Wool by Water

It is a good many years since any commercial cargoes of cotton, coal or stone where carried through Cheshire by canal and we doubt that wool was ever carried along the Macclesfield canal.

But things are changing as a cargo of wool arrives on the Macclesfield Canal on the narrowboat Patty Ann.

• Over the weekend of Saturday and Sunday 21st – 22nd August Patty Ann will be moored at Bollington. Find the Patty Ann on the wharf by Palmerston Street aqueduct; from Hurst Lane by the canal bridge 27 or from Clarence Mill, crossing the new footbridge 26A and walking along the towpath.
• Patty Ann will be in Congleton on the following Sunday and Monday of the Bank Holiday weekend, 29th and 30th August.

A Lancashire couple, Colin and Carole Wareing, while cruising on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal up in Yorkshire, fell into discussions with fellow boaters and knitters and Carole established that there was a need for a service bringing wool to knitters by water on the inland canals. As knitting has once again become the thing to do, this is a service that has become greatly appreciated as a lot of the traditional wool shops that used to be in every town and indeed village along the canals of the country have long disappeared.

Carole had quite a stock of wool on board Patty Ann as she designs and creates her own knitwear, so it didn’t take much to contact a wool producer, J.C. Brett’s and last June Patty Ann took on her first cargo of wool from their warehouses, which are situated close to the canal in Bingley, West Yorkshire. They have returned for further cargoes and also get supplies delivered to them at a convenient bridge or wharf.

What has surprised Colin and Carole was the amount of small villages and towns they moored in where the local land based knitters really appreciated their wool being brought to them so now they are trying to bring wool into the city.

This year Patty Ann, which has become known as 'The Wool Boat' is cruising the canals of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire, bringing the wool by water, either as wool and yarns for knitters or as finished garments ranging from fingerless gloves to Boatman’s Ganseys as traditionally worn by the working boatmen when the canals were the freight arteries of the country.

The boat will carry a range of wools from 4 ply through double knitting, chunky and Aran wools, along with patterns, knitting needles and anything you would need for creating your own garments, and what Carole doesn’t carry on board she will have a contact for somewhere in the world of wool.

The boat will be open from 11 to 5 daily and all are welcome to come and have a browse and a look at the Wool on the Water Boat.

Carole can be contacted on 07931 356204 to find out where Patty Ann will be over the summer or if you need more information.

Colin & Carole Wareing

Patty Ann website which tells you where the boat will be and when!