I left my mooring on the north side of Middlewich, just before the Big Lock which, incidently, was a blissfully quiet night compared to the previous night along side the very busy A533. It’s called Big Lock because it is a wide lock on a predominantly narrow canal. Many years ago, in the late 18th century, it was intended that Middlewich should be the trans-shipment point between Mersey Flats (widebeam barges) and narrowboats and there were plans to convert the northern section of the canal to a wide canal all the way down to Middlewich. This was for the purpose of transporting salt on Mersey Flats up to the Manchester…