Anderton look alike!

 

We pulled pins from our mooring at Barnton at the appallinginly late time of 09.15 and headed back to Northwich for a shop before carrying on down the river Weaver.

After a shop in Sainsbury, Waitrose and just about every other shop in the town we pulled ropes through bollards and headed back down stream, poor Carolyn looks worn out after all that shopping ! .

There is a lot of building work going on in Northwich and this is part of the new shopping centre being built in the town. This building was designed to look like the Anderton Boat lift and part of it contains the new cinema. I must admit they have done a very good job and it certainly has a resemblance to the lift.

After passing the Winnington a few days ago you can now see that the demolition is progressing well . We were told that in November they are going to blow up the silo’s with a controlled explosion. What a shame we will not be here then.

We picked up this mooring not far from our previous one on this stretch below Barnton. We will have a night here and then pull pins in the morning and head down to Saltersford lock

A bit of a late start for us as we never pulled pins until 09.10. It was only a few hundred yards to the lock so we rang the lock Keeper to let him know we were on the way to him. One of the things I love about the Weaver is that they still have the semaphores on the lock. It’s just a shame that they don't work.

After Saltersford it was an hour’s cruise down to Dutton locks. These are some of the biggest locks we have ever done and they require us to tie on fore and aft with ropes around the lock bollards so that we can control Inca as we drop down. I must say that the Lockie’s are a lot more helpful here than some of those on the Thames and can’t do enough to help when trying to lasso the bollards and miss..

A few hundred yards after exiting the lock we arrive in Sunshine at the Dutton Viaduct which is a railway viaduct crossing the River Weaver near the villages of Dutton and Acton Bridge in Cheshire. It was built in 1836 as part of the West Coast Main Line and was the first railway viaduct outside of London. It was also the longest on the Grand Junction Railway which was formed in 1833 to connect Birmingham with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.​

The viaduct was constructed in red sandstone using more than 700,000 cubic feet of stone. The design comprises 20 equal arches each of 18m (60 ft) width. The overall length is 391m (1274 ft) and the deck height is 18m (60 ft). Steel poles were added in the 1960s when the railway was electrified.In 1986 the viaduct was designated by English Heritage as a Grade II Listed Building. A major refurbishment of the bridge was completed in 2012.

After a good few hour’s of cruising we picked up this field mooring at Devils Garden. All was going well with the chairs out enjoying the peace and quiet when all of a sudden a herd of Heifer's appeared in the field . I don’t think I have ever seen Carolyn move so fast to get back onto the boat. So it looks like it’s me doing all the Dog walking while Carolyn stays on the boat. We were going to spend a couple of chilling out days here ,but I now think we will be on the move in the morning.

                                                                                                               Happy Days