A little hop forward

Yesterday was as forecast with wind and rain all day, the village of Hassall Green is very small, nothing of note there so I didn't venture out into the rain to look around.

The forecast for today was for rain later so after my normal Sunday breakfast of bacon and eggs I got myself sorted and cast off at 10:30.

It was quite warm in fact after the first two locks I was in need of removing my top coat.

The view in the distance, not quite sure where that is and it is on quite a heavy zoom so it looks more misty than it actually was.

The two Pierpoint Locks were again against me, these are single locks with a rise of 14' 6" so they didn't take too long to empty and fill. A short run then to the outskirts of Rode Heath and the first of the two Thurlwoood Locks with a rise of 19' 4", the right hand lock was empty so that was a little less effort. The difference of the view to the right and left was very obvious.

On the right of the locks older properties below canal level.

On the left new buildings above canal level

The next lock had one ground paddle and one gate paddle on the top gate, the gate paddle appeared to be leaking quite badly but after going into the lock and walking forward to open the paddles I found that the last person through had left it partially open.

The arrangement of paddles varies, sometimes you have only ground paddles, these let the water into the lock by way of a culvert which allows the water to enter the lock from the sides below the water level,

Borrowed from Wikipedia

sometimes you only have gate paddles which are, as the name implies, built into the gates themselves and the water enters the lock at a higher level often above the bow level of your boat, so care has to be taken to not flood your bow well deck, this area only has small drainage holes and so it can in turn flood the boat itself through the front doors, so care must be taken either by keeping the boat back from the gate or by only partially opening the paddles,

Gate Paddles in full flow

some locks have both and if there are both types you would open the ground paddles first to fill the lock above the gate paddle level and then you can safely fully open the gate paddles,


Rode Heath looks to be fairly recently developed with lots of newer buildings as I approached my intended overnight.

I could have carried on but the next batch of nine locks will take me to the next services and I think that will be enough for another day, I also have a bit of a sore right knee so I wanted to rest that a bit.

I have moored up just around the corner from the above picture, opposite ;'The Broughton Arms'.

The visitor moorings are in need of a little attention with most of the mooring rings missing but I managed to get a rope through the loop that remained bedded in concrete  to the stern and for the first time in forever I had to use pins at the bow, the main issue was being careful to avoid the piles of dog mess that owners had kindly left for me.

View from the side hatch.

It's actually quite a nice view but with the boat a bit low I should have taken
it from the towpath :-)

Totals Today: 2 miles : 4 locks