the pubs in the evening. Saw a not so young father and son duo playing some amazing blues harmonica together at the Boars Head. The Bogtrotters at the Newton were fun, not often you hear an Irish band playing another brick in the wall, including fiddle and Banjo.  We try to trade as close to the Big Lock as we can so that we can listen to the little outdoor stage there, its mostly classic pub rock/blues with a hint of heavy metal but a couple of the bands are really good at what they do, even a pretty decent version of the comfortably numb guitar solo!

 

.............Dave

14 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

It is all owned by CRT and I understand they have a new tenant but its not been announced who it is. A very handy dry dock but needs a few bob spending on it.

Fingers crossed that its a good boat/canal related business and not CaRT renting out historic buildings to be used as a builders yard or lorry park. They wouldn't do a thing like that would they!

 

..............Dave

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  • 1 month later...

Having moaned about not being able to moor in Middlewich on the lead up to the festival, we are back on our return journey. Can only see three moored boats, including us. There may be some more down by the Big Lock but what a difference a month or two makes, or indeed all the canal closures.

Edited by Derek Porteous
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1 hour ago, Derek Porteous said:

Having moaned about not being able to moor in Middlewich on the lead up to the festival, we are back on our return journey. Can only see three moored boats, including us. There may be some more down by the Big Lock but what a difference a month or two makes, or indeed all the canal closures.

We must have passed you. We're now moored up above Kings Lock. 

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On 19/06/2018 at 11:40, captain birdseye said:

I was there and it was a great weekend. we ended up with two boats with friends on board moored on the outside of us on the Saturday night and much beer was consumed. Sunday finished with what was for me, the best band of the weekend. The Electric Swing Circus. Pity the beer tent ran out of both of their dark beers though

They ran out of dark beer 2 years ago too

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