Nantwich and Chester

Nantwich, a little gem.
One of three horses at the entrance to the Cocoa yard, no idea why!

 The aforementioned Cocoa Yard- with John!

One of the few buildings which escaped the fire of 1583,  the octagonal hall was added later.

Leaving Nantwich on the Shropshire Union towards our next stop, Chester.
A canal scene reminiscent of the narrow boat paintings!

 Chester! And yes, the sun IS shining!!

One of the upper galleries in Chester's two-storey shopping centre.

Really Scary Place/ Une endroit qui fait peur

Thank you Nick and Gabs for a lovely evening, sorry you couldn't make the boat trip! Hope all broken fences are now mended, here's what you missed!

After visiting friends, NOT in Market Drayton but not far away in Audlem, we set off for Hack Green near Nantwich to visit this quite sinister place.



Apres une visite tres sympa chez nos amis nous avons fait une visite de quelque chose vraiment different et un peu sinistre, un abri antiatomique....

 Hack Green was a radar station during WWII, then abandoned until 1976.
It was then purchased from the MOD by the Home Office Emergency Planning Division to be converted into a protected seat of government in the event of a nuclear attack.
Pendant la guerre mondial Hack Green etait une station de radar et puis abandonne jusqu'au 1976. Il'etait achete par Le Ministere de l'Interieur, dept pouvoirs speciaux.
                                                                                                                                                                                     

Il a coute £32 million et est devenue pleinement operationnel en 1984. il possede son propre centrale electrique,approvisionnment en eau et centre de communications, tous qu'il faut pour 135 personnel de governement et de militaire pendant un attaque nucleaire.

C'etait ouvert au public en 2002 et il vaut une visite.
Peut-etre.

It cost a reported £32 million pounds and became operational in 1984(Thank you George Orwell...). With its own generating system, life support, emergency water supply and communications centre, it had everything to enable 135 civil servants and military personnel to survive a nuclear attack and form a government.


It was de classified and opened to the public in 2002, and is worth a visit.
 I think.

Old Haunts Re-Visited

Au Revoir Birmingham, une ville merveilleuse mais il faut que notre voyage continue! Un francais est arrive chez nous et il avait nous assister aux ecluses ( apres il a arrive a comprendre comment ca marche....) et maintenant, aux annees passe!




 Ok, so it's goodbye to Birmingham, fantastic place but we're cruising so off we go again! Aided and abetted by some manic Frenchman who spent a week trying to work out how locks work, we were heading back in time....

And so here we are, forty years on just exactly where we started from , outside the Netherton Tunnel.This is where our first narrow boat was moored and travelled no further, sinking to a watery end after we had spent our first two married years together, aww!
Il y a 40ans depuis nous etions ici avec notre premiere peniche, notre petite maison pendant deux ans quand nous etions les jeunes maries! le bateau a reste sans voyager, et finalement elle a coule..... 

 At last we are cruising through the Netherton Tunnel!!

And it's very pretty the other side on  the Staffs and Worcester Canal. This is the Red Cone Kiln, used in the making of Stuart Crystal which originates in Stourbridge.

An interesting museum (free! ) and no escaping the old canal boat thing.

Made from glass, of course, the blowing curtains represent the family life  enjoyed by the workers in the glass factory.

Now a craft and education centre, this window was produced by local school children working with an artist in residence at the Red Cone Glass Kiln.