Whitchurch to Llangollen

Whitchurch to Llangollen

Tuesday 16th June 2009

After spending a peaceful night at Whitchurch, without benefit of TV, since there was nothing worth watching on any of the terrestrial channels, we left just before 8 o/clock, with no clear decision as to how far we were going. In the event, after consulting the map whilst cruising very slowly, we settled on Platt Lane which, according to the book, has a pub called The Waggoners Inn. Sadly this pub is now defunct, as Wifey discovered when she took Rusty for a walk. This is not a problem really, but it would have been nice to have had a pub lunch for a change.

Now, how many of you listen to Wogan in the morning? We do because we like to catch up with the news at 7.30 and/or 8 o/clock and we like his banter. This morning he related a situation that I simply had to pass on. It goes something like this:

Imagine the scene in the offices of Bristol Zoo, where a member of staff has the telephone to his ear and is speaking to someone at Bristol City Council.

“Our car park attendant hasn’t turned up this morning and, despite telephoning him several times, he doesn’t appear to be at home. Could you send us a temporary replacement until we contact him?”

The gentleman at the Council asks him to hold whilst he checks this out and returns to the telephone to say, “I’m sorry, there seems to be some mistake, your car park is run from your end, we do not supply an attendant”

“But, our attendant has been employed by the Council for six days a week for the past 23 years, collecting about £400 per day”

I’m sorry sir,” says the Council person, “he’s not our employee, he’s yours, we have no record of any member of our staff covering your car park.”

Ooops! By my calculations this bogus car park attendant has secreted away almost £3,000,000, with no tax liability and has done a runner. What an absolutely fabulous scam!! Boom! Boom!

You do the math. £400 per day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year – even if he takes annual holidays and subs it to a mate – he’s been on £2,400 a week or £124,800 a year. Wow!

This scam compares very favourably to the one that took Littlewoods Pools to the cleaners when Australian football was introduced during our summer months. Somebody, who had relatives in Oz, suddenly realised that, due to time differences between us and them, he only needed to wait for the results to be ‘phoned over and he could take his completed coupon to Littlewoods office in London, pay his fee and collect a jackpot. I believe he did this for several weeks before owning up to the scam. But, since it came within the rules of gambling, he kept the money.

I should be so lucky!

Wednesday 17th June 2009

Today dawned cloudy and threatening rain but, as it hadn’t rained by 8 o/clock, we decided to get moving. Just two hours and 4 ½ miles later and we moored up at Hampton bank Bridge, by which time the heavens had opened up.

The Llangollen Canal, which resulted from original plans published in 1791, for a canal running from the Mersey to the Severn, actually covers 46 miles from Hurleston Junction, on the Shropshire Union, to Llantysilio. There are several branches along the way, the longest of which is the Montgomery Canal, which is 32 miles long from Frankton Junction to Freestone Lock, although only 6 miles is navigable and ends just past Crofts Mill Lift Bridge. Looking at the map there are other sections that are also navigable but, since they are somewhat isolated, until somebody opens up the rest of the unnavigable stretches, they are worse than useless.

The supply of water for the canal comes mainly from the River Dee, although much of it also comes from runoff from fields after heavy rain. The fact that the canal has a current makes it quite unique. However, as we discovered 15 years ago, when we hired a boat from Anglo-Welsh at Bunbury, in a dry season you’d be hard pressed to complete the trip. We were obliged to turn shortly after Chirk and didn’t make it to Llangollen.

Over those intervening years many improvements have been made, courtesy of the Shropshire Union Canal Society and there are now many more areas for mooring. Thus far we have taken 10 days to get to this point, which is 14 miles short of where we turned around all those years ago. From Anglo-Welsh at Bunbury, to that same turning point, is 40 miles, which we completed back then in a week, that’s an 80 mile round trip. Must have been bonkers. This time around we’re hoping to go the full distance.

Thursday 18th June 2009

Good afternoon from Ellesmere, that’s Ellesmere on the Llangollen as opposed to Ellesmere Port on the Shroppie, just in case you’re a little confused. No locks or lift bridges to worry about today, just the 87 yards or so tunnel a short distance from here.

