Canal side rambles

I'm not a great lover of the Crewe area as it has too many associations with tedious meetings. And it's flat! Which isn't a bad thing in itself, but the area isn't complemented by the big skies so commonly associated with other flatlands such as East Anglia. So it was a very pleasing discovery to find that the Mersey and Trent canal which runs close to the town is actually a delightful oasis of historical, industrial charm. Walking along the towpath, it isn't hard to drift back 100 years and imagine the horse drawn barges transporting their cargoes of coal