Grindley Brook's delightful locks and it's rescue time too

Grindley Brook to Blackoe, Sparks Bridge (35), Llangollen Canal, 2.5 miles 6 locks

Following a stop day yesterday we waited for Duke and Duchess the hotel boat pair to leave their overnight mooring just up from us before pulling the pins ourselves to head towards the 6 locks at Grindley Brook, three normal locks and a staircase of three more.

But just as we left a narrowboat started creeping out from the towpath ahead of us with no steerer in sight.. and gently came across us and settled on the far side of the canal.  Now we could either leave it there for the crew to swim to or we could rescue it.. of course we would rescue it!..   For sure it is not the weather at the moment for swimming!..

So slowly edging No Problem along the far side of the canal I nudged the Middlewich Hire Boat’s bows over…

Notice how the front rope is still coiled up on the bow, couldn’t have been tied up very well.. then it was just a matter of persuading the stranded narrowboat to head for the towpath with a bit of help from No Problem and the very versatile Vic!…

One more shove and that tidied the back end over as well.  Once securely moored with both front and back ropes this time we were on our way…  It was a funny day today.. maybe crews in this area had been pub crawling or something because as yet another hire boat emerged from the first lock, I untied No Problem where I had been patiently waiting only to see some of the crew off the emerging boat shutting the gates!!  “Hey leave them open please we are waiting to go in”.. “Eh?”  “We are just going in that lock, open the gates please”.. “Oh!”.. Ho hum wakey wakey..

Up through the first three then a bit of a wait before doing the last three in a staircase with the help of the lockeeper..

Passed that now famous Holly on the way up.. stolen last year from Middlewich Narrowboats and recovered, she is now back in service as a hire boat and is out and about.  I wondered if her holidaymaker hirers know why so many people are staring at them this week!

Lots of little shops on the way up these six..

And a very attractive area.  We had left at 11.15 hoping it would be a bit quieter that time of day.. well they do start early on this canal you know.. I heard the first boat past our mooring this morning just as it got light, keen lot I must say, but I was wrong about it being quiet today, and it wasn’t until gone 2 this afternoon that we had actually cleared these 6.. so a late lunch stop at the top before settling a little further on past Whitchurch for the night.

A very busy canal this is.. even this time of year, goodness knows what it is like in the summer months, but there are plenty of moorings everywhere.. all neatly manicured with rings, so I don’t really know why this one should have taken this unique way of mooring..

wonder if ‘dump in bank’ will catch on?