Fourlanes End Day 2 and 3.

Yesterday Thursday, was a quiet day at Fourlanes End. We had a visit from In the past couple of days we have had visits from two boating friends. Colin off of NB Go For It and Graham off of NB "Suits Us". It is always nice to catch up with people. Yesterday I did some varnishing in the saloon and some touching up of the paintwork on the boat. The rest of the day was spent hand washing a few items and hanging them out on the back counter, I then enjoyed Film 4 during the afternoon. It was a very unexciting day really.

Today (Friday) we had plans, so having enjoyed our usual morning cup of tea in bed, we were up and about by 8.30am. Paddy and I were off up the towpath in warming sunshine. We were in for another warm day. After breakfast and the charging of the batteries, Keith and I set off to find The Anson Museum.

We walked up on to the road bridge and down the road to a footpath. The footpath takes you along the old line of the former Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway, it also runs close to the Macclesfield Canal. It is an 11 mile (16km), traffic-free greenway from Macclesfield to Marple on the Peak Park fringe. There is car parking, toilets and an information centre.

The old Middlewood station, now a picnic spot. After a good mile of walking we arrived at Lyme Road Bridge and walked up on to the road.

One the junction is the Boar's Head Inn, which we would visit on the return journey. Keith and I walked down Anson Road to search out the museum, which was very easy to find.

After a short walk up the drive we were standing in front of the museum.

Before venturing around the museum, we had a much needed coffee and a sit down. It was then onward around the museum.

The countryside area is well worth a visit.

Rod Ellis, is the blacksmith, he also does some amazing drawings and paintings, which are hanging in the tearoom.

Some of the engines were fired up, and we were entertained by lots of thumping and whistles. It was like being a child in a sweet shop. The Anson Museum is situated on the site of the old Anson colliery in Poynton and there is a huge collection of old engines. The collection was started as a hobby by Les Cawley and Geoff Challinor MBE. The collection got so big that they decided to start the museum, the first building was started in 1986 and opened to the public in 1989. There are some fantastic early engines to be seen.

One of the reasons we went to the museum was to see if they had any information on our National DA2 engine, because we knew they had some national engines there. We got chatting to Geoff Challinor, who took down the details of our engine and went off in search of any information he may have. Keith and I did not think he would come back with anything, because there is limited information on the National engines, but low and behold he came up with the goods.

Much to our amazement and joy Geoff produced a several page original document on some of the history of our DA2. It told us of when she was built, who by and who for, this information is so exciting for us, as we had so little information. Keith and I are now looking forward to seeing if we can unearth any other information from this document. Because we could not have the original document, Geoff very kindly did us a copy of each page and so we left the museum a donating for his kindness. Geoff and others working on the engines were very interested in our engine, so Keith was in his element chatting about it.

Having enjoyed chatting to Geoff and the others we continued our visit around the museum.

The volunteers at the museum have built a model of the village of Poynton C1900. The attention to detail is incredible.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the museum and so if you engine mad it is the place to go. On our walk back to the Middlewood Way, we called into The Boars Head Inn for a celebration lunch.

After a wonderful lunch, we walked back along the Middlewood Way in the afternoon sunshine. Because of the information we have now got on our old engine, we will be spending a lot of time researching it further. It has been a very exciting day for us.