A WELCOME RETURN

摘要

You could do worse than the Cheshire village of Bunbury if you wanted to show someone an English idyll. It sits a mile or so south-west of the Shropshire Union Canal, which passes through Tilstone Fearnall, a pleasant stroll away. We know this area well, but realised with some surprise that we hadn't been back since 2016. One day in late April, as ominous clouds gathered overhead, we descended Bunbury Locks - a broad staircase of two - which came as a rude awakening after a largely lock-free winter on the Llangollen. They mark this northern stretch down to Nantwich - the old Chester cut - from the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal, which headed south to Wolverhampton 50 years later. They make me nervous.