We had a tranquil evening in front of the diesel stove just down from the Red Bull Inn, which sadly didn’t reopen.
On Tuesday morning (13/04/2021) Steve and Vera explored the Macclesfield Canal on the aqueduct above us. Vera was keen to try the footbridge over the canal.
This was above the Macclesfield Canal, which was above the Trent & Mersey Canal.
It was sunny but very cold and there had been a coating of ice on The Duke.
We set off early at 09:00 through 2 locks and arrived at the scary Harecastle Tunnel. Harecastle Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal in Staffordshire between Kidsgrove and Tunstall. The tunnel, which is 1.6 miles (2.6 km) long, was once one of the longest in the country. Its industrial purpose was for the transport of coal to the kilns in the Staffordshire Potteries. The canal runs under the 195 m (640 ft) Harecastle Hill near Goldenhill, the highest district in Stoke-on-Trent.
We managed to negotiate the Harecastle Tunnel in 40 minutes without seeing the boggart. Legend has it the boggart is the spirit of a woman who was murdered by boatmen as she travelled to London by canal barge through the Harecastle Tunnel. A sighting of her headless ghost is thought to mean doom and disaster – and it is said she was seen on the morning of many of North Staffordshire’s worst mining disasters!
It is an incredible feat of engineering and must have been a hell of a job for the leggers who lay on planks and walked along the walls to propel the old working narrowboats through this tunnel in 1827 when it was opened.
We were relieved when the exit gates opened and we chugged out into the sunlight to fill up our water tanks.
We continued along through 7 more locks and passed the industrial heritage buildings of Stoke on Trent, it’s huge Civic Centre and the Bet365 Stadium (home of Stoke City Football Club) and moored up for the night at Barlaston. Holiday boats were setting out today, but most seemed to be turning off to explore the Caldon Canal.
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