Hello, good morning.
It's lovely and sunny again isn't it?
Although there is showers forecast today, so you might want to grab a cagoule
and a flask because it is a bit chilly isn't it and there might be a shower
A cagoule?
What? I've got my cagoule in my pocket, it's a pack-a-mac.
A pack-a-mac.
reminds me of Caramac.
So we're at Winsford Bottom Flash
It's too obvious, don't ask.
What?
Nothing.
and there's actually three of them, there's top flash, middle flash and bottom flash.
Which is where we are and collectively they're known as the Cheshire Broads,
you know like Norfolk Broads but a bit more Cheshirery.
But you can't cruise em.
Well you can't cruise this one this is a bit shallow especially towards the middle.
So we're just turning round here, we'll explain a bit more of that in a minute.
But it is very popular with water sports isn't it? sailing and kayaking and things like that.
Why are they called Flashes instead of lakes?
Ahhh that's an interesting question that I wrote for him last night.
[Laughs]
Flashes is a local word, it's local dialect
and it's based on the french word for puddle.
Really?
It's a big puddle isn't it, you don't want to be jumping in this in your wellies after it's been raining.
It's a mahoosive puddle [Laughs]
and the dialect, the local dialect, flash means
that it's a body of water that's been created by subsidence
Ahhh!
and the reason it's created by subsidence, is there is loads of salt
underneath the ground around here in Cheshire, loads of it.
More than you need for your chips.
There used to be, they've dug it all out now.
Well this is it, the Romans discovered it back in Roman times,
but they didn't start mining it, not the Romans because they'd gone then.
The english didn't start mining it till the 1700's
and they didn't kind of go in and quarry it out, what they used to do,
is they used to pump water into the salt and that would dissolve the salt
and then they'd pump it back out again, dry it out and then collect the salt.
WOW!
But when they were doing that, obviously because all the rock salt was been pumped back out,
it created massive caverns under the ground and as they started to collapse,
that's why it formed these flashes as the river was going over it
and there's loads of them around Cheshire.
Over the next couple of weeks we're going to be cruising from here,
which is the beginning of the navigable part of the Weaver Navigation,
to the end of the navigable part which is actually near
Runcorn where we were a couple of weeks ago.
[Shaun] It is, I know that.
Today, we're about to turn around and
start the navigation we've got about five miles before we get to Northwich,
we've got a couple of locks, some interesting old stories,
don't forget your cagoule.
Yeah, it might chuck it down.
[Music playing]
That bridge is the start of the Weaver Navigation,
it's also the start of the Canal and River Trust's jurisdiction.
Jurisdiction?
I've been practicing pronouncing that all night,
I was having nightmares about it.
You can go further than that and where we turned round
is probably about quarter of a mile further on
and you might have noticed like a marina like an empty marina where we turned around
and that's not owned by the CRT, it's owned by the local council
and they encourage boaters to come in
and we would have mowed there had we not heard a few horror stories
Yeah.
about yobs coming down on an evening and terrorising you.
So we moored
just on that little mooring to my right hand side,
which is next to an old pub which has been closed down unfortunately
otherwise we could have had a pint last night.
Yeah we could have done.
[Music playing]
Back in the days when the salt mining industry was really rockin'
there were mines on each side of the river and it was really busy,
they were all pumping brine outthe ground underneath.
[Shaun] They were.
But nowadays there's only one really big salt mine all the others have been flattened
and on one side of the river it's mostly parkland now
and I went for a run down there last night
thinking it might be like a there and back path.
But it isn't, it's like a maze and I don't know,
I ended up naked in some shrubs somewhere, I don't know.
[Laughs] What again?
Yeah, I made it home for my tea though.
But there is a path called the Weaver Way and it starts
about 20 miles away from us in Frodsham,
which is where we going, to the end of the navigation
and it runs from there all along the river, past the flashes,
up to the Macclesfield Canal down to the Trent & Mersey onto the Shropshire Union
and ends at Audlum on the Shropshire Union Canal.
That's a fair walk.
It is, 40 miles walk.
Do you remember Audlam?
Oh god yes.
There's some locks at Audlam and if there's a fair bit of water in the canal,
it comes down the by-wash and it comes out at an angle
and there's so much of it, it pushes you into the side,
do you remember that?
