nb Bridge Street

Saturday 21 st March 2020 The morning was spent quietly with Brenda reading and myself computering. In the afternoon we walked into Stoak, just a few hundred yards from the canal. It is a tiny village, a church, pub a few farms and a couple of dozen houses, mostly ex-council. It took no more than 3 minutes to walk from one end of the village to the other. All pubs and restaurants have been closed by the Government as a measure to overcome the Corona Virus. A shame as the Bunbury Arms looked a nice place. This closing of pubs could well see an end to a part of British culture as many may not be able to survive an indefinite closure period. Also sad as the last pint we may have for a long time would then be a pint of John Smiths in the Horse and Jockey in Ellesmere Port which was a right dive. Bunbury Arms, Stoak St. Lawrence’s Church was worth the visit. The church was almost entirely rebuilt in 1827, replaci...

Friday 20 th March 2020 We heard today, not unexpectedly, that our holiday to India in April has been cancelled due to the Corona Virus threat. Very disappointed but we had only been waiting on the news.   In the morning, I again walked around the canal basin with Harvey and after our breakfast of cheesy crumpets, bacon and maple syrup, we made ready to depart Ellesmere Port. We firstly manoeuvred to post a few things in the apartment post box and then entered the bottom lock.   The transit through the locks was not without incident with crap in the locks, having to fish out a car tyre and half a tree trunk and having to power up to slide over a submerged object into the top lock. There was then a tinky boat moored on the water point, that, with a bit of persuasion, moved down the quay to make room for us. Afterwards we moored in an awkward position to have our bow under Powell’s Bridge ready for her christening. I knocked on the roof of a moored boat an...

Thursday 19 th March 2020 We went for an interesting walk in the morning, around the outside of the Boat Museum. There are so many changes here from when I was a kid. The views from the banks of the Ship Canal are quite stunning. Clear, uninterrupted views right across the River Mersey with Liverpool in one direction and Runcorn in the other. From our house in Bridge Street, it was a short walk to the Ship Canal where there was a ‘beach’, much used by locals. It was here, as well as in the canal basins, that I learnt to swim and we regularly used to swim across the Ship Canal. My childhood was never neglected, but the thought of a 12-year-old child having the freedom to swim across a busy waterway carrying seagoing commercial traffic of up to 20,000 tons fills you with horror. The ‘Beach’ on the Manchester Ship Canal on the Right-hand side   and Stanlow Oil Refinery in the background There are ju...

Wednesday 18 th March 2020 After breakfast we walked up to Ellesmere Port town centre to meet with my sister who works in the Library, with myself doing a lot of reminiscing. The motorway todays, cuts right through what was known as the Old End of the Port and completely severs the area around the Boat Museum and the area between the motorway and the railway. While the area around the boat museum is pleasant, the area between motorway and railway has been completely forgotten by the rest of the town which seems to have turned its back. Small wonder, the place is awful and has a sad and neglected feel to it. Beyond the railway lies the town centre. While the actual centre itself has a good range of shops and seemed surprisingly tidy, the shops leading to the centre were decidedly run down. Brenda bought a new set of bedding in the Arcades which were spookily empty with everybody stopping at home on account of the Corona Virus. In the afternoon my other sister visited ...

Tuesday 17 th March 2020 After watering up and emptying the loo, we left Chester Basin en-route for Ellesmere Port. There are all kinds of stories of boats getting into trouble running into the Port, and only yesterday we spoke to a boat that had kids in hoodies throwing bricks at them from a bridge and running over submerged debris in another bridge hole, most likely yet another shopping trolley. This is an aspect of this boating life that is unfortunate and boats are easy targets for thieves and scallies and some people do feel vulnerable, which must be awful. However, we do maintain that a lot of the time, it can be down to simply how you approach people and situations and the individual’s perception of risk. So far, luckily, we have had no problems. However, I was brought up in Ellesmere Port and know first-hand what a shit hole the place was, is and always will be, so awareness is key. Anyway, we have a contingency plan in instances of trouble. I set Brenda, with ...

Monday 16 th March 2020 We walked up into the city and did a big shop in Tesco’s. The world has gone crazy with this Corona Virus. Panic buying, empty shelves, no pasta and very few dried foods, scuffling over toilet rolls for God’s sake, and long long queues at the check-outs. The afternoon was spent working on the boat. The port side was polished along with the roof, the windows cleaned and the mould that had started growing on the inside of the pram hood, scrubbed off, using a hot water solution of sugar soap. Tomorrow we start our long awaited run into Ellesmere Port.

Saturday 14 th – Sunday 15 th 2020 We caught the train for a long awaited trip to Holyhead for a visit to Meurig and Heulwen in Four Mile Bridge. I had sailed with Meurig for a number of years and we normally meet a few times a year but hadn’t seen them since we had moved onto the boat. The times spent sailing with Meurig were amongst my happiest at sea. We ‘kept the lights burning’ as they say and boy, did we have fun doing it. Along with a lot of illegal drink on dry ships! The train journey to Holyhead was one we had always wanted to do. Once out of Chester, the line runs right alongside the coast, initially with views across to the Wirral and presently Anglesey comes into view. The crossing over the Menai Straits on George Stephenson’s Britannia Bridge, guarded by four massive stone lions and built in 1850, is particularly impressive. The bridge is built from two long, iron tubes that supported the track ...