Emerging from the north end of Harecastle tunnel you’ll find youself in Kidsgrove. From the canal, there is very little to see as we are surrounded by trees.
There were quite a few friendly people passing by walking, jogging, cycling or just walking their dogs. On the boat behind were a very friendly couple and we chatted for ages. We exchanged names but as is often the case with me, I had forgotten them a couple of days after. The husband was painting parts of his bathroom and laying them out to dry. If they come across this blog, they’ll now who they are…
This was the mooring spot and was quite peaceful.
On the following morning, we were descended upon by a group of young wrong’uns causing a lot of noise and interfering with boats. I chased them off my boat as one of them was trying to do something at the bow end but I couldn’t see exactly what. Another one of them kept shouting at me that my boat was sinking. Stupid oik. They made off and were seen by a couple of us that they were jumping on and off other boats further down.
We later heard that the juveniles were then playing with the lock further down. They were interfering and getting in the way whilst another boat was coming up. The lady on the boat apparently gave them a scare by shouting and swearing at them. They then apparently went off elsewhere to make a nuisance of themselves. Hopefully somewhere less dangerous.
It reminds me of a time when I was going down the locks from Gayton to Northampton on the Grand Union and on lock 14, there was a large group of traveller children causing mayhem. Most of them were friendly but I had to shout at one for his own safety as he was trying to get on to the roof of my boat as it was descending in the lock. I told him, that if he missed and fell down the side of the boat, he would almost certainly be crushed. He was only around 10 years old.
Anyway, I decided that enough was enough and I didn’t want to stick around Kidsgrove any longer if I was going to have a repeat performance by the local delinquents. So I decided to make a move, but before I did, I was treated to the unmistakeable sound of a Bollinder engine. It was going on for quite some time until I realised they were coming along the Macclesfield Canal. Around 10 minutes later they appeared from around the corner and I was treated to the site of this old work boat. As I had suspected, this boat was powered by a single cylinder Bollinder engine and the sound it makes is totally unique.
So after he passed, I untied and moved off.
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