2018 Annual Old Fogies Canal Trip: Llangollen

Monday 16th to Friday 20th

Our crew for this year was augmented by a new recruit who’d become interested from reading the blogs of previous exploits.  He was already known to many of the usual crowd having worked in some minor capacity in the Regional Office for the Revenue in Exeter several years ago, one Roger Hurcombe.   As we already have a designated cabin boy he couldn't however use that title.

As in previous years the remainder of the crew were Paddy, Garry, John, Patrick, Phil and myself.

This year’s voyage was to venture to northern climes and carry out raids into North Wales with a route being chosen that was not too arduous for a bunch who are ageing and not all 100% fit with gentle days and only four locks in total.   Leisurely is the best description!!!  At least that was the plan.

Day 1:   Ellesmere to Ellesmere

As is the normal practice the six crew members from Devon and Somerset travelled in two cars to our starting base of the marina at Ellesmere on the Llangollen Canal in Shropshire. New crew member, Roger had travelled up the previous day to overnight with friends and was thus primed with local knowledge of hostelries, cafes and shops for our arrival in the early afternoon.  

He was thus able to guide us to a nice café for a late lunch of before our one big shop of the week at a Tesco store, mainly for breakfast items plus some savouries for possible picnic lunches on days when there were no convenient pubs.  We then travelled the half mile to the marina to take over our boat for four nights, the ten berth “Scop Owl”.  A boat that had the advantage that none of us needed top bunks.   

A rapid hand over procedure followed and one of the yard staff took us out onto the canal and we were on our way.  If you saw the exit channel from the marina you’d understand why it was necessary for an experienced person to handle this procedure – especially with a 70’ boat!

indeed the boat yard insisted that we did not attempt to enter or leave the marina ourselves.

My original plan had been that we would leave the boatyard and go West for maybe two hours that night with an overnight mooring at one of two pubs, “The Narrowboat Inn” at bridge 5W or the “Jack Mytton” a mile further on at Hindford. 

However, a few weeks before our trip investigations by myself and Phil suggested that these establishments may not be open on Monday evenings and with no other inn accessible a plan alteration was needed before we’d moved an inch.  The revised itinerary involved leaving the boatyard to the East, going through Ellesmere tunnel (87 yards) and turning the boat about a mile further on. 

We would come back through the tunnel and moor just outside the marina spending our first night in Ellesmere.  

Some early refreshment appears to be involved.....

This actually worked really well as we found a friendly locals’ pub called the Market Hotel before moving onto “The Red Lion” for a very good evening meal and excellent Thwaites beer.  Full details of each night's refreshments can be found at the end of the blog.

Returning to the boat Paddy produced a survival box presented to him by our former skipper Brian containing such essentials as cheeses, a large bottle of Port and a Welsh dictionary. Some of the crew it has to be said imbibed freely of Port, Wine, Irish Whiskey and Rum……………

A couple of photos taken by Paddy..............

Day 2: Tuesday 17^th April – Ellesmere to Froncysyllte

This was the one day of the week when we were threatened with inclement weather.  But as our plans set out by Phil required us at least to be in the vicinity of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct that evening we had no choice but to carry on with at least 7 hours of cruising.

Garry did not fail us for breakfast producing an excellent fry up with eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans and tomato – shame no fried bread!

We cruised for some three hours with what seemed very slow progress not helped by gusty side winds, drizzle 

and an unexpected very strong flow against us and as the rain became heavier with lunch approaching we decided to moor up for an hour to hopefully let the worst pass by.  

This was successful and a nice lunch of cheeses, pies, olives, savoury snacks, bread and grapes was enjoyed.  I believe a couple of crew members even enjoyed a glass of beer.

After a stop of maybe an hour, we then motored on as there were two locks, two tunnels and potentially two aqueducts we had to do before the day was over.  After a short period of continued rain, we soon came to our first lock.
  

Whilst we paused the canal had become much busier, with just a little of an international flavour especially involving the two locks which were some 400 metres apart.  We had to queue so it seemed easier to help boats through as it would certainly improve our progress.  During this period, we first encountered a boat with a couple from New Plymouth in New Zealand, followed two boats later by a couple from Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand, although neither couple was aware of the others travelling.  Coming the other way in the second of the locks was a very loud Canadian gentleman whose outfit proclaimed he was a member of the Coastguard – assume he’d taken a wrong turning somewhere.

The aforementioned flow of water grew even stronger against us as we approached Chirk with its lovely aqueduct running parallel to a railway viaduct (built higher to demonstrate supremacy over the canal) 

and through the 459 yard Chirk tunnel, with the flow so strong it seemed the boat was motionless despite full throttle.  

