Travel News November/December 2020


WALK THE TRENT- MERSEY CANAL


Travel writer NIGEL HEATH takes to the British waterways for a walk along the river banks of the Trent-Mersey Canal with his walking companion, Peter Gibbs


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NE of the most alluring aspects of walking around Britain’s amazing heritage networks of canals and waterways is that one never quite knows what to expect around the next bend or what the day will unfold. So, it was when my life-long walking companion, Peter Gibbs and I set out on the Trent-Mersey Canal just beyond its conflux with the Bridgewater Canal in Preston Brook, Cheshire.


We hadn’t been walking many minutes early on that


sunny February morning when we came upon a canal side free library beside which was a notice offering eggs for sale laid by Happy Hens!


We’ve come across many sights on our wanderings along Britain’s myriad of cross- country footpaths in the summer and along the canals in the winter but this was a first.


Not long afterwards, we reached the first of the


five tunnels along this ninety-three and- a -half mile waterway, built early in the 18th century to link the mighty rivers Trent and Mersey and to serve the new industrial revolution towns of Stoke- on -Trent and The Potteries.


Tunnels can often be something of a challenge for


walkers because finding the way over the top of them is not always easy but on this occasion, it was simply a case of following two linking lanes.


The canal now hugged the shoulder of the River Weaver Valley through a rolling landscape of farmland, studded with belts of deciduous woodland, and it was on this section that we came upon Steve and Samantha aboard their retirement narrowboat Never Enough.


Steve was a motor mechanic in nearby Runcorn for thirty years until a serious illness forced the couple to re- evaluate their lives.


“We decided that life was too short so we sold up our home and bought the boat four years ago and have never looked back, said Samantha.


Now we diverted through the village of Barnton to avoid the Barnton Tunnel and came upon The Jam Butty Boy!


This unique wood carving was created as a reminder of just how hard it was for local families to save up for their first house in the 1950s, often surviving on bread and jam.


By mid- afternoon the canal had led us into the industrial town of Anderton where we came upon one of the so-called ‘Severn Wonders of the Waterways,’ namely The Anderton Lift.


Dating from 1875, this ingenious invention, was designed to overcome the fifty- foot disparity between the canal and the River Weaver by raising and lowering narrowboats in two water filled caissons.


Corrosion eventually forced its closure in 1983 but it


was reopened in 2002 thanks to £7 million of Heritage Lottery funding and now has its own visitors centre.


More industrial heritage awaited when, later that


afternoon we called in at The Salt Barge pub, which dating from 1861, slaked the thirst of generations of workers from the nearby Lion salt mine.


We began our day with a ‘first’ and so it was to end


that way when on learning that our nearby hotel for the night was not serving an evening meal, we ordered in a Chinese take-away.


The management kindly provided plates and laid a


table in their small lounge bar and we used the top of a nearby radiator as an improvised hot plate for the tin foil food containers.


Regaining the canal, the following morning, we


were soon passing the massive Tarta Chemicals plant, not a particularly pretty sight, but even here stencilled figures on a foot bridge illustrated the areas salt mining heritage.


The walk now led through the peaceful valley of The River Dane and on to Middlewich where we came upon retired railway man Peter Brocklehurst just about to cast off on the next stage of his voyage around the waterways.


We’ve often remarked on the myriad of imaginative names that boat owners dream up for their sturdy steel craft but if there was a prize, then Peter would surely be a leading contender because he’s called his boat Sir- T-Fiable.


But he’s decided to come ashore some day and to convert a bus into a campervan which he plans to call Sir-T-Fiable Too!


All the canal side pubs in Middlewich were closed


but luckily a nearby fish and chip shop was open so we dined on sausage butties sitting in a park before walking on to the busy town of Sandbach for the night.


On the following morning’s walk, we came upon ‘Heartbreak Hill,’ so named by boaters because there are twenty -six locks in a seven mile stretch as the canal ascends 250ft from the Cheshire plain and into Staffordshire.


All but one of these locks were doubled in the 1830’s so ingeniously allowing one to work as a mini reservoir for the other while at the same increasing the canal’s capacity for delivering fuel to feed the furnaces in the pottery producing towns.


