You’re welcome to join us at any stage of the journey. We will be well stocked with bacon sandwiches and biscuits, but we may ask you to bring us fresh milk and stale bread for the ducks 🙂
Unfortunately we cannot offer anyone overnight accommodation, but our arrangements are very flexible so we can easily stop near bridges with road access or places with B&B’s nearby.
This is Travelling Thru in her 2016 paint colours. She’ll look a bit different by the time we set off for Huddersfield’s Aspley Wharf.
The provisional itinerary for our trip is as follows:
The Journey to Huddersfield
Tuesday 11th April, depart in the morning from Steve’s workshop at Stenson Marina. Travelling west to Fradley Junction where we hope to moor overnight.
Day 2, 12th April, will be Fradley Junction to Great Haywood.
Day 3, Thursday 14th April, Great Haywood towards Stoke – although we won’t be overnighting in the built up area as the local youth think cutting boats adrift is fun!
Day 4, Good Friday, from Stoke up through the Harecastle tunnel near Kidsgrove and then we turn onto the Macclesfield Canal, passing Mow Cop where I abseiled when I was at college.
Day 5 will be a gentle cruise along the Macclesfield canal past Congleton towards Macclesfield,
Day 6 – On Easter Sunday we will continue past the junction with the Peak Forest Canal, taking in the 16 lock flight near Marple – any help here would be wonderful.
Day 7 – On Easter Monday we will take a right turn onto the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, at Ashton- Under-Lyne. The scenery from the canal is reported to be fantastic and we would love some help with any of this section as there are quite a large number of locks to negotiate.
We will pass through Stalybridge and up towards Saddleworth, where we’ll pause for the night.
Day 8 – Tuesday 18th we will continue towards Greenfield aiming to pass the Tesco there late morning. in the afternoon, we will be travelling the 2 mile, 14 lock section between Greenfield and the mouth of the tunnel. We checked out the parking at Greenfield and Dobcross if anyone would like to join us here.
Day 9 – Our passage through the Standedge Tunnel, from Diggle to Marsden is booked for Wednesday 19th April. We need to be at the mouth of the tunnel to meet our guide by 11.30am on the 19th. Any passengers need to arrive around midday. That’ll leave plenty of time for lunch before our crossing.
Our guide from the Canal and Rivers Trust will travel through the tunnel with us so will be able to tell us about it as we go.
We can take a maximum of 10 people on the boat, if you would like to travel with us through the tunnel, please let us know before Easter Tuesday so we can tell the Canal and Rivers Trust how many people we expect to have with us. If you have your own lifejacket, please bring it as it saves us borrowing them. I understand the CRT will lend us hard hats!
Once we’re through the tunnel we will be stopping for the night at Marsden, between the visitor centre and the Station.
Day 10 and 11 – We then take a leisurely 2 days over the 7 mile, 40 lock descent into Huddersfield. We aim to reach Aspley Wharf before 5pm on Friday 21st April, so we can be shown to our mooring during staff working hours.
The Return Journey – Huddersfield to Mercia Marina near Derby (revised 25/05/2017)
Susie and Stephanie will be leaving Aspley Marina on Sundat 11th June at approx 10pm for the return journey up the Colne valley.
The first night’s stop will be at Linthwaite, near Titanic Mills where there is roadside parking.
On Monday we will have a shorter day cruising from Linthwaite to above the Guillotine Lock at Slaithwaite. Where we will stop and enjoy a slice of cake from the handmade bakery company.
The following day we will to continue to Marsden where we stop for the night at the Standege tunnel visitor centre.
Our passage through the tunnel (Marsden to Diggle) is booked for the morning of Wednesday 14th June. We meet our guide at 8am and commence the passage some time after 8.30am. Passage through the tunnel is expected to take around one and a half hours.
We can take a maximum of 10 people on the boat, if you would like to travel with us through the tunnel, please let us know by Monday 12th May so we can tell the Canal and Rivers Trust how many people we expect to have with us. If you have your own lifejacket, please bring it as it saves us borrowing them. It’s not dangerous, but in these days of rampant health and safety life jackets are required.
Once through the tunnel we will stop for a cup of tea/coffee and maybe lunch or a snack before making our way leisurely down the valley towards Uppermill (9 locks and 1 mile). If we have time and the weather is nice we will continue to Roaches Lock.
On Thursday 15th June we expect to travel from Roaches lock to Ashton-Under-Lyne where we will stop for the night at the top of the Peak Forest Canal. There looks to be some nice safe mooring there.
On Friday 16th June we proceed over the Marple aquaduct and up the the Marple flight of 16 locks. Very picturesque. We will probably stop near the top of the locks for the night
The plan from them is a bit more fluid, as I haven’t worked it out yet, we plan to have days of 6-7 hours cruising, not the 12 hours we were doing on the way up and we also plan to stop off and see some of the sights and attractions if we feel like it.
Provisionally:
Sat: Marple to the top of Bosley Locks (no locks today!)
Sun: Bosley to Congleton (Bosley is a 12 lock flight)
Mon: Through the Harecastle Tunnel. (1 lock to the tunnel, then it depends how far we want to go)
Tues: Stoke to Great Heywood
wed: Great Heywood to Tixall Wide
Thurs: Tixall Wide to Rugely
Fri:Â Rugely to Alrewras
Sat: Alrewras to Mercia Marina
We expect to arrive at Mercia Marina on either Friday 23rd or Saturday 24th June. I’ve planned short days so we may just push on if the weather is nice so we don’t have to travel if it rains.