Crash, bang, wallup!
Poor old Pat and Mick nearly wrote their boat off
demolishing one of the lock walls didn't they.
[Sound effect of a car crash]
[Eileen] Awww, a little bit of a knock.
Pat and Mick? She's gonna kill you.
[Music playing]
That is Winsford Rock Salt Mine,
it's the oldest, largest rock salt working mine in the country.
That's not the mine, the mine's about 150 meters underneath us.
That's just a big shaft.
That's a big shaft [Laughs]
It is actually pretty scary, it's like something out of a 70s horror movie isn't it?
But the mine is underneath us, 150 metres below ground
and it snakes around about 100 miles
and they've taken about the equivalent of 700 football pitches
of salt out of the ground
WOW!
and it's rock salt, you might recognise it,
because they store it here,
but they use it to spread on the roads in winter to thaw the roads out.
I know they do.
[Music playing]
That was New Bridge and we've changed the
camera angle because the sun is right behind us
so we just look like two shadowy figures,
he is there driving the boat honestly, shout hello.
[Shaun] Helloooo!
[Laughs]
New Bridge is lovely and this area between the bridge and Vale Royal Lock, which is
where we're heading to is one of the nicest stretches on the river.
You could have a picnic, there's a static caravan park,
you can have a little holiday and enjoy views over the river.
But it wasn't always like that, back in 1892
there was a right battle going on by that bridge.
The boatmen were on strike
because their working hours and conditions have been changed,
but there were a lot of boatmen still working,
they needed to make their money
and the strikers didn't like it so they were fighting them.
They were throwing bricks and stones and all sorts at the boats
and then a couple of days later they attacked the salt works
to try and stop the salt leaving on the river.
The police were called in and eventually they had to get the military
because the strikers were just being so violent.
It did calm down and then one of the local magistrates issued an order,
saying that the military had come in and if he reads them the riot act
they'll be able to shoot the strikers down like grouse.
They behaved after that.
[Music playing]
Whoa!
We're on a wobbly pontoon.
Wibbly wobbly pontoon.
No, that's too wobbly.
So as we were coming up to the lock, were you thinking what I was thinking?
No, because they haven't seen it yet, are you ready?
3
2
1
TRAAAAAIIIN!
[Laughs]
It's the first time I've ever seen semaphore signals like you get on the railway
on a river or a navigation
and they're the original semaphore signals, they used them back in the days
when the old Mersey Flats, I always keep meaning to say Mersey Beats,
[Laughs]
when the old Mersey Beats, Mersey Flats or the Steam Flats,
the old Flat, like big boats that used to tow
barges that used to come up and down here.
There's a barge just coming out,
as soon as this is out, we're going in.
are you ready,
wibbly wobbly,
wibbly wobbly.
[Music playing]
It reminds me a bit of the locks on the Upper Thames,
do you remember them?
Yes.
Because they're quite big locks and they've all got lock keepers
and they see you through, very friendly as well
Yeah.
compared to the Environment Agency ones.
Oh yes.
just saying.
[Laughs]
We went through the smaller lock because there's two big locks there,
in fact the original one
was built nearly 300 years ago, can you believe that?
WOW!
It was built out of wood and it was on the old river section
which is slightly next to where the locks are now.
But over the years as traffic increased and boats got bigger
they had to build the bigger locks to cope
and they're very well built.
The big lock that you can see behind us, remember those Mersey Beat boats?
Mersey Beats?
the Mersey Flats.
They could come into a lock with three 300 ton dumb barges
and get through it within about 15 minutes,
so the flow was really well controlled back in the day.
[Music playing]
This is Jalsea Marine
and I've never seen such a diverse range of boats
in one place on one set of moorings.
It used to be owned by Pimlott's
and they used to build Brunners
which were wide beam boats used on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.
they also built barges for the Bridgewater and the Manchester Ship Canal.
Some of them still look that old as well.
[Music playing]
A bit loud in here isn't it?
[Laughs]
The locks on the River Weaver are all manned
and it's a good idea to give the lock keepers a call when you're on your way to it,
there's numbers on the CRT website
and they all talk to each other, so when you leave one lock,
they'll usually ring the next one to let them know that you're on the way.
[Music playing]
The viaduct behind us, just after Hunt's Lock is huge 676 meters long.
