Canal repair saga continues and we all need to have patience...
The ever-popular musings of a narrowboat horse on the Montgomery Canal
IT’S not often that an old photograph turns up of the ‘cut’ in yesteryear that I haven’t seen before, but this one of the corn merchants in Chester (right) was a new one on me.
The imported corn started life in Canada, was shipped across the Atlantic to Liverpool and transshipped into barges, taken across the Mersey to Ellesmere Port and down the Shroppie to Chester. There it was transferred again, into narrowboats, and taken along the Ellesmere Canal (now renamed the Llangollen) and finally down the Monty to Peate’s Mill at Maesbury for processing. All this work, just so we could have some bread!
Although there were many merchants in Chester during the heyday of canals, Griffiths Brothers became Chester’s largest firm of corn merchants in the late 19th century. The firm was founded in Lower Bridge Street in the 1850s, and c1873 expanded into premises on Queen’s Wharf vacated by the Chester Provender and Carting Co. The increasing import of foreign wheat led it to open an office in Liverpool c1874.
The Queen’s Wharf premises were greatly extended in the 1870s and again in 1912, but they were used mainly as warehouses and the amount of milling on site seems to have been limited. In 1902 the firm was milling provender, but at Mickle Trafford watermill rather than in Chester.
Some other corn merchants also appear to have done some milling on a small scale. The last surviving mill in Chester proved to be Upton windmill, operated by Edward Dean and his son from the 1870s to the 1930s. They had installed an auxiliary steam engine by 1892. By 1914 milling in Chester was thus a dying industry, though its final demise took place after 1918.
More delays
Those of you with a patient disposition are probably wondering why I haven’t mentioned for a long time, the section of canal between Redwith and Pryces bridges. For the older ones of you who can’t remember, or the younger ones who are new to the saga, this is the length of ‘restored’ canal, which was opened in 2014 (twice). No sooner had the fanfare of trumpets died down, it was immediately closed again because it leaked.
Over the years, there have been many theories as to the cause, several engineering investigations have been carried out and multi-various remedies have been forwarded, some of the simpler ones tried, but unfortunately all have failed to resolve the issue. The latest initiative is going to be much more extensive, involving digging up the towpath and a new strip of liner to be laid. The thinking now (according to the CRT engineer on site), is that the original lining was not laid high enough up the bank, so water could simply flow over the top.
If this is the case, someone needs a new bubble in their spirit level! Messrs Brindley, Telford and Jessop must be spinning in their graves. Work hasn’t actually started yet, as they’re waiting for some new stop-planks to be delivered, as the existing ones have rotted during the six years that they’ve been in situ. The project is going to take until October to complete, so yet another season passes by before this quarter-mile stretch of canal is open to boats.
However, looking towards the future, when the additional two miles of navigation up to Crickheath winding hole finally opens, access to the Monty is now available for four hours a day instead of the previous two. So, from 9am until 1pm, seven days a week, pre-booked boats can now enter our favourite canal via Frankton locks. These new opening times are in anticipation of more boat movements from 2022, when SUCS will have completed the relining work and restoration is finished.
Finally, it’s with a heavy heart, and after a lot of deliberation, we’re very sorry to announce that it is highly likely we shan’t be running any trips this year. It doesn’t matter how many risk assessments we do, or to what extent we insist on face masks, social distancing or carrot hygiene, it just isn’t worth taking the risk.
So, depending on Covid invincibility, Boris bluster or just Wuhan woohoo, we’ll be back in 2021. We’ll all be a year older if we’re spared, and hopefully a year wiser and still healthy!
Until next time, may your bucket contain more carrots than mine currently does.
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