We’re actually moored on the arm of the canal that ends in a small winding hole and basin and where the area looks to be preparing for redevelopment. At present a new Tesco store is being built and is due for opening on August 3rd this year. So, if they’ve got it right, we’ll be topping up when we come back this way.

The Post Office, which we visited this morning, has succeeded in finding a place in our Guinness Book or Records. It’s the first time we’ve been refused permission to have mail forwarded. All Sheila got for her enquiry was “Oh, you’ll have to ‘phone the Sorting Office”. A lot of use that would be if it was an emergency!

There’s quite a write-up about the town in our Nicholson Guide but, briefly it goes as follows: To the north east and east lie several meres, varying in size from The Mere, which is closest to the town, through Cole Mere, Blake Mere and White Mere. At the bottom of the arm is a old warehouse with the Shropshire Union Canal info on the side, which obviously dates back to the time when the 46 miles of this canal was still part of the Shroppie.

Everything a body could want by way of shops can be found in the centre, which appears to be quite old and careworn, with many buildings dating back to the 18th century. The bakery, if you’re passing this way, includes an excellent deli and the range of bread and pies, is well worth the visit. We had a bit of a spending spree, buying bread, a bread and butter pudding, individual pork pies, and a large pork pie with Shropshire Blue Cheese on top. We also topped up with bacon, eggs and sausages. Looking at the picture of the towns layout, there are at least four pubs close to the shops, one of which might benefit from a visit from us upon our return.

Friday 19th June 2009

Today dawned bright and sunny but, as expected, by the time Wifey returned from the shop, it had clouded over. Our plan today was for a short run of about 4 miles, during which we would stop at a boatyard for a pump out. This we did, although the trip was a little difficult at times with the strong headwind. We’re now moored up for the day between bridges 6W and 7W, which we take to mean west of the Montgomery Canal, which we’ll venture down upon our return.

This is another peaceful spot, marred only by the speeding holiday boaters. You would think they’d want a gentle cruise, but it seems all they care about is getting their moneys worth. Still, provided the boat is tied up securely, we don’t rock about too much.

Incidentally, having had several problems sending text messages, and assuming I eventually get to post this blog, I do not expect the sending of texts and access to the Internet to improve whilst we’re on the Llangollen. You have been warned. If you don’t always receive our daily texts, or it seems a long while between blogs, it’s no fault of ours. Strangely though, Sheila’s ‘phone seems to be more reliable than mine. Hers is pay as you go with orange, whilst I’m paying £15 a month with 3G. There must be a moral there, but I’m darned if I can see it.

Tomorrow we’re off to Chirk to pick up our mail and fill a prescription at the local chemists. We’ll probably spend a couple of nights there and sample a local watering hole on Sunday.

Saturday 20th June 2009

What a day! We left nice and early, just before eight and, after one stop for a cuppa and another, at Chirk, for Sheila to pick up our mail, we finally came to a stop at Chirk Marina, a total of seven miles, taking in two locks, Chirk Aqueduct and Chirk Tunnel, all of which took us until 12.45. The reason for taking almost five hours was, as you might have guessed, holiday boats.

Chirk Aqueduct, which is only about half the length of the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, leads into a circular basin, at which boats can stop until it is clear to proceed. We followed a holiday boat across the aquaduct and, when we both arrived at the basin, had to wait for boats to emerge from the tunnel. Amazingly there were six boats coming through at the same time, five of which were holiday boats or day boats. You can imagine the delay that caused.

We had hoped to be able to stay at the moorings outside the tunnel, but it was so gloomy, with trees both sides, that we decided to push on. Which is why we now find ourselves at the marina. Tomorrow we’ll probably go on to Sun Trevor Bridge where there’s a canal side pub.

Unfortunately, being as far out in the sticks as we are, we can’t get online. Hopefully I’ll have more luck tomorrow.

If you’re in need of a bit of a chuckle, you only have to turn to the antics of the multi-nationals who look after our money. We recently arranged a Standing Order with the Halifax, which was for our annual payments to the Residential Boat Owners Association, from her on in shortened to RBOA. The initial payment, as I’m a pensioner now, was for £12, followed by annual payments in the same sum.

