Back to Gurnett Aqueduct (Macclesfield Canal) – Friday 9th August

Another blog entitled “back to”!

Richard admitted this morning that he had made a mistake yesterday by moving on from Bollington J

We are pretty restricted in where we can go as we are waiting for my glasses to be delivered to Macclesfield so need to hang around.  We had hoped that there would be a bus locally which would take us into the town but there wasn’t.  So, as we have a moving home, Richard moved further up the canal, winded (turned round) and headed back to Macclesfield, moored up had a quick look round.  Set off the wrong way, winded again and off we went BACK to Gurnett Aqueduct.

The Hovis Mill

 Macclesfield is home to the impressively restored Hovis Mill. This was where, from 1898-1904, the flour for Hovis bread was first milled in its distinctive way and distributed to bakers for baking into the well known loaf. After a period of dereliction the building has been converted into apartments.  Hovis is said to derive from the Latin "homo-vitalis" (strength for man) as a way of providing a cheap and nutritious food for poor mill workers and was a very dry and dense wholemeal loaf completely different from the modern version.

A pretty canalside property

Macclesfield was once the world's biggest producer of finished silk. There were 71 silk mills operating in 1832. There is a silk museum but as we had Muffin with us we didn’t go.

Silk was woven in Cheshire from the late 1600s. The handloom weavers worked in the attic workshops in their own homes. Macclesfield was famous for silk buttons manufacture. The supply of silk from Italy was precarious and some hand throwing was done in shades.

 

The view from the boat at Gurnett Aqueduct

One fact I gleaned from the internet says that according to a recent ruling by the UN World Tourism Organisation, this famous silk route begins in Xian, the ancient capital of China, and ends in the ancient Cheshire town of Macclesfield.

Gurnett Aqueduct – Macclesfield – Gurnett Aqueduct

4.36 miles
0 locks