The forecast for today was good but, as we know, sometimes the forecasters get it wrong! We had 14 locks to do and we did most of them in the rain :-( We did 6 then stopped for coffee more or less under 
the M6 – boy was it noisy. The weather looked as if it was going to brighten up but as soon as we were under way again down came the rain! We went down through 6 of the 8 Wheelock locks and lo and behold the sun came out! We had planned to stay in Wheelock tonight so moored up in lovely sunshine. The locks we did yesterday and today are part of the “Cheshire Locks” or “Heartbreak Hill” - the name given to them by generations of working boatmen. There are 26 in just over 6 miles which lift the canal up by over 200 feet (but we are going down not up!) Built in the 1770s, commercial traffic was so heavy that in the 1830s most of the locks were duplicated to reduce delays. With the post-war decline in commercial traffic many of these duplicate locks were allowed to fall out of use or were even removed so that today only 17 duplicates remain open.
the M6 – boy was it noisy. The weather looked as if it was going to brighten up but as soon as we were under way again down came the rain! We went down through 6 of the 8 Wheelock locks and lo and behold the sun came out! We had planned to stay in Wheelock tonight so moored up in lovely sunshine. The locks we did yesterday and today are part of the “Cheshire Locks” or “Heartbreak Hill” - the name given to them by generations of working boatmen. There are 26 in just over 6 miles which lift the canal up by over 200 feet (but we are going down not up!) Built in the 1770s, commercial traffic was so heavy that in the 1830s most of the locks were duplicated to reduce delays. With the post-war decline in commercial traffic many of these duplicate locks were allowed to fall out of use or were even removed so that today only 17 duplicates remain open. 
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