Friday 28 July 2017

To Nantwich

It’s very much been a day of two halves. We set off as planned just after eight and boated merrily on to Hack Green, where we had to wait a little for the boat ahead to go down and a hire boat to come up. The wait was enlivened by making the acquaintance of the crew of Waka Huia, two couples from New Zealand including fellow blogger Marilyn.

Once down, it was another good run to Nantwich, arriving there a bit before ten. We found a neat 70’ space in the first stretch of visitor moorings on the embankment and had an early cup of coffee before setting off to do some shopping. Sheila has been wanting to get an unusual size of circular needle to make the knitting of the Guernsey sleeves easier and she recalled that there was a wool shop in one of the side streets here. She did a bit of Googling and soon found it, discovering a shorter walking route to town from here in the process.

Rather than trekking all round the outside of the houses, you can cut through the middle on Millfields to come out by the park. It’s then a pleasant walk to cross the river and go up the side street we wanted. Sadly, the wool shop was a pale shadow of its former self, mainly being concerned with selling miscellaneous fancy DIY stuff and doubling as a coffee shop. Sheila will have to wait until we get to Poynton and a usable address to order the needle online. Apart from this disappointment, we were able to get everything else, including some meat and pies for lunch from that excellent establishment, Clewlows.

Even with our new shortcut, it was a good walk back to the boat, including that final little pull up onto the embankment, so we felt well exercised and ready for lunch. This is just as well, as it’s been raining quite hard for most of the afternoon and activities have been confined to the boat.

The forecast looks a lot better tomorrow, so we’ll press on to Calveley and have a break from the traffic on the Four Counties for a bit.



Location:Nantwich

3 comments:

Marilyn, nb Waka Huia said...

Hi Bruce and Sheila,
Lovely to meet you the other day, and thank you for cracking the lock for us when you left, Sheila - very helpful!
Can you tell me how you get through to the town in Nantwich without going all the way down Marsh Lane to Welsh Way and across the town bridge?
I looked at the map outside the park but couldn't identify where I would come out that would lead me to the embankment again.
Cheers, Marilyn and David (nb Waka Huia)

Bruce in Sanity said...

Hi

If you moor on the first VMs you reach going north, there's a path down off the embankment to Marsh Lane, by the kids play area. Turn left and walk long Marsh Lane, crossing it when you can, until you come to Millfields, second on the right. Walk the length of Millfields until you come out onto Queens Drive by a huge retirement home. Cross Queens Drive, turn right and then left onto the park paths.

For the town centre, follow the first path along to the left until you see the bridge across the river, not far from the Welsh Road bridge. Cross at the pedestrian lights and walk up the side street into the pedestrian precinct.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Bruce

Marilyn, nb Waka Huia said...

Thanks, Bruce and Sheila,
I found it on my third trip into Nantwich, and we used it again last night on our way back from Simply Thai on Welsh Way/Row/? (We are back in Nantwich after a short wet sojourn to the moorings across from Venetian Marina) and are hanging out here while I make a trip to the osteopath and supermarket. Then it's up to Swanley Bridge to meet some more NZers for a couple of days on the Llangollen.

Cheers, Marilyn