Through our final tunnel for the day, Whitehouses at 191 yards,

and the time was moving on with it being after 6.

There was still time to spot another boat lost on it's voyage - goodness knows how it had arrived here!

The original thought had been to go through a lift bridge near the village of Froncysyllte

 and moor for the night but the imagined moorings shown in my guide did not materialise and we found we were approaching the Pontcysyllte aqueduct with no possible turning point.  

We had no choice but to go over the aqueduct and hopefully moor in Trevor basin for the night.  Again, this plan was dashed as this was found to be now a base for a hire boat company which was full being early in the season and not many of their boats out.  We managed to turn our boat in the entrance to the arm of the canal going to Llangollen and went back over the aqueduct.  Ideally, we would have liked to stop at a water point to replenish the tanks but as the light was fading and we had to go back though the lift bridge 

for some 400 plus yards to find a safe mooring spot we carried on.  Moored up we then walked back along the canal to cross over the lift bridge and climb the hill to a pub, “The Aqueduct Inn”.  Our research party of the four thirstiest had been panicked on perusing this establishment as it showed little sign of activity from outside but on opening the door they were greeted like lost family as the only customers.  The food and beer were most welcoming as I suspect the money was to the landlord!

Day 3: Froncysyllte to Chirk (Via Llangollen Railway)

Garry had a day off from slaving in the galley as it was decided breakfast today would be just cereal or toast, partly as if we were to carry out our planned visit to Llangollen and the Railway an earlier start was required especially as our intention of mooring in the basin at Trevor had been thwarted.   Instead we would have to walk back about a mile over the aqueduct and into Trevor to catch a bus to Llangollen and as these were only every 40 minutes to miss the bus just after 9 would abort our planned catching the 10:40 train from Llangollen to Corwen. 

We were at the bus stop with 5 minutes to spare and it was up to our trusted kitty holder Pat to negotiate the fares with the bus driver.  This he successfully did getting to his seat with day rider tickets for 7 on a roll about 5 yards long and some thirty pounds poorer!

Getting to Llangollen we went to the station with some time to spare (about an hour and half to be exact) and visited the café for coffee and leisurely chat.   

The train pulled in some 40 minutes before departure so we boarded and finding the first carriage fully reserved for a coach party found the rear compartment of first class seats (an extra pound each) and grabbed ones with a view out of rear window.  

Just as well we did as by departure time the train was full.

We travelled the length of the line to Corwen and then came back one stop to Carrog where Phil assured us there was an excellent pub for beer and food – he was not wrong!  The pub is just up the hill on the right.

By this time the weather was glorious and after lunch and beer we walked back across the river to Carrog station to catch the train back to Llangollen.  

An unusual storage shed at Glyndyfrdwy station

There, 3 of the party declared they didn’t fancy the projected 5 mile walk back along the canal to the aqueduct and eventually the boat whilst the remaining 4 did the walk. The lads doing the bus back claim that they stood at the stop for over an hour and two buses just went straight passed before they were eventually able to catch one.  This was blamed on the buses being full of schoolchildren but we only have their word – I voiced my suspicion they had more than a claimed ice cream and in fact beer was sampled!! 

For the walkers, it was a pleasant walk but it was getting very warm and most had left the boat in morning wrapped in coats and sweaters in view of the weather and these now had to be carried.  

and less conventional canal transport 

Garry mentioned that when he was back at the boat he intended to shower but he was thwarted in this by Captain Bligh who prohibited such behaviour as we had not filled up with water and the tanks were running dry!  

Motoring on for some 90 minutes we went back through Whitestones and Chirk tunnels, across the Chirk Aqueduct and moored shortly after.  It was very noticeable how much easier the cruising was going with the flow.  

For the night me moored on Chirk Bank a short distance from the Bridge Inn, the last pub In England before crossing the border – or just possibly it’s the first!

The food and beer were OK but none of us would rush back.

Day 4: Chirk to Ellesmere

Forecast to be the best day of the week and it did not disappoint.

As we had the makings of a full breakfast left, Garry did his usual splendid best and produced a morning culinary treat of the full works – excellent but it is good we don’t do these trips all the time!!!

Before setting off most of us strolled back along the canal to see the Aqueduct in early morning sun - gorgeous...

We cruised steadily back to base at a leisurely pace stopping to replenish the water tanks, passing through the two locks and mooring up for a picnic lunch in the middle of nowhere.  