[Fart sound]
47 brick and sandstone archers stretch right across the valley
and there's two iron spans which cross the navigation here that we're going under
and the river alongside us by the lock.
The viaduct is 160 years old now
and it still carries the old Cheshire railway lines between Manchester and Chester.
[Music playing]
As we come under the viaduct towards Northwich, there's Yarwood's Basin
and it used to be a really popular respected shipbuilding yard
and they used to make Brunners and narrowboats
and one of the best known ships built here was the RAF spy ship, Aquarius back in 1934
and the build was overseen by none other than Lawrence of Arabia,
the real one yeah, not Peter O'Tool obviously.
[Music playing]
Do you remember when I said this morning, to pack a pack-a-mac.
I've got my cagouel in my pocket, it's a pack-a-mac,
Isn't it easier to say cagoule?
because it might rain.
It's like pac-a-mac, it's like pac-man and Caramac isn't it? together.
So it'd be like a Caramac pac-man
[Laughs]
I don't know how I'm going to caption that.
Then you can eat the Pacman rather than eating the ghosts.
Please stop saying it.
[Laughs]
We're in Northwich Marina and we've come here because
we've got a few things to sort out over the next few days.
Don't be fooled by the weather, remember I said pak-a-mac,
behind us it is clear blue sky apart from that lovely white fluffly cloud,
fluffly.
fluffy,
but if we turn the camera around,
Oooh!
You can see that big dark, I nearly said a rude word then,
cloud
and it has just been chucking it down.
Yeah.
It has been a nice trip though, it stayed dry all the way down from Winsford,
there's some lovely moorings just above Vale Royal Locks
if you fancy mooring out in the nice and peace and quiet.
We would have done,
Yes.
but we've got a few things to do, hence we're here in Northwich
Yeah.
and that's where we're staying for a few days,
but we'll see you next time.
If you've enjoyed this video, we hope you have and you're not already,
please subscribe to the channel.
Hit the thumbs up button if you liked it
and if you hit the notifications bell if you subscribed,
YouTube will let you know when we release a new video.
Which is every Friday, four o'clock.
If you haven't liked it, click the thumbs down button twice.
[Laughs] Thank you.
Yeah, that really works does that.
If you want to help support the channel,
you can become a member of our YouTube channel,
there's a link just up above Shaun's head
or in the video description if you fancy doing that.
right we've got to avoid the showers
and go get some stuff done.
Take care of yourself and we'll see you next week, bye-bye.
Ta-ra.
[Music playing]
Any town that ends in wich, basically means that it's salt town,
like Middlewich
and Nantwich
and Northwich
and I don't know, Crotch-itch.
So what we do now then is put wich of over our Fish and Chips.
Exactly [Laughs]
Saltworks were all the way down each side, all the way down.
All the way?
All the way down each side of the river.
This is the 100th time we've done this
Back in a minute.
That's not the mine, that's like the gubbins that does the stuff
when the stuff comes out of the mine isn't it?
Gubbins?
Gubbins.
The overall area of the amount they've dug out
is about ye ya ye ye [Blows raspberry]
That far?
It is.
and it's the oldest largest working rock soul mine,
rock soul.
it's like soul sister 🎶 hey sister, go sister, soul sister 🎶
that's where the Texas Chainsaw Massacre man lives
on a weekend.
That's the shaft.
it does a texas [Laughs] shaft.
There's actually about 700 football side Arrrggghhh!
Blah! wait a minute.
between the watermen who say
Pete Watgerman?
no not Pete Waterman,
his great great grandad I think.
to stop to [talking nonesense] this link don't want to get done does it.
Saying that
arrrggghhh!
[Shaun] We'll be in Bradford by the time this is done.
They behaved after that
YAYYYYY!
[Laughs]
What you looking at?
Lock.
Eye on the ball.
We're out yeah yeah [Blows raspberry]
After three, no you do that.
You do that, no, come on, lets play that, yeah, no [Blows raspberry]
[Laughs]
and there's 47 archers, I keep doing that which is like four so add another 43.
You're not normal are you?
No.
You know, you know what, I can't even remember.
You're quiet, You alright? Are you just hungry.
[Laughs]
At Vale.... Aye!
[Laughing]
What?
Errr if you've given
See, he's done it wrong.
[Music playing]