More from Middlewich

We walked down to take a look at how works are progressing on Lock 72.  They seem to be making good progress as you can see from these photos.

can you see the mussels growing on the lock side?

this is the ground paddle which is raised using a windlass

the new gate in position

Here's another of our favourite recipes

Fish Pie

Most supermarkets now sell packets of frozen mixed fish-pie mix. I like the one from Morrisons as it has a good mix of salmon, cod & smoked haddock and is only £3.

Butter an ovenproof dish and tip the still frozen fish mix in.

Add 2 portions of frozen peas and distribute evenly over the fish.

Mix 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard and some salt and pepper into half a tub of reduced fat crème fraiche and spread over the fish and peas. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look like there’s enough to cover it all as you will get juice out of the fish as it cooks and this will mix in to make a nice creamy sauce.

Cover with foil and bake in the oven Gas 5 for 30 mins.

Take out of the oven, remove the foil and stir gently so you don’t break up the fish.

Cover the fish mix with creamy mashed potatoes and bake uncovered for another 30 mins. till golden brown.  If it isn’t brown enough you can flash it under the grill for a couple of minutes.

This is nice served with green beans.

BW on the job

We've see lots of activity by BW today.Work has certainly started on time at Lock 72 in Middlewich. The old gate has been removed and the new one is ready to go in place.

For the first time in months we've seen a BW officer walking down the towpath and logging boat index numbers. We haven't seen any unlicenced boats in this area so he's obviously on the ball.

On to Middlewich

We set off at 8.00 again this morning. It was very misty and there was frost on the roof but it was a beautiful morning and the mist had burnt off by 10.00 leaving clear blue skies and full sunshine.

7.30 this morning

mist hanging over the River Weaver valley

waiting for the tunnel passage

the colours are spectacular at the moment

We had a clear run through to Saltersford tunnel where we had a 10 minute wait. This has a timed passage as the tunnel is quite twisty and you can’t see through, but just as we were coming out of the other end a Claymore hire boat was trying to come into the tunnel. He claimed not to have seen the signs and even though we told him he needed to wait for another 10 minutes he ignored us and carried on. I just hope he met someone in the tunnel who made him reverse back out!

The Big Lock was even harder to work than ever. The Bottom gates were too stiff for me so Roger had to get off and help. I sincerely hope they manage to make them easier while BW has the lock closed for maintenance but I won’t be holding my breath. This lock has always been a swine, for as long as I can remember.

moored in Middlewich

Yesterday I took advantage of the long day’s cruising to use the slow cooker. I made an Oxtail Ragout, which is always better the second day, and that’s what we’re having for dinner tonight. This much ragout will probably do us for 3 meals so whatever is left will be bagged and put into the freezer for another day when I don’t feel like cooking.


Oxtail Ragout Recipe
1 large meaty oxtail cut into segments
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 tins chopped tomatoes
½ glass red wine
1 beef stock cube
Large pinch Herbes de Provence

Fry onions, celery, carrots, garlic and red pepper in a little olive oil in a frying pan until just soft and starting to get a bit of colour and then transfer into the slow cooker.

Brown the oxtail all over in the frying pan and then sit on top of the veg in the slow cooker.

Pour the wine into the frying pan and bring to the boil. Scrape all the bits off the bottom of the pan and reduce the wine by half before pouring into the slow cooker.

Tip the tomatoes into the slow cooker, along with the stock cube and herbs and cook for about 2 hours on Full power then reduce to Low for another 6 - 7 hours.

Skim off any fat from the top of the ragout and leave overnight if possible for the flavour to develop.

I prefer to strip the meat from the bones and add it back into the sauce, which I then serve with tagliatelle or mashed potatoes.

Hold up in Middlewich

I  haven’t posted for a couple of days, simply because I’ve been too busy having a good time!

We moored below Audlum locks on Saturday with our old customer & friend Dave Farndale and then on Sunday we met another friend, John Wood,  who now moors in Overwater Marina and the 4 of us went to the Lord Combermere pub in Audlum for Sunday lunch. The roast beef lunch was excellent; good tender beef and fresh veggies and good value at £9.95.

On Monday morning Dave cruised with us into Overwater Marina to meet John for a coffee and a tour of the marina. We’re still on the look-out for a winter mooring and were very impressed by the set-up at Overwater. It’s not the cheapest we’ve looked at by any means, but it seems a very friendly place and there’s plenty of room between the boats so it won’t be claustrophobic which was our main complaint last winter.

Last night we moored both boats at Sykes Hallow picnic area. There were 3 other boats already moored there and we all had our own picnic tables and BBQ stand provided by SUCS (Shropshire Union Canal Society). It’s a lovely place to spend an evening and after such a hot day the BBQ was a great way to chill out. 

Dave provided so much food that we needed 2 disposable BBQ’s plus our own BBQ as well.

This morning we went our separate ways. Dave headed back towards Tattenhall Marina and we stopped off in Middlewich for a quick trip to Tesco and Dave's Angling Centre for some maggots

We tried to carry on down the locks through Middlewich but had to stop at the first one (Lock 73) as a guy from BW was attempting to refill the lock pounds, which had been drained by a hire boat leaving all the paddles open at every lock! The BW guy asked if I’d help as he regulated the flow of water to fill the pound between  locks 73 & 72. As the water level started to come back up I got chatting to the family on the hire boat. This wasn’t their first lock but they were adamant that the only tuition they'd had from the hire company was on a model lock and admitted they hadn’t got a clue what they were doing. I gave them my “idiot’s guide” to how locks work and the woman suddenly twigged what they’d been doing wrong and what they should have been doing. It’s quite scary how these hire companies can let absolute novices take a boat out and when the boat following them came up it was also from the same hire company. They didn’t have a clue either! 

refilling pound from the lock just out of view to the right of the
picture, the 'waterfall' in the centre would normally be submerged

the pound half full again

We finally got down the Big Lock which is a wide lock and ridiculously difficult to operate. Only 1 top paddle works so filling it is mind numbingly slow and the gates are so out of balance they are almost impossible to move on your own. 2 young girls were hanging round the lock and came over to talk to me. They were only about 8 years old and were playing out before their tea. They were really nice and polite and asked intelligent questions. The best bit though was that they were eager to help open the gates which was a really big help to me.

We’re now moored just before bridge 179. We’ve moored here before and it’s a good quiet spot with both good satellite and internet reception.