Anderton Saturday 3 March 2018

The temperature didn't drop to below freezing until first light this morning, but it was still enough to ice the canal over again. We would like to head onto the Bridgewater canal but there have been no boats come from that direction yet so I expect there will still be thick ice in lots of places.

A cooked breakfast today at the Anderton Lift Visitor Centre and we thought it good value, sausage, fried egg, bacon, hash brown , beans, 2 rounds of toast and 2 large filter coffees for just £6.35 each rounded off with a chat with an 82 year old volunteer who lived on a boat for many years.

As the day progressed it got warmer and the forecast shows it as being the last of the frost in this area but next week before it warms up by any great degree.

After lunch we decided to go for a short walk along the canal towards the Bridgewater canal to see the state of the ice. The Lift Basin has started to thaw so maybe that will be open Monday for boaters stuck on the river.

Just the other side of the lift the Candy Boat is moored and open for business, we did help by buying 3 types of fudge and we have seen a few kids wandering round with bags of sweets.

The ice been broken by a boat coming through at some point so we should be OK to move tomorrow afternoon until we hit virgin ice again which could be anywhere. Looking down to one of the industrial units on the estate I spotted this old Living Wagon, I hope that it is being restored and not broken up. A little further along is an interpretation board giving some information about Barnton and the Trent and Mersey Canal. Please click to enlarge it.

We walked over the top of Barnton tunnel, I suspect that the eastern end was constructed by the cut and fill method as the land directly above the tunnel forms quite a valley, you can see one of the two air shafts in the photograph, but from the second air shaft to the west end the land follows the normal contour and there is no trace of any earth works. also the air shafts are of a different construction design.

Once we had passed the end of the tunnel we took the lane down to the River Weaver and walked back along the river bank, we didn't realise how far the river looped out. A short way along the towpath there are two rather heave lengths of chain just popping out of the ground.

We carried on walking and came across this mile post, I hadn't spotted any posts from the water when we have cruised the river and they are quite large.

There is now next to nothing left of the old soda works that use to be on the far bank, when the piles of spoil have been removed there will just be the remains of the yellow supports for the riverside frontage of the works, so much different to our first trip on the river when they were removing the very first sheets of cladding.

We stayed on the river bank until we got to the Winnington Swing Bridge where we crossed the road and followed a footpath back to the Trent and Mersey canal through all the wild garlic and then back to the boat.

Today's Walk 3¾ miles on foot