River Boating Forum

just back from a week on a narrowboat out of "ANDERTON"
the boat was called "CHIRK CASTLE" and it is a thrush class boat belonging to alvechurch marine, 66ft long and 6 berth.

we picked the boat up sunday afternoon in dry, warm but overcast weather and travelled to our first nights stop at middlewich, a lovely meal in the town followed by a few drinks in a pub just off the tow path, the pub next to the big lock was unfortunately closed down and up for sale.
next morning we went through the rest of the towns locks and turned right heading for barbridge junction,and having a very interesting chat with the lady who lives in the cottage next to kings lock. she tells me she has lived there 30 years and before that was brought up and worked the narrow boats all of her life. leaving middlewich we then carried on to barbridge junction where we stayed the night and had our first spell of rain. both pubs at this junction are well worth a visit.
away next morning around 8 30am we went down the shroppie to nantwich where we picked up water and walked into town which took about 15 minutes but well worth the time and effort as it is an attractive town, stocked up with supplies and back to the boat we headed on to audlem where we were lucky to get moored out side the "shroppie fly" pub. what a jewel this village is, for me it ticks all the boxes and to top it off a wonderful flight of 15 locks.
an 8 am start sees us at the top of the lock flight by 10 am and on our way towards market drayton, after another 5 locks we entered the town in pouring rain and moored for a couple of hours, having a look around, restocking supplies and water then off again up the 5 locks at tyrley and moored at goldstone wharf for the night and still teeming down with rain.
a pleasant pub and a lovely meal
we should have been turning for home now but decided we had time to get to norbury junction and duly arrived at 10 15 am, spent 1 1/2 hours looking about the area, again one of the most picturesque junctions on the system.
still raining steadily, we turned for home and headed back to audlem for the night, on our way giving an elderly chap with a
45 footer who was travelling single handed, a pull off the mud.
all through the night it sheeted down with rain and then all next day so we again stayed overnight at barbridge.
on our last full day, saturday, we left around 8 30 am and arriving at middlewich we found it quite busy and it took almost 3 hours to clear the town, then toddled to the broken cross pub for our last night. saturday was a complete contrast to friday when it rained all day, saturday got out bright and warm and very pleasant.

the low points of the week were very few apart from the weather and i was a little dissappointed when i saw venetian marina after reading all their adds etc, it certainly does not stand out from all the others to me
the high points was everything else, barbridge, middlewich, nantwich, AUDLEM, market drayton and norbury. we never had a poor meal and the service was good in all the excellent establishments
the boat was comfy for 4 but would have not been for the 6 it was supposed to accommodate, it was clean and well presented and the staff well worth a mention, overall a very pleasant holiday even if it did rain almost every day.

alan

Hi Alan
So have you been converted (or is that perverted) to the ways of the NB? Although the weather was poor, I'm glad to hear it was not a total 'wash out' . I guess that even with the severe wet weather it does not effect the canal system so much as the rivers.

hi gerbil

no i haven't been converted to the narrow boats as such.
although i do still have and enjoy my river cruiser on the broads i always lookforward to our annual trip to the cut.
weather conditions do make a difference to a weeks holiday, but if you stay in this country you must take the good with
the worst of it, as any boater knows. it did rain most days and heavy at times but it was still really great discovering places where i have been several times by road but missed out on the jewels of the canal side. i have been to middlewich dozens of times, through audlem on numerous occasions and not realised what was going on away from the road.

alan

Sounds like you had a nice time, We are hoping to do some narrow boat hols in a couple of yrs once my mother and father in law have retired.