Just a short move

We noticed a couple of interesting buildings in Whitchurch whilst walking to Sainsbury’s. 
The first was Saint John’s Methodist Church which is Grade 2 listed.  It is relatively new having been built in 1879.  Well time is relative!

 

The second building was The Black Bear Pub.  Parts of the building date back to 1662.  For us, the most notable aspect of the building was the fact there didn’t seem to be a straight perpendicular or horizontal line in any of the walls.

We took advantage of the break in the showers to move down to Grindley Brook.  We’d only just moored when the rain returned.  There are five water points here along with a long line of visitor moorings which have been labelled by CRT as winter moorings.  You might think they would be popular with all the boaters facilities in close proximity and a nearby service station selling red diesel.  Of course it’s only a short distance to Whitchurch with all its shops and transport connections.  Yet there is only one boat here displaying a winter mooring permit.

I went for a walk later in the afternoon.  I wanted to check the locks (6) and the price of diesel at the service station.  From a distance I could see red and white hazard warning tape on the top lock gates. That was a concern as we want to go down the flight tomorrow.  When I reached the lock I could see the walkway platforms on the lower gates had been removed.  I’m not sure why the threaded rods have been left so long?

The top three locks are a staircase.  As I wasn’t steering Waiouru I had the time to examine the locks more closely.  The instructions for transiting the flight say the top lock must be full and the bottom lock empty.  The middle lock must be filled to the marks on the lower gates.  I didn’t notice these marks when we went up the flight, but then I was looking ahead rather than behind.

There is a short access path to the service station in the pound between Locks 1 & 2.  The price of diesel was 62.9ppl.  I think we will stop tomorrow and fill our cans.

Left arrow points to the location of the path

There is a short tunnel below Lock 1.  Now all the vegetation has died off I could see the hill above looked more like a railway embankment.  If you look at the map above you will see it’s the alignment of the former Chester & Whitchurch railway.  Wikipedia records it as the Tattenhall & Whitchurch Railway.

I walked to the top of the embankment and confirmed it was artificial.  There are more CRT 48 hour moorings on the other side of the tunnel (or is it a bridge?) and they were all empty.

There was one of those old marker stones beside the towpath on the far side of the tunnel.  Well maybe not so old as I noticed the distances are stated in kilometres.

The plan is to move to Wrenbury tomorrow.   Don’t panic blog reader, Bill.  I have another exciting media centre project blog post pending!