Canal Boat Holiday Base Information - Base 16
Base 16 is south of Manchester and northeast of historic Chester. It is run by one of the best boat operators in the UK, with a friendly, professional service. It is easily reached by rail or road, and is near Manchester Airport.
This strategically sited base on the Trent & Mersey canal near Northwich in Cheshire is an excellent starting point for your canal cruises. There is even a separately run coffee shop/restaurant within the Marina building where you can eat and relax at the start and finish of your holiday. The most popular routes are the Cheshire Ring and the canal that everyone wants to cruise, the Llangollen canal. However, for the newcomer to canals Chester or Ellesmere Port & return takes some beating. There are also a number of other routes available for both short breaks, weeks and longer.
Available Routes
CHESTER/ELLESMERE PORT & RETURN
7 day cruise - Chester & back - about 32 hours and 44 locks Ellesmere Port & back - about 40 hours and 52 locks. From Anderton to Middlewich the cruising is easy and lock free and you enjoy your first experience of the delightful countryside that is a characteristic of this cruise. Notice the scars on the church tower at Middlewich, made by the musket balls of the Roundheads and Cavaliers during the Civil War. Turning right into the Wardle cut, for much of the way you run along a hill side and through a few well spaced locks to Barbridge junction and then join the Shropshire Union canal.
Here you commence the drop down to Chester and on arrival there are moorings right beneath the city walls. This city is most highly regarded in World Heritage terms and you should not miss a walk along the city wall and through its narrow medieval streets. A few more locks allow you to continue to Ellesmere Port with a possible intermediate stop for a walk to the popular Chester Zoo. A chat before you leave Anderton will fill you with enthusiasm for a visit to the celebrated Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port, just where the canal joins the very much larger Manchester Ship canal. This really is a splendid introduction to canal cruising.
CHESHIRE RING
7 day cruise - about 49 hours and 92 locks. An enchanting run along the hillside over looking the River Weaver, brings you to a lock with just a six inch fall and then you are on the Bridgewater canal which is wide, deep and lock free for the long run to Manchester. A mooring at Castlefields will allow you to explore the City with its new tram system. Don't miss a visit to Granada Studio Tours or the even closer Science Museum. Whilst the MSC owned Bridgewater canal does not require an additional licence, the short stretch of the Rochdale canal currently does.
The staff at Anderton can tell you how this licence may be obtained. However, an early start will soon have you through the Rochdale locks and back on to British Waterways water. You now steadily climb the Ashton canal and begin to leave Manchester behind you reaching your highest point at Marple. Ahead is the possibility of an exhilarating run along the Peak Forest canal to its terminus, but only if time allows. Otherwise you commence a long lock free run past Macclesfield before the descent to join the Trent & Mersey canal. From this junction to Middlewich many of the locks are paired which gives some indication of the intensity of the now long gone commercial traffic between the potteries and the ports. Upon return you will surely feel that this has to be high on your list of favourite cruises.
LLANGOLLEN & RETURN
7/10 day cruise - about 56 hours and 58 locks. This is the cruise that everyone wants to do at some time. As a result, it can sometimes seem more like the M1 on a summer Sunday! However, because Alvechurch does not confine itself to just Saturday start boats, you can plan to avoid the worst of the 'tidal flow'. Rushing it in a week does not do it justice. As you get nearer and nearer to Llangollen it just gets better and better. Through the remote Whixall Moss peat bog and into the little known Shropshire Lake District and past some of its seven Meres.
If this were not enough there then follows two fine aqueducts, the second of which, the Pontcysyllte, is truly spectacular and carries you a vertigo inducing 127 feet above the valley of the River Dee. The final short run to the tourist attractions of Llangollen can be a little difficult at times but the increasingly mountainous scenery makes it well worthwhile. Incidentally, if you feel that progress is slow going up the canal, it is because, unusually, there is a 2 mph current as a result of water being run from the River Dee at Llangollen to the reservoirs at the Shropshire Union end. You will certainly come back much quicker than you go up! This is a cruise where you really should take your time in order to fully savour its delights.
SHORT BREAK ROUTES
There are a number of routes that can be taken on three or four night short breaks:
BARBRIDGE/NANTWICH AND RETURN
3/4 Night cruise and 16 locks Easy cruising with splendid scenery
LYMM AND RETURN
3 Night cruise and 2 locks Cruise over the picturesque River Weaver and its valley
SANDBACH AND RETURN
3 Night cruise and 18 locks Explore the start of "Heartbreak Hill" and see the variety of wildfowl and wading birds this stretch attracts.
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