After lunch, we motored even more slowly back for the final part of out cruise eventually mooring up outside the boatyard at about 4 o’clock.   We had been very impressed by the Red Lion on Monday evening and as it had been very busy that particular day we had decided to take no chances and booked a table for the final night at 7:30.  So we now faced a dilemma as we had some three hours to kill before eating.  What on earth could we do?

On the previous evening in Chirk, another customer had recommended the White Hart in Ellesmere especially if you liked good beers.  We had previously dismissed this establishment as Roger’s host from the Sunday had not recommended it.   However, it might certainly be considered rude not to try it and what a joy we found.  Wonderful beer, but we couldn't stay there until meal time as goodness what state we'd have been in.  So sensibly we retreated after a couple of pints back to the boat to collect torches which would be required for negotiating the towpath on return from eating with the canal towpath being pitch black.

Three locals at the White Hart.

A lovely meal again at The Red Lion which is heartily recommended for any future visits to the area.

Day 5: Home

On previous evening, we agreed that The Red Lion would provide us with a hearty breakfast to set us up for journey home.  The hotel car park was very small and as there was a town centre one a couple of hundred yards away we left the cars there – scandalous robbery - 10p for two hours!!

Many thanks to Phil and Roger for some of the excellent photographs plus the following are the notes Phil has sent me in respect of each days refreshments :-

Monday

Ellesmere.

Market Hotel, Scotland St.

Had 2 pints each of Salopian ‘Shropshire Gold 3.8%

The first was so good we had to stay for another. £3 per pint.

(Brewery in Hadley station yard, a closed LMS station just north of Shrewsbury!)

Desire for food took us to Red Lion Church St.

Beer limited, but we were content with Thwaites (now Banks) ‘Wainwright’ 4.1%

Tuesday

We managed to avoid beer (other than in bottles) until we reached The Aqueduct Inn, Froncysyllte.

It took some doing to get there, travelling twice over the aqueduct, mooring up half a mile away and climbing the hill, but it was worth it.

Early arrivals were able to sample Top Totty 4%  from Slaters Ales, Eccleshaw, Staffs.

Famous for being banned from House of Commons because of its logo. Those missing out sampled ‘Station Bitter’ 3.9% from Stonehouse Brewery, Oswestry. They must have taken a leaf out of the Beer Engine as they also produce ‘Ballast Porter ‘Cambrian Gold’ & ‘Off the Rails’

I enjoyed this, but it did not prevent me from sampling ‘Shropshire Lass’ 4% from Wood Brewery, Craven Arms. Nice and smooth was my notes for this one…

Wednesday

We let the bus and train take the stain to Carrog and the Grouse Inn

I had cased the joint in 2011 and am pleased to say it was worth the journey.

Despite the fact we arrived just before a large funeral party, the food was excellent and not unduly delayed.

3 beers were on hand, all from JW Lees whose delivery lorry left as we arrived!

All were good, especially the ‘MPA’ (Manchester Pale Ale) at 3.7% which most of the party stayed with. Next to be sampled was the ‘Bitter’ at 4%, perhaps a little bland

Tasty was the ‘Founders’, a little stronger but tasted good. May have been why I was dozing in the train going back to Llangollen.

Probably the most disappointing pub on our travels awaited out arrival at The Bridge Inn at Chirk Bank. We had a jovial; welcome from the male host, but once we were passed into the hands of his partner the service was a tadge dour. We were warned of a wait to be expected for food, but it was proably an hour.

This did not prevent us from sampling the liquid wares. Banks ‘Amber’ 3.8% was not very exciting, but ‘Sunbeam’ from the same brewery 4.2% made the wait for food worthwhile.

Thursday

Our pre meal drink back at Ellesmere took us to the White Hart, Ellesmere. This turned out to be the a good choice of both pub and beer. Unfortunately, we went out too early as we all polished off 3 pints and we would have not made it through the evening had we stayed for more.

Pride of place was the Salopian ‘ Shropshire Gold’ which was expertly poured by the landlord.

Only in the interest of science did I try the other 2 beers on offer. On offer at £2 per pint was ‘New Alchemist’ 4.1% from New Brew brewery, Newport Salop. I enjoyed this one, had a slight biscuit taste. Not so excited with the ‘Sunset’ from Cross Bay Brewery, Morecambe.

OK, but could not match out ‘canal cruise ‘ winner, ‘Shropshire Gold’

Our final pub was a return to the Red Lion where the Lamb Shank was the draw for some of our sailors. It was again, just the ‘Wainwright’ that was on offer, but is hit the right places.

EDITOR'S COMMENT - I feel it is important to emphasise (especially should my Doctor or Diabetic Nurse read this blog) that not all of us enjoyed the refreshments to the level and commitment detailed by Mr Wright!!