Return to Nantwich and St. Mary’s

Posted on May 3, 2023May 7, 2023 by Pete Schloss

A Change in Plans.

Written May 3, 2023, at Nantwich, England.

We are only two short cruising days from our final destination of Middlewitch. We were scheduled to return Fjord Empress this coming Monday, five cruising days from now. Taking that into consideration, along with the predicted deterioration of the weather this coming weekend, we have decided to return the boat Friday morning. We have booked four nights of accommodations in Manchester where we will treat ourselves to some final sightseeing and urban nightlife. We fly out of Manchester for Kansas City on Tuesday. We are seriously warming to the idea of being home!

Nantwich has been (again) a delightful experience. Not much has changed since our visit in 2019, which is to be expected in a city that measures its life in centuries rather than years. Instead of writing a new post on our current visit, I have chosen to re-post from our visit in 2019. As you will see, that post digs deep into the city’s history and includes some personal reflections on faith and religion. Pete

(The Following is From April 23, 2019)

We arrived in Nantwich today on the Shropshire Union Canal. The plan is to remain in this port until Thursday, and then return to Middlewich Friday where we will be joined by our Canadian friends, Tom and Nanci. The weather is predicted to take an unfortunate turn for the week that they will spend with us, colder temps and rain. It is what it is. A bad day on the canal is still glorious.

The “wich” in Nantwich and Middlewich harkens from the time of the Roman occupation and signifies a place of salt production. Salt had been produced here over the millennia not only as a condiment, but for the tanning of leather, as a food preservative, and for the production of world renowned Cheshire cheeses. At one time there were over 400 salt houses (16th Century), the last one closing in the mid-1800’s.

Nantwich is a large community with a population of over 17,000. It is believed to have once been the location of a sacred pre-Roman forest grove worshiped by the Celts. It was listed as an urban area in the Domesday Book at the time of the Norman Conquest (AD 1066), though the Normans burned and sacked the town leaving only one building standing.

Disaster again visited Nantwich’s resurrected community in 1583. A massive conflagration again leveled the town, sparing only a few buildings. Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) personally contributed to the restoration of the community. From the ashes of that disaster arose a beautiful market center that, second only to Chester, boasts the highest concentrations of historically listed buildings in England. The town center is littered with buildings dating to the late 1500’s.

As we wandered the serpentine streets we beheld a beautiful church and green space. The green displayed a stone announcing that it was a sacred burial ground that had been “closed to new burials” for the last 200 years. Anglican St. Mary’s Church is the oldest listed building in Nantwich, and is stunning!

Construction began in 1286, was suspended from 1349 to 1369 by the Black Death, and then completed in 1390. The church twice served as a prison, once in 1644 following the Battle of Nantwich and again in 1648 during the 1st Jacobite uprising.

The church features scores of remarkable gargoyles, and a beautiful red sandstone exterior.

The interior is breathtaking, with colorful stained glass windows, and a choir comprised of 20 “misericords” which are 600 year old intricately carved wood choirstalls.

The St. Nicholas side-chapel features funerary effigies of a church founder, Sir David Cradock (d. 1390), and Sir Thomas Smith and his wife Dame Anne (dedicated 1614).

Another intriguing feature are the scores of hand needlepoint kneeling cushions, they are in daily use and courtesy of the local guild.

This is a fitting place for a linger day on the canal. We look forward to visiting the many shops, taking a coffee and later a pint, and perhaps returning to the church for a moment of contemplation and gratitude.

Peace Everyone. Pete

PS. Lest I have given conflicted messages regarding the current state of my spirituality, I offer the following: I believe in the philosophy and teachings of Jesus Christ, but not to the exclusion or rejection of all other faith traditions. I have long had difficulty with the “rules of religion”, but at two important times in my life I encountered priests who admonished me not to concern myself with the rules, but to listen to my conscience. The first of those meetings occurred when I was 20, the second when I was 60. Each priest was German and each “meeting” occurred in Europe during a rare visit by me to a Confessional. Each priest asked if I considered myself a “good person”, and then expressed confirmation that they believed that I was. As an act of penance, the second priest commissioned me to always listen to my conscience and be so guided the remainder of my life.

My difficulties with the state of many religions today are manifold: Many (not all) create god in man’s image and likeness. Many (not all) mispronounce “dogma” as “faith”. Many (not all) mispronounce “exclusion” as “inclusion”. And many (not all) adherents profess to follow the teachings of Christ but never stop to ask, “What would he have done”…

Again, Peace Everyone. Pete

The Hack Green Nuclear Bunker

Posted on May 2, 2023May 1, 2023 by Pete Schloss

Written May 1, 2023, at Nantwich on the Shropshire Union Canal.