By lunch time we’d reached the one and a half mile long Harecastle Tunnel, built by engineer Thomas Brindley and called the ‘wonder of the age’ but only to be later replaced by a larger one built by Thomas Telford.


The tunnel runs under Harecastle Hill between Kidsgrove and Tunstall and is certainly a formidable barrier for those on foot.


Luckily there’s an easy route, up a road and over the top, through lake and parkland and returning to the far end of the tunnel close to a busy roundabout beyond the giant JCB factory and so on into Stoke-on-Trent.


Eighteenth century folk might well have marvelled at The Anderton Lift and called this tunnel ‘the wonder of the age.’


But just what would they have made of the Tarta Chemical Works, the JCB plant and traffic thundering along the M6 close, to a set of those double locks we’d passed this morning?


Fact File


To plan this most interesting canal walk we used J.M Pearson’s Canal Companion Cheshire Ring and South Pennine Ring guide book.


We stayed overnight at The Premier Inn, Runcorn, Wincham Hall Country Hotel, and The Wheatsheaf in Sandbach.


Left: An industrial heritage bridge near the Tarta steel works


L


AKE Como with its bright blue waters, warm summer climate and picturesque Italian villages is beaming with old school Italian charm. As much as I hate to admit being influenced by social media, I had been dreaming of visiting this location since seeing a picture of the lake on an Instagram post. Italy was in the clear regarding the quarantine travel list, having a much lower rate of infection than the UK, and with flights from £40 to Milan (a one-hour train journey from Como) I knew I had to go. Lake Como is the third largest Italian lake and the


5th deepest in Europe. It is usually extremely busy in the summer months but this year it was a lot less so. Choosing a place to stay can be confusing as there


are so many towns around the lake, making it difficult to choose. I recommend staying in either Varenna, Menaggio or Bellagio. These towns are very charming, situated in the middle of the lake, they are accessible by train or bus and have a frequent ferry service shuffling thousands across the lake each day. I stayed in Menaggio, the cheapest of the three. Before travelling, I had second thoughts about going as my friend had to pull out last minute, but thank goddness I didn’t. I was completely captivated by the lake and its beauty for the duration of my week stay. Luckily, Menaggio was quite a social town with plenty of friendly travellers who I met at the hostel wanting to do activities together.


Together we went paddle boarding, hiked up the mountains, rented a speed board, went village hopping with the ferry service and ate pizza on the pebble beach. Every day was a culinary delight, I mean who doesn’t love Italian food?


From dancing to Atomic Kitten on a boat in the middle of the lake drinking a bottle of prosecco to wine


tasting in the town of Tremezzo, there were so many great moments I enjoyed on this holiday. The highlight was of course the natural beauty of the Como itself. The surrounding mountains of green, blue skies, tranquil waters, Romanesque villages and lakeside villages produce a synergy which overwhelms the senses. When planning your next trip to Italy skip out the cities and opt for the great lakes, a calming respite with plenty of activities to keep you busy or not…just enjoy the natural beauty.


Lake Como Fact File


*Lake Como is 28.5 miles long and 2.8 miles wide at its widest point


*It’s average depth is 505 feet but plunges to 1,394 feet, being the reason for it’s vivid blue water and a top Instagrammable hot spot for its raw natural beauty *It has 100 miles of shoreline to explore *Lake Como might look a bit familiar... That’s maybe because it was the backdrop for many big Hollywood movies. Star Wars movies films here, and James Bond shook it here in Casino Royale *It’s estimated that Lake Como holds about six trillion gallons in the main body alone - the amount of time the water is said to spend in the lake at any one time is believed to be up to about five and a half years! *Como isn’t just a pretty face - it’s the place to be for water sports taking in a bit of kite surfing and windsurfers


*It’s a little bit posh... known as a popular retreat for aristocrats and those not too strapped for cash since Roman times... Today, it’s much more affordable and anyone can sample a little bit of the high life on a budget maligning it avery popular tourist destination, riddled with artistic and cultural gems.


A solo trip took Luke to the stunning Lake Como... but he wasn’t alone for long SOLO COMO


When LUKE WEIR’S dream of an Italian adventure looked compromised, he decided to go it alone and experience Lake Como as a solo traveller with no regrets...


STROLL BY THE CANAL / LAKE COMO SOLO 9


Lake Como is a top spot for some water sports on the vivid blue waters


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