Small Bears at Bugsworth Basin

After breakfast on the third day of our summer canal journey, when it was time to go out explore Bugsworth Basin, it was so cool we decided to put our duffle coats on.  We had not expected to need them in June and were glad Polar had told us to pack them. 

When we arrived the night before, we though Bugsworth was simply a sort of marina, in a pretty green valley, but Polar and Grizzly explained it had once been a bustling industrial site.  Hanley Bear found a bright red plaque which told us more about it.  Hanley was pleased that the plaque matched his coat.

We found a little truck of the type that was used for moving limestone down to the boats.  It was good for climbing on but no longer went anywhere as it was only on a tiny section of track.

'Imagine there being dozens of these, all full of rock, trundling about the basin, pulled by very strong cart horses,' said Hanley.  'Victorian small bears would have to be very careful not to get squished!'

Hanley soon found another bright red plaque and an information board with more about how the stone, quarried all around the basin, was brought down to the boats by the little trucks on rails.

It was all so peaceful now that we bears found it hard to imagine it had once been full of busy workers, trucks and boats.

Grizzly told us that he and Polar had first visited in 1993 and that back then, the whole site was silted up and the bridges and wharves were all hidden under trees and weeds.  It must have taken hundreds of hours of work by the volunteers who cleared and restored it to make Bugsworth as nice as it is today.

There is a nice pub that does good meals right beside the canal, which is very useful for all the boaters who visit.  Hanley Bear thought this gate made of horseshoes was brilliant!

On our way back to our boat, we found a super model of what the site looked like when it was a busy industrial site.  We could see the canal wharves, just as they are now, but also sheds and workshops and tramlines that have all disappeared.

Near the visitor centre and little shop was a display of pictures drawn by human cubs who had visited.  We thought they were very good.  There were more human cubs there during our visit, learning to paddle canoes.  Polar said we would have to be very careful when we turned our boat around that we didn't bump into them!

We had another run all around the site before we left.  Hanley decided it was his favourite place on all the canals and waterways he had visited, until Endon and I reminded him that it was in Derbyshire rather than Staffordshire, when he changed his mind.

'Well, it's not as good as the junction at Etruria and the staircase locks,' he said, picking somewhere right in the middle of Stoke-on-Trent.

However, Hanley Bear was soon going to see even more amazing canal architecture and more of those round, red plaques, and so will you in my next posts!

The Start of an Adventure

One afternoon, early in June, we set off on Polar and Grizzly's narrowboat, for a big city called Manchester.

Once Polar had carried us onto the boat, we scrambled out of our travelling bag.  We put on our life-jackets and Grizzly lifted us up onto the roof, where we sat in the lifebelt looking at where we were going. 

Although the first part of the journey, along the Macclesfield Canal to the Bosley Locks, was one we had made before, we noticed new things - like the folly  castle on the hilltop at Mow Cop, and these grooves in the bridges made many years ago by the tow-ropes of horse-drawn boats.

We waved to the other boaters we saw and to human cubs on the towpath or playing in gardens that backed onto the canal, and watched the birds and animals.  There were swallows skimming low over the water, catching flies or drinking.  We thought they were very clever.

When we got to Bosley Locks, we had a small bear conference, and decided that we would go back inside the boat while Polar and Grizzly went up the locks, in case any of us were accidently knocked overboard by a rope or pole when all the tricky lock things were happening.

Polar sat us in the saloon with some of our small bear books from the 'Libeary' and we tried not to worry about what was happening outside.   

There are twelve locks at Bosley and they are all narrow ones.  Unusually, they have two gates top and bottom, rather than a single top gate.  There are great views of the big hill near Congleton humans call The Cloud as you work your way up.

 

Polar and Grizzly took it in turns to steer the boat or work the locks and, with boats coming down as well, which always helps, we reached the top of the flight in good time.  We bears scrambled back out to our vantage point on the roof.  We had never visited this part of the canal before and we very much wanted to see what it was like.

On our way into Macclesfield, we saw a big heron who wasn't frightened of the boat and didn't fly away, even when we passed right by him.  We are not sure if we can trust herons not to eat us, so we huddled together in the lifebelt and gave it very hard stares.

We liked the countryside we passed through, which was lush pastureland, but with the Peak District hill rising up behind it, and we liked the canal buildings we saw.  We went over a high aqueduct at Gurnett and passed a great big mill in the middle of Macclesfield, which has been turned into smart apartments.

Unfortunately, it started to rain soon after Macclesfield and Grizzly took us back to the saloon to keep us dry, where we fell asleep.  When it was morning, we woke up to find we were moored at Bollington, where there are more big mills turned into homes, offices and even a nice café, and that we had all just missed a boat festival.  Boooo! 

That day was wet too, so we had to watch from the windows as we went on up the canal to Marple, then on to the Peak Forest Canal.

 We could see the Peak District across the valley from where the canal snaked along the side of the hills.  There were no nasty locks but there were some lift bridges and swing bridges.

Finally, after lots more rainy boating for Polar and Grizzly, we arrived at a place called Bugsworth Basin.  We bears could see lots of interesting buildings and notices from the window, but had to wait until the next morning to explore.

And you will have to wait until my next blog post to find out all about it!

Building a Bug Hotel

We bears have been on holiday and I will have lots to tell you about an amazing narrowboat journey around the Cheshire Ring soon, but before we went away, we found something new in the garden.

Endon found something that he thought was a little house behind Polar's cold frame.  He wondered if it was a little house - for the smaller bears!

'I'm sure Grizzly means it to be a nice surprise for us,' he explained, when he told Hanley and I about the building.  'But I don't want to have to live in the garden - I like our bear basket in the house!'

Hanley and I came with him to investigate.

'It's the right size to be a bear house, alright!'  said Hanley.  He didn't look pleased. 

'It's not high enough for me,' I told the smaller bears.  'And I'm sure Polar and Grizzly wouldn't want to split us up.'

But the smaller bears were still worried that they were going to have to live outdoors.  'Maybe Polar and Grizzly find having three bears indoors too much trouble,' said Hanley.  'As you were the first bear they adopted, maybe you're allowed to stay in the bear basket?'

'That wouldn't be fair!' I said.  'I'm sure that isn't the idea at all.  Polar and Grizzly are our friends and human guardians.  Here comes Grizzly, with some more wood.  Let's ask him!'

As Grizzly came towards us, the smaller bears gave him hard stares.

'Hello bears!' he said, not seeming to notice the hard stares.  'I see you've found the Bug Hotel.  Would you like to help me find things to put in it, to make homes for insects?'

'For insects?' asked Hanley.  'We thought it was for small bears!'

We were so happy that we were all going to stay living indoors that we gladly helped Grizzly find sticks and straw and logs to go in the bug hotel.  We still have to find more things to fill up all the spaces but we hope they will like what we have put in so far.  

There was just time for the smaller bears to do some climbing before it was time for tea and then an early bedtime, as we were starting our boat adventure the very next day!