We received an email some time ago from a nice lady at the RBOA to say that our bank had made a first payment of £21 and offered to send us a cheque for the balance of £9. I emailed back and said we’d sort it out with the Halifax and would get back to her as soon as it was sorted.

Sheila attempted to sort it out by ‘phone, but was told she would have to fill in a form at a branch somewhere. She tried to do so at Whitchurch, without success because, as the lady pointed out, the person who deals with such matters was not available. How hard can it be?

Anyway, Wifey did succeed in altering the following years payment by going online, but that still left the outstanding £9, and so I again emailed RBOA asking for the cheque. So far so good.

We collected our mail today from the post office at Chirk and found a letter from the Halifax, which said, and I quote: “Thank you for your recent standing order instruction in favour of Residential Boat Owners. This has been set up as requested. Please check the following details:

Amount: £12.00 (initial payment today)
Start Date: 01/05/2010
Frequency: Monthly

Honestly, you couldn’t make it up. We’re now going to cancel the wretched standing order, just as soon as we can get online, and make our future payments, annually, by cheque. Ah well, you can’t win them all I suppose!

Monday 22nd June 2009

Hi from Llangollen. Yesterday we moved on to bridge 41 and the pub called Sun Trevor, which is well past the town of Trevor and lies in the Vale of Llangollen. We paid a visit to the pub and, let me tell you, it’s many years since I had a drink in a Welsh pub. The last time was when Uncle Ron was still alive and I got a real telling off from Auntie Bob for bringing Ron home in a drunken stupor. He’d actually only drunk half a pint of bitter, but he was a very good actor and had Bob convinced. Nasty old bugger!

We’re now moored up on the BW wharf here and took a walk into town this morning. It’s also quite a few years since we’ve visited Llangollen; maybe five or six; and that was when we took Auntie Bob to Ruthin. Although, every time we visited with her we would pass the town, because it lies on the A5, which goes all the way to Anglesey.

We’re staying here for two nights because, once again and after just 12 days, we need to give the batteries a charge from the mains. Actually, for only £6 per night, with free electricity, we think it’s very reasonable. At Nantwich it cost us£15 per night.

Although it was pretty hard going for me to walk into town, which is very hilly, I’m hoping to do so again tomorrow so as to take some photographs. This really is a very scenic town with the River Dee running through it. The weather has brightened up this afternoon, so we’re hoping it will stay fine for tomorrow. Unfortunately, as mush as we would like to stay longer, we’re restricted to two nights. This is so that, especially in the holiday season, everybody gets the opportunity to spend a couple of days here.

Just a little way down from here is a horse drawn boat that takes passengers to the famous Horseshoe Falls. Well, it takes them almost all the way, but they have to walk a short way. There’s also a steam train that goes to Corwen , which is another place we would pass through on the way to Aunties and it’s about nine miles away as the train goes.

The canal is not navigable by canal boat after Llangollen, but the channel does continue on to Llantysilio, passing a country hotel and a chain bridge over the River Dee.At Horseshoe Falls a large semi-circular weir across the Dee, built by Thomas Telford, provides the water which is constantly passed into the canal. It then flows past Llangollen and the aqueduct, right back down to Hurleston Reservoir to the tune of 12 million gallons a day.

Well, that’s about it for this blog.

On Wednesday we’ll be making our way back to Hurleston Junction, which should take us about three weeks. From here to our previous moorings we’ll have to navigate through two stretches of canal that narrow down to just one boats width. One is 500 metres long and the other is 300 metres. The 500 metre stretch doesn’t have any passing places, so Sheila will walk ahead to see if anything is coming our way. If it is and they are already in the narrow section, she’ll have to phone and tell me to wait. If there’s nowt coming, she’ll also have to let me know.

On the way through those two sections this morning, we were fortunate enough to have other people walking along to warn us of another boat being in the narrow section. On Wednesday though, as we’ll be leaving quite early, we may not be so lucky. We’ll hope for the best. Good fun this cruising!

Cheers for now.

Dave, Sheila and Rusty.