The Ashton Canal

 In an effort to catch up with our speedy passing of canal junctions, here is our account of travel down the 6 or so miles of the Ashton Canal into Manchester:

You may remember that we came to the end of the Peak Forest Canal at Dukinfield Junction and there turned left onto the Ashton Canal. The Ashton has a reputation for passing through rather unsavoury parts of the outskirts of Manchester but we found that things have much improved in the 12 years since we last passed this way. Nevertheless we decided not to chance mooring overnight on the Canal and instead booked a night in the small marina at Droylsden. You might be able to make out Leo fourth from the right on the moorings. We spent the afternoon walking the three and a half miles down the Canal into  Manchester and getting the tram back.

There are 18 locks down into Manchester and here is the first one close by the marina. Originally there were two locks side by side but the right hand one is no longer operating.

Here is Leo going down in the first lock.

Below the first lock (actually this is no 18 as they are numbered from the bottom), is a boathouse seen here on the left looking back.

Early on in the flight we had problems with a very low pound and, from then on, we positioned Leo against the top gate of each lock with the engine at low revs pushing against the gate. This meant we did not have to moor by the side of the canal where it was likely to be too shallow. Getting stuff round the prop was also a problem and Ian had three trips down the weed hatch to clear things. As well as a lump of timber that stalled the engine we caught a fleece, a pair of knickers, swimming trunks, plastic waste and lots of weed!

By the new Co-op Live arena at lock 5 a man-powered butty passed us coming up.

There is a lot of new development going on at the Etihad Stadium. No wonder football teams are so rich.

Though it now seems safer, no-one would describe the surroundings on the Ashton as pretty!

A new bridge has been put in to access the Velodrome.

Here we are coming into the city towards the bottom at Lock 1. Manchester has a lot more high rise buildings since we were last here and yet more are being built.

Here is Leo waiting for Lock 1. The low rise development beside the Canal below the lock is Piccadilly village which dates from 1990 and was where we were planning to spend the night.

And our good fortune continued as there was space for us on the offside away from the towpath. This is outside a residential development and ordinarily might be marked 'Private: No Mooring' but in fact they permit boats to moor for 24 hours. You cannot however get out from the development to the rest of the world. However a quiet afternoon suited us fine.

This splendid rose was in the private estate gardens of Piccadilly village which visiting boaters can access even if they can't get out of the development through the locked gate.

So now we were positioned in a great place to take on the 9 final locks of the Rochdale Canal into the bottom end of Manchester at Castlefields. These are known as the 'Rochdale 9', carry a fearsome reputation with boaters and we had never tackled these locks in Leo until now. But that story will have to wait for the next posting on this blog in the next day or so.