Benches in Middlewich, Cheshire

A look at some benches on the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal.

Welcome to Middlewich. Please take a seat

I was in Middlewich on Saturday and as it was the my first time in the small town I had a good wander around.

On my walk I found the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal.

A nice spot for a sit down. If it wasn't tipping it down that is

The thing that really caught my eye was this unusual bench next to the towpath.

A narrowboat bench

The seat part is meant to depict a cargo of salt

A view looking north

As it was raining quite heavily I didn't get to walk too far alongside the canal, but on my wander I did spot some other benches of interest.

Can you spot the bench in this photo

There it is

What a view

Another nice bench. This one depicts the three locks at Middlewich

The Cheshire Coeliac Meeting, gluten free cakes and sausage rolls

A day out doing gluten free things in Cheshire.

The bunting was out for the Coeliacs of Cheshire

I attended the Cheshire Coeliac Group Meeting in Middlewich yesterday and had a nice afternoon buying cakes, chatting to fellow coeliacs and watching the cooking demonstrations.

I bought a fair few gluten free cakes to see me through the week

Chris from the Cheshire Coeliac Group and Cakes by Noah getting to grips with Genius Puff Pastry for his gluten free sausage rolls

Here's some Chris made earlier

I bought a couple of the doughnuts from Lottie's Bakehouse - one sugar coated and one cinnamon flavour. They were both quickly scoffed

I also had a couple of wins on the raffle!

As I'd bought a lot of delicious cakes from Lottie's Bakehouse the cooking demonstration by group organiser Chris was perfect, as it gave me inspiration to do some savoury baking myself. Something I haven't done in many years. Partly because my view of food and cooking changed when I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, but also because Emily is such a superb cook.

Before cooking here are the rather rustic looking sausage rolls. I used Jus-Rol gluten free puff pastry and Morrisons gluten free pork chipolatas

After baking!

In his cooking demo Chris had suggested putting other ingredients in with the sausage meat. The three on the right are plain sausage rolls, while the one on the far left is filled with Tewkesbury Hot Mustard, the next one was Cheddar Cheese and the next one was pork and Bramley apple flavour in a nod to a Bedfordshire Clanger

They were all delicious. Even Emily said so!

Check out the Cheshire Coeliac Group on Facebook for more information.

More info on Coeliac Disease, its effects and how it must be treated with a strict and life-long gluten free diet can be found on the Coeliac UK website.