Our 6 mile and 6 lock passage to Nantwich today took more than six hours instead of the anticipated three or four.

The delay was not occasioned by difficulties with the locks, difficulties with navigation, or foul weather. Instead, it was a self-imposed delay brought about by the opportunity to tour an unusual remnant from the Cold War.

A sign under a canal bridges in the rural countryside announced that 200 yards from the canal was the once top secret Hack Green Nuclear Bunker, now open to the public. We immediately tied up to shore and set off on foot to explore.

Declassified in 1993 this 35,000 square-foot underground complex was one of 17 such hardened nuclear bunkers in the UK which would serve the needs of continuing government and military operations in the event of nuclear war.

This facility was provisioned with food, water, fuel, and life-support necessities to supply the needs of 160 essential personnel for over three months.

Now a museum, the bunker offers the public a glimpse into Great Britain’s preparations for nuclear Armageddon.

This is the heart of the life support system which includes 15,000 gallons of drinking water.

This is a small BBC broadcast center in the Bunker.

Within the underground complex are actual radar and communications equipment from that era. There are even decommissioned nuclear weapons.

Most chilling was the 45 minute long 1966 BBC docudrama, “The War Game”. Post-production it was deemed too graphic to be broadcast to the general public.

It received a limited screening at the National Film Theater in London, and went on to receive the 1967 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

I sat through the entire movie which drew from the experiences of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Dresden in depicting the physical and psychological consequences of nuclear attack. The black and white movie was brutally stark and unsanitized.

One take from the movie: Great Britain has the largest concentration of nuclear targets in the world. Between 1/3 and 1/2 of its population would be dead within the first few days of attack.

(Pray for) Peace Everyone. Pete

PS. On the heels of yesterday’s report on Christine’s “lock marathon” I thought I would share a couple of images to illustrate what she chooses to struggle with instead of piloting the canal boat.

On to Nantwich

Posted on May 1, 2023May 1, 2023 by Pete Schloss

Written May 1, 2023, at Audlem on the Shropshire Union Canal.

It’s May Day here in the UK, and a “bank holiday”. There will be two more this month, the traditional one at the end of the month, and one next Monday to celebrate the coronation of Charles III. While it’s not a holiday for us we are hopeful that it will be an easy and relaxing day on the canal. 6 miles and six locks separate us from our destination, Nantwich. It should be a 3 hour cruise unless we share the fate of Gilligan and “The Minnow”.

Not all narrowboats are pretty or well kept.

“Easy and relaxing“ was not the case yesterday. It took us nearly 6 hours to travel 6 miles. One of those miles featured 11 of the 16 locks we navigated. Those 11 locks are arranged in a virtual staircase.

A portion of the one mile long lock “staircase“, looking up from lock number 10.

The green narrowboat in the distance is our Fjord Empress.

The cold and rain had returned, transforming the canal path into mud. Christine again chose to operate the locks rather than tackle navigating the boat into, out of, and between them. During the 1 mile staircase of locks she accumulated over 12,000 steps, plus a significant upper body workout at the gates and winches. For the day she opened and closed the often “stubborn” winches 132 times, plus she opened and closed 48 massive lock gates, each weighing over 3,500 pounds.

Yesterday’s destination, the town of Audlem, was our reward. It is a beautifully restored canal town situated between locks 11 and 15.

This 200+ year old home was once the lock keeper’s cottage.

It being a Sunday, the “Shroppie Fly” pub served a delicious traditional “Sunday Roast” with all of the trimmings. Christine opted for lasagna and cheesy garlic bread.

Roast turkey, dressing, cheesy cauliflower, vegetables, and Yorkshire pudding.

Christine with her lasagna, happy to be finished for the day.

“Fly” on the canal refers to the former practice of staging tow-horses along the route so that the canal boats could periodically put fresh horses in tow and proceed day and night non-stop with perishable cargo. This was much like the Pony Express of the American West, just at canal speed.

Our plan this morning is to enjoy a cooked breakfast onboard, fill our water tank, and find a laundromat along the way to Nantwich. We look to spend two days there, one of those as a day-trip by train to the ancient town of Chester. We are about 15 cruising miles from our final destination in Middlewich where we will return Fjord Empress early Monday morning. At this point we may have the luxury of time on our side to “smell the roses”.

