CANAL BOATS NEAR CROXTON LANE 2012 (UPDATED 28th MARCH)

(THIS DIARY ENTRY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED ON 25/3/2012)

Here's a great shot by Cliff Astles showing  narrow boats on the Trent & Mersey canal at Croxton in the early Spring sunshine.

Cliff tells us:

The photo was taken on the Trent & Mersey and the boats shown are heading towards Northwich and have just passed the Croxton Lane tip and the aqueduct over the River Dane. Close by is the 'boat's graveyard' and a large flash, or lake. We called it 'Swan Lake'.

It's a very good spot for families with children, particularly at this time of year when there are many wild birds nesting. The house in the background is the one featured in your articles about the Croxton Lane weir or 'water fall' (Croxton Hall Farm - Ed).

 As you know water from the Dane was used to run a mill for the for the grinding of flint to be transported by canal to Stoke-On-Trent where it was used for glazing pottery.

After this entry was first published on 25th March, we received this comment from Kerry Dainty which tells us all about the boats in Cliff's photo:

My Dad is steering the lead boat (Ariel, a 1935 Midlands & Coast Canal Carrying motor boat) and my boyfriend is steering the butty boat (BCN 108, an 1883 Birmingham Canal Navigations Day boat, affectionately known as 'Joe'.

Both boats are currently working as part of Longford Canal Services and Linnet Shipping.

Many thanks to Kerry for this valuable information - Ed

Here's another picture, also by Cliff, showing the helmsman on that second boat. It's wonderful to see a boat like this still doing the kind of job it was built for:

Links:

ROVING CANAL TRADERS' ASSOCIATION - LONGFORD CANAL SERVICES

(you may like to Google LINNET SHIPPING. We found a link, but unfortunately it was not working)

You can see more of Cliff Astle's photography here

SEE ALSO: CROXTON LANE CANAL BRIDGE 1970s

                    CROXTON WATER FALL (follow the links to the associated entries)

First published 25th March 2012

Amended and re-published 28th March 2012

Reformatted and re-published 25th March 2018

CROXTON FLINT MILL, CROXTON HALL FARM AND THE D&D SALT WORKS

by Dave Roberts


Following on from our deliberations on the weir (or 'water fall') at Croxton, here's a section from an old Ordnance Survey map of 1909 (with additions to 1938), showing the location of the flint mill adjacent to the aqueduct where the Trent & Mersey canal crosses over the River Dane.

It is, of course, just our luck that the weir itself is a matter of millimetres off the map, as are the buildings we are trying to identify - in particular that large house which appears to have stood on the river bank close to the weir.

Our problem being, of course, that the house in the photo appears to be too close to the river bank to be Croxton Hall Farm.
Is it just a foreshortening effect?
It's certainly not the farm which is there now.
But, in the end, we have to conclude that the large house shown here must be the original Croxton Hall Farm. What else could it be?
This entry contains information which may help clear up the mystery

The original purpose of Frank's diagram was to explain the large mound still to be seen (from the Croxton Lane Bridge) in the field next to the river.

At one time there was an ornamental pool close to this mound, stocked with fish and fed from the River Dane, as shown.

Frank's theory was that the well-to-do inhabitants of Croxton Hall Farm would sit on the mound on warm summer evenings and enjoy the sight of the pool and the surrounding countryside.

The mound was made up of the earth excavated to make the pool, which was filled in during the 1950s by silt from 'the ICI reservoir'.

A row of poplar trees was planted along the river's edge to screen the salt works (marked here as 'D & D' salt works) from view.

The 'D& D' Salt Works, by the way, is the 'Dairy & Domestic' Salt Works, which was adjacent to the Condensed Milk Factory alongside the Trent & Mersey canal. It was at its most extensive in the late 19th century, and we looked at the last remnants of it here.

Waterside Way and adjacent developments have now obliterated all traces of it.