Another glorious November morning, and today we stopped off at nearby Mercia Marina. Said to be one of the largest inland marinas in the country, and Europe, it offers more than 360 narrowboat berths, along with lakeside lodges and a wide range of shops, cafés and restaurants.

Cleverly laid out as six interconnected smaller marinas, it is hard to appreciate just how extensive the site is from ground level. A Google satellite view gives a much clearer sense of its scale. Sadly it’s not possible to walk all the way round, restricted access presumably to give some privacy and security for the lodge owners.

The marina is accessed by boat from the Trent & Mersey Canal. The canal opened in 1777 as a cross‑country waterway stretching from Liverpool to Hull and linking into the wider national canal network.

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These waterways, once busy industrial highways carrying raw materials and manufactured goods across the country, have been completely reborn as places of leisure.