In some parts of the UK canal network a number of canal’s can be
linked together to make a cruising ring.
These are great ways to have a narrowboat holiday as you never have
to turn round and head back and you see new places everyday. They
are also fabulous places to walk and if you are feeling energetic
you can use them as long distance paths and spend days exploring
them.
The Cheshire Ring is made up of the Trent and Mersey Canal
(Kidsgrove Staffordshire to Preston Brook near Runcorn), the
Bridgewater Canal (Preston Brook to Castlefields Manchester),
Rochdale Canal (Castlefields to Piccadilly basin Manchester city
centre), Ashton Canal (Piccadilly Basin to Portland basin in Ashton
Under Lyne), Peak Forest Canal (Portland basin to Marple near
Stockport) and the Macclesfield Canal. (Marple to Kidsgrove).
It is 97 miles, 93 locks and takes about 55 hours of cruising to
get around. For more information visit:Cheshire
Ring Info )
This is the northernmost point on the Trent and Mersey canal,
originally engineered by James Brindley in the 18th Century it
opened throughout to this point in 1772. The canal links with the
Bridgewater canal just inside the northern mouth of Preston Brook
Tunnel, which is ¾ of a mile away.
The tunnel is only wide enough for one boat to pass through and is
controlled by a one-way timed entry system, so you may encounter a
queue of boats waiting to enter.
In the late seventies the central section of the tunnel collapsed
taking the local post office with it, forcing British Waterways to
rebuild the central section of the tunnel using concrete rings.
Originally the tunnel would have been navigated by men legging
the boat through, but a steam powered tug was introduced, by the
North Staffordshire Railway which owned the canal at the time, to
tow boats through this and the shorter tunnels at Saltersford and
Barnton, further along the canal.
In order to service these tugs the Railway company built a dry dock
which can be seen at the cache site. The canopy covering the dry
dock belies its railway heritage.
The dry dock is still run as a business and tied up round the dock
can be seen examples of pleasure and ex-working boats both
converted and in original condition, when I placed the cache there
were ex motors, Dory, and Lindsay, and the butty, Keppel, and a
converted boat, Stirling, also being docked was an ex tunnel tug
from the Worcester and Birmingham canal.
Between the tunnel and the dock is Dutton Stop lock, The lock
was built to safeguard the water of the Trent and Mersey from
flowing into the Bridgewater canal and is only a fall of 6 inches.
This lock is the only difference in level between Castlefields in
Manchester and Middlewich, which is almost half of the Cheshire
ring.