Occasional Observations

Passing through the "Rochdale Nine" - the lowest of the 92 locks on the Rochdale canal - was a much-anticipated highlight of our Cheshire Ring canal trip. Passing right through the middle of Manchester, the Rochdale Canal descends through nine locks from the junction with the Aston Canal at Piccadilly Basin through Castlefield, where it joins the River Irwell and the Bridgewater Canal.

Rejuvenated in the early 90s, Castlefield was our starting point and recommended overnight stopping point in most of the guidebooks - yes, but. The big but was that our schedules for the following days would be skewed by a lazy day in Manchester. With a 97-mile route to cover and 100-plus locks ahead of us, we were eager to get on - so we walked the Rochdale Nine along the towpath, all the way to Piccadilly, where we decided that perfectly good, quiet, safe overnight moorings were available. The area's more of a building site than anything else at the moment.

Onwards and upwards - the rise in each of the nine locks is four meters or more, hugely different to the 3cm difference in the Dutton Stop Lock at the top of the Trent and Mersey, which had been our practice lock. Also, the Rochdale is a wide canal - meaning that two boats can fit together in each lock.

Getting into the first lock at Dukes 92 was easy, once I'd decided to ignore the Gongoozlers who were watching with interest as an amateur crew got to grips with a lock. Aware of the cill at the back of the lock, I was too far forward, and the boat's stern was flooded by water splashing through the lock gate. Thankfully, water did not get into the boat, and drained away - but it wasn't a great start.

Inside the slow-filling lock, all kinds of detritus were floating around - we swear there was an empty plastic Coke bottle in every lock in Manchester, on both the Rochdale and Ashton canals. As the lock filled, so the boat would be drawn forwards, presumably by the water coming into the lock at the bottom of the front, and swirling towards the back of the lock.

Once the lock was full, it was a strange experience standing on the boat's aft, looking down over the dripping rear lock gates to the lower water level. Time to move forward...

We were lucky, it turned out. During our recce we'd passed a motor cruiser whose captain was busy cutting a bedsheet out of the blades of the propellor. And while passing along Canal Street, we met another Cheshire Ring cruiser, headed in the opposite direction, also with a bedsheet fouling the prop. Goodness knows what else is in the canal - Canal Street was visibly the worst, with metal chairs, roadsigns and traffic cones littering the water - although this is very murky and impossible to see the bottom, even though the canal is supposed to be only a couple of meters deep. It's a shame to see that the canal is seen as an occasionally-flowing rubbish dump for fast food and snack wrappers, bin and shoppings bags, dead dogs and probably plenty more - we didn't dig around to find out. An aluminium beer cask floating close to the Oxford Road lock turned out to be empty, so we didn't rescue it.

Completing all nine locks took almost three hours - since we were all pretty inexperienced, and there was no need to race. The time passed rapidly, and the bow of a 17-meter narrowboat provided a unique view of the center of Manchester. Coming back after eight years, it struck me just how industrial and Victorian much of the architecture is - the place must have changed beyond recognition every 10 years or so in the second half of the 19th Century. For me, the Piccadilly area had changed - much cleaner and the more upmarket shops are moving into Station Approach - which was always an area to avoid in the past.

Emerging from the top lock, the junction of the Ashton Canal before us, we moored for the night - avoiding the submerged shopping trolley.

Labels: canal holiday, Cheshire Ring, Dukes 92, Rochdale Canal