Big Bad Manchester and more..

It's been a bit of a strange 10 days.  A month or so ago, Mike was contacted about some work in Grantham, but only got confirmation once we were well away from being near Nottingham and were heading towards Manchester.   

We spent two nights at the pretty town of Lymm, where we met up with Mike's ex-colleague Neil.

We set about finding some secure moorings in or around Manchester to leave the boat whilst Mike went to Grantham for the week and I headed north to see mum and my brothers.
Mike had read about secure moorings in Salford Docks and indeed the Visit Salford website suggests if you're travelling in your boat why not moor up there?  Why not??
1. No one seems to know about this.  Mike spent hours on the phone and only finally got somewhere when he rang the PR people for the website who found someone in the council who rang back.
2. It was going to cost £27 each way to access the Pomona Locks to the docks.
3. It's not really that secure.  Mike phoned the local police - there's a lot of car crime in that area.
4. No one else moors there, so there are no other boats around at all.
5. Yes, there are pontoon moorings, but they are fenced off on the landside, so you'd be stuck on your boat.
The bottom line; Peel Holdings/Bridgewater Canal do not want you there.  They've obviously had to put in the facilities as part of the regeneration plans but clearly don't want to manage them.

Meanwhile, we headed into Manchester and the Castlefield basin for the weekend.

Passing the football ground

We rather liked this big sign on the side of an old canal building - still regenerating

Urban scenery as we reach the centre of Manchester

 We moored up for the night at Castlefield and discovered there was a festival on for the week with nightly concerts.  There were some good acts and we managed to get tickets for the Saturday night to see Super Furry Animals and The Charlatans.

Castlefield by night.

We also visited Salford Docks, where the BBC now has a home at Media city and I was delighted to find the Blue Peter garden - complete with presenters' and pets' footprints!!!

Is it just me, or does Lesley Judd appear to have really big big toes??

We found secure moorings for £6 a night at Stretford Marine Services.  These guys are great, really helpful and we were happy to leave the boat there for the week.
On our return I collected my brother John who joined us as far as Wigan.  On Wednesday this week, we go into Liverpool for 12 days, which we are very excited about.

Crossing the Barton Aqueduct

John taking a turn at driving

One of the few mill buildings now left in Leigh

Deep concentration required

The Orwell Pub in Wigan, one of the few renovated canalside buildings