Oil Painting 18 - Wrenbury Mill

After getting our beautiful Morso Squirrel Stove installed by the Stove Specialists at The King’s Lock Chandlery in Middlewich (just in time for summer!) we set off for Llangollen.

The Llangollen Canal is probably the most scenically spectacular of all the the British Canals and certainly one of the most popular. The two great aqueducts at Chirk and Pontcysyllte are well known wonders of the waterways and our reward for traversing the full 44 miles along this branch.

This painting is of Wrenbury Mill, and the hire fleet that is based there alongside the lift road bridge. Wrenbury was a gorgeous place to spend some time, so enjoyable that the process of having to move on becomes regrettable. Mark, a chap who kindly got me a beer whilst I was painting, clearly thought the same. He hasn’t moved for 14 months, largely because his engine had blown up, but I got the feeling that he wasn’t in that much of a rush! Here is a photo Mark took and sent through with his boat in the background –

Oil Painting 17 - Sunset on the approach to Middlewich

Our first time round the Cheshire ring I saw this sunset subject on the stretch between Sandbach and Middlewich. Before buying the narrowboat, whenever I have driven this stretch I always enjoyed seeing the boaters operating the locks higher than the road and so it was doubly enjoyable to actual be one of the boaters looking down on the traffic. This stretch also marks the start of the enormous salt and chemical works which line the canal up to Northwich.

This is the start of the Cheshire plain, and (for a canal) we are still at quite a high vantage point dropping down onto the flat landscape which makes you especially aware of the last sunlight and dramatic weather.  The down side to this being you are quite exposed and I had a battering by the wind getting this piece together. I also witnessed fork lightning from here as a storm swept in calling a end to the second session. 3 sessions in total.