Don't be Discouraged, Heartbreak hill doesn't refer to steep climb but is a nickname given to the cheshire locks by boaters.
Heartbreak hill is a flight of 26 locks spread out over 7 miles dropping the canal from harecastle tunnel and the summit of the canal onto the cheshire plain
The locks were opened in 1777, but the traffic using the canal got so great that the canal company appointed the engineer Thomas Telford to improve the navigation in 1830, an additional tunnel at harecastle was built and all the 26 locks of the cheshire locks
Church Locks 47 and 48 were duplicated but now both duplicate locks are out of use.
Though in the 18 years i have been on the canal the higher lock, 47, hasn't been in use, and the lock wall has bowed considerably and is supported by props across the chamber.
The lower duplicate lock, 48, has only been taken out of use in the last 3 years, I suspect to conserve water.
The pound above the locks is another of our favourite spots to tie up after a hard days work up the locks from middlewich. By the time we tie up, I will probably have walked 10 miles along the towpath working the locks, whilst Cath steers the boat, she does her fair share of locking as well, before you feel sorry for me.
Also at the locks is one of the T&M mileposts, these are read in the direction you are travelling and not as a finger post, so Shardlow is up the locks, so you read the distance to go as you approach the milepost, a bit odd but you get used to it. Shardlow is the point where the canal joins the Trent and Preston Brook the point where the canal ends and joins the Bridgewater canal
