Bosley Top Lock (Macclesfield Canal) - Saturday 10th August

We were late getting up this morning – it’s so nice that Muffin quite likes a lie in too though the first thing we have to do is to give him his breakfast.

We hadn’t quite made up our minds what to do today though we knew we were going to move on – but to where? 

We had two swing bridges to do this morning, fortunately the first one was done for us by another boat going our way and we said that we would go on and do the second one which turned out to be electric so I certainly drew the long straw today!

Sutton Common BT Tower

Our first destination was to just beyond bridge 49 to get fuel from Alton (for those of you at home that is Alton the fuel boat and not Alton in Hampshire!)  I mentioned Alton back in June when we passed them in Lymm but weren’t able to stop.  I follow Brian and Ann Marie on Twitter and it was really nice to finally get to meet them and have a chat and learn from Ann Marie all about being a working boatwife.

By the time we had finished nattering and got under way again it was really too late to start going down the Bosley flight of 12 locks – we will save them for tomorrow.  So our home for tonight is at the top lock with wonderful views over the Cheshire plains and we can even see Wales too!

The Cloud

From the boat we can see Sutton Common BT Tower and The Cloud.  The tower is a radio tower built of reinforced concrete and is one of the few communication towers in the United Kingdom built of reinforced concrete. It is part of the 1960s 'backbone' network, relaying signals to Heaton Park in the north and Pye Green to the south.  Sutton Common is notable because it was originally conceived as part of the 1950s 'Backbone' chain designed to provide the UK and NATO with survivable communications during nuclear war.  The Cloud or Bosley Cloud is1,125 feet high and one of the highest hills in the area.

We had to laugh tonight.  We are moored at the end of some permanent moorings and one boat has a garden which is really the towpath.  An elderly couple arrived at the boat with boxes and a strimmer.  No sooner had they arrived and the lady was out tending her garden, which was looking a mess I have to say.  Muffin decided to escape and ran up to see her with me in hot pursuit – is this your dog she yelled at me and I replied yes and for some reason Muffin came bounding back to me!!  Nothing wrong with that, I hear you say!  Well a little later a dog from a boat which had pulled in behind us obviously was on her garden and she yelled at the dog’s owner to keep the dog off her garden.  Is it a garden or a towpath??

Gurnett Aqueduct to Bosley Top Lock

3.87 miles
0 locks 2 swing bridges