We moved up the cut for an hour and then pulled in at Scholars Green where we were awaiting the arrival of John and Lynne. Lynne is the sister of a good friend of ours in Calgary. Each time we have been on the canals, we have met up with the guys along with Lynne’s mum Doreen. When we get closer to Wolverhampton, we will catch up with Doreen there.
The short period of time that we were cruising this morning was hardly warm with strong winds and even stronger winds predicted for tomorrow.
How about this for a driveway to your little stone cottage. We have very much enjoyed the beauty of the Macclesfield.
The guys arrived just after midday and after a quick greeting it was into the car to a perfectly satisfactory pub about a mile away. This time we didn’t stay there for four hours but three. We will start giving ourselves a reputation.
To reduce the effects of our steak and ale pies we went for a drive up to Mow Cop Castle and then walked the last steep portion. Mow Cop Castle is a folly at Mow Cop in the civil parish of Odd Rode, Cheshire, England.
Traces of a prehistoric camp have been found here. In 1754, Randle Wilbraham of nearby Rode Hall built an elaborate summerhouse looking like a medieval fortress and round tower.
The area around the castle was nationally famous for the quarrying of high-quality millstones (‘querns‘) for use in water mills. Excavations at Mow Cop have found querns dating back to the Iron Age. The Castle was given to the National Trust in 1937.
It was super blustery on the top but worth persevering as the 360 degree view of the counties of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire were spectacular.
Once we made it back to the car, we just had to go and warm up and sort ourselves out as we were very dishevelled. We did this by popping into yet another pub, but only briefly. Lynne and John head back to Wolverhampton whilst we then cruised for an hour and went through the final lock on the Macclesfield Canal. The lock had a drop of about a foot and is referred to as a stop lock. The lock is designed to stop the water from the Macclesfield flowing into the Trent and Mersey canal and vice versa. This is because each of the canals were very protective of their own water.
We are now on the Trent and Mersey Canal which will start taking us directly south. We have had a very slow week but need to now heighten the pace as we have nine weeks left to make it to London as well as do some side trips.
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