Prees Branch and disaster for the lift bridge

Ellesmere to Whixall Marina (end Prees Branch), Llangollen Canal and Prees Branch, 8 miles 0 locks

It seemed a long day today somehow, but we didn’t do anything extra.. Pulled the pins this morning and pushed No Problem across the canal to the waterpoint.  Glad we did that when we did because a load of boats arrived wanting water.  There are three places to moor for water though so it wasn’t too long a wait for those not hooked up with their hose pipe!

But with three taps going at once, inevitably the flow was slow, we sure did need some water this morning, in fact I wondered if being on the end tap made our fill even slower because some arrived after us, but in the end we were the last to leave!  But I took the opportunity to make some soup for lunch while we waited.  Full at last..Then we were away..

Spied some British Waterways men on the offside of the canal with waders.. Bit of veg cutting going on..

I am amazed as to the number of visitor moorings available around this town.. there was another half mile of moorings just round the corner.. I guess all in all there is some one mile of visitor moorings for this town.. Tunnel next, all 87yds of it..

All the tunnels on the Llangollen Canal have a towpath running through them, although some of the handrails I would not trust.. in fact in this tunnel some parts had no handrail at all.. it was corroded away.

The colours are changing in the countryside from green to bronze and the squirrels are busily collecting nuts.. squirrels entertained us a lot today as we passed through the wooded areas, ha, on one particular bridge as I approached they were running along the top of the parapet wall from one side of the canal to the other..

We stopped for lunch.. delicious homemade soup yum, before turning right to the Prees Branch..

The first lift bridge had broken, and the canal had been shut for a while just a week or so ago, so we were lucky to be able to cruise this arm, but dismay at the damage of the first lift bridge…

The bridge is really broken, a grade II listed building this is, has been restored already, and here it is, snapped off at the top on the left, the remains of it are lying in the grass on the right, and a temporary footbridge has been erected as you can see.  But there is a house on the right as we passed, and his car is in the driveway, so goodness knows how he gets his car out of there.. the only road to the house is was across the bridge.. I guess he must have to drive across the fields to a neighbouring farm to get onto a road for a while.  I do hope it is not going to take too long to get this fixed.. but permissions are going to have to be got before work can start.

Coal and diesel are a good price at Whixall Marina at the end of the navigable part of the Prees Branch, so we winded (turned) and moored close to the end of the canal, we will wait ‘till the morning to load up.

Hooray, the towpath walk was there along the abandoned part of this canal, I really enjoyed the walk after having missed out on something I thought would be similar on the Weston Arm.. This was much better.

Even bridge 4 is still in place, although someone has taken the bridge number plate..

The Prees Branch was actually abandoned before it got to Prees through lack of funding, so this is one canal I feel sure will never be restored any further than it already is.  Hopefully the line of the canal will be kept as it is..but the towpath as such stops at the next bridge (Bridge 5) where there is an old wharf building (Waterloo Wharf)..

The line of the canal is dry from here and the towpath is not passable.. let’s hope it is not lost to the countryside in general and remains recognised as a right of way.

Oh, I nearly forgot, here is a nice one of the old man Vic..

This is the second lift bridge on the branch, so he did have some work to do today!