Again last night we had some rain but it was bright and sunny when we set off this morning. We had a good run as far as the M6 at Hassle Green where our luck ran out. We just came under the motorway when it started to rain. By the time we had cleared Hassle Green locks we had had 2.5 mm, that's in about 15 minutes so we moored on the visitor moorings so that poor old Diana could get some dry cloths on.
Once we set off again it started thunder and lightning ahead of us, but thankfully we didn't seem to catch it up and we only had another couple of short showers in the afternoon.
It looks as if some one has been grappling along the canal as I have seen 2 bikes that have been dragged out left near bridges, I wonder if they will get removed before they find their way back into the water.
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One of the features of this canal is that after it was opened all the locks were doubled except the Lawton locks and these were bypassed with three new pairs of locks 50-52 and the winding holes are where the canal went off to the North. From below lock 52 the line is quite obvious.
Another feature of these locks was a set of paddles between them, this was situated in the bottom gate recess which is now covered in wood. This allowed the water from one lock to be used to part fill the other, or a full lock to be part drained into the other so saving some water. It would be interesting to see behind the wood.
If anybody knows I would be interested as to why these stone gate posts are beside lock 50 on the off side. Could it be they predate the new line of the canal?
We decided to stop at Church Lawson for the night, it was still thundering and we weren't in a hurry. One of the Church Top Locks is closed because its in a dangerous condition, it has braces in the chamber to stop it collapsing in. However it still has its bottom gates and as the lock has been closed for some years they are not of a modern design. The paddle gear was supported on wooden upstands where as today they are mounted on steel.
Today's Journey 
2 comments:
There are several posts alongside the canal like this and I particularly remember those on the Congleton 'loop'. Those appear to be boundary fence posts and old colliery cage cables were recycled by being threaded through the holes.
In the ones in your picture, the holes seem to have been filled by a short length of threaded rod with washers and nuts to keep them in place.
So the question remains, what were *these* put here for? Was something else strung between them at one time - a handrail, for example?
Dave they are hinges on the other side of the posts. I have seen the colliery posts with the old winding wire. I think I included them on a blog once. But these are much heavier.
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