We have spent a few nights at The Boat Museum in Ellesmere Port , for a small fee you are given  entrance to the museum  boat and all and then are allowed to moor in the lower basin , there you stay for the duration of your stay , you become a  part of the exhibits during the day and on a night the gates and buildings  are locked , you are free to roam  the outside exhibits at your leisure although we did have a key to exit and return if needed.
The museum is well worth a visit for any one interested in boats and canals although small children would need supervision due to deep water and locks
The boat Museum
Ellesmere Port does seem to have been hit by the adjacent retail outlet Cheshire Oaks  with a lot of boarded up shops on the road in although the town centre has been rebuilt there are  not a lot of historic buildings around it ..

     Moored in the lower basin along side  a much larger neighbour .

A visitor to the side door 

" Any spare food please wife and five cygnets to feed "

The magnificent Manchester ship canal another Victorian feat of engineering

Ok you have to look really carefully at this , behind the bow of the freighter next

to Sybil you can see the superstructure of a cargo ship passing on the Manchester Ship Canal

it towers over the  buildings behind the museum .

This is the sort of banks of weed we have had to pass through on our journey

The trick is to run at it then knock the drive into, neutral to protect the propeller , fifteen tons of boat will then push a way over the obstruction only twice did we have to stop and back up  to remove a wodge of weed and rubbish that was stuck on our bow.

The only time we got some thing stuck on the prop I had to open the weed hatch and remove a pair of blue Y fronts Well washed after they had been spun round  for some time , on one of the blades !!