Peace Everyone. Pete.

PS. In 2019 we visited both Nantwich and Chester. I wrote posts then that included pictures and “dug deep“ into the history of those communities. It is probable that I will republish those posts as a part of this journey.

The Eye of the Needle

Posted on April 29, 2023April 29, 2023 by Pete Schloss

Written April 29, 2023, at Market Drayton on the Shropshire Union Canal.

Before I address the title to this post I wish to pay tribute to the six days that we have enjoyed on the canal with our Kansas City neighbors, Mary and Charlie Murphy. It was a delightful time with improving weather and a remarkable variety of experiences along the canal.

We do not wish to rush the conclusion of this adventure, but we really look forward to a future evening of sharing in Kansas City with Wendy and Pat, Charlie and Mary, and perhaps some English ale.

Today I felt like the biblical camel trying to pass through the eye of a needle. After dropping Charlie and Mary off at a canal bridge for their bus connection in Gnosall Heath we proceeded two miles with hopes of securing a much needed “pump out“ of our “black-water” tank at Norbury Junction. At a narrow curve in the canal we hit an unexpected shallow and briefly ran aground. Christine and I jointly polled the bow back into deeper water and were free in about 10 minutes, but not before we had provided entertainment to passing pedestrians on the towpath.

We had been warned that there was a festival at Norbury Junction. We had not been warned that the canal would be choked with moored canal boats, often “double parked“and leaving barely enough room for our craft to proceed. I “threaded that needle“ for nearly 2 miles.

Fortunately, the marina wharf was open and available to us. For £25 we emptied our “black-water“ tank. That should be the last time the unpleasant task is needed before we reach our final destination in Middlewich.

Along the canal we enjoyed views of a variety of wildlife. Favorable lighting enhanced the opportunity to capture images.

There were also other sights worth sharing.

To those familiar with walking the Camino the word and symbol on the side of this narrow boat will be familiar.

Here is a narrow boat out of the water and undergoing repairs.

Spring has arrived! This is a field of blossoming rapeseed, also known as canola.

During World War II Great Britain feared invasion by Nazi Germany. Not only were the canals important transportation routes, but they were also considered defensive positions. Seen here is a concrete machine gun position.

There were other moments when we “threaded the needle“, including navigating “cuttings“ which are very narrow valleys cut for the canal. Under the best of conditions two boats can pass with perhaps a foot of free play on each shore and a foot between the vessels. Today was not the best of conditions.

We had barely 6 inches to work with on the occasions that we passed narrowboats In the course of nearly 4 miles of “narrows”.

The odd structure silhouetted in the upper chamber of this bridge is an abandoned telephone/electrical line.

I’ve grown accustomed to passing through single width bridge arches but this was taken to another level where the bridges were located in the “narrows“.

In spite of the frequent moments of “excitement“ Christine and I managed 14 miles made good and five locks. We are ahead of schedule and will use the luxury of that banked time to linger in some of the ancient canal-side villages.

One such hamlet is Market Drayton where we are moored tonight. We enjoyed an excellent dinner in the Joule’s Brewery (brewing excellent ales since the 1500s), and sauntered through town which features a pub that dates to 1653, two years after the village was decimated by fire.

Tomorrow will be short on miles but long on locks. In a stretch of the waterway not 4 miles long we will “climb” 20 locks.

Peace Everyone. Pete

Pictures From a Day on the Canal

Posted on April 28, 2023April 28, 2023 by Pete Schloss

Written April 28, 2023, near Brewood, England, on the Shropshire Union Canal.

I thought that for a change that I might post just pictures, roughly in chronological order, of our day on the canal.

To give some context: Yesterday (Thursday) dawned cold and overcast with a lingering threat of rain throughout the 5 1/2 hours we were underway.

It was a long day, but not as long as Wednesday when we managed seven straight hours of cruising. These two long days were intentional for two reasons, one to achieve evening destinations where there would be good services (aka pubs!), and also to end this week at a location convenient for Charlie and Mary‘s departure and transport onto Chester and then home.

We continue making progress on the Four Counties Canal Ring which actually consists of 5 separate, but connected, canals.

Our 109 mile route covers the Trent & Mersey, the Stafford & Worcestershire, and the Shropshire Union.

I begin writing this piece at 6 AM while my narrowboat mates slept on. Charlie is now up and at the table with me. Hot water for coffee has started, the stove taking the chill off of the cabin. It has been a joy traveling with these two dear friends.