Standedge Tunnel - a fascinating experience

After all the anticipation and concern about the Tunnel we finally came through yesterday afternoon.  It was brilliant!  And we suffered no damage to Leo either.

Monday we climbed more locks and moored at Uppermill.

Here is Leo in lock 18W.  Notice the transmission mast on the hill high above.  Ian climbed the hill in the evening, a very steep but short climb.

Most of the paddle and gate gear on the Huddersfield is fairly conventional, but this gate is so close to the road that the balance beam would block the road.  So there is a geared rod in the curved channel which is turned by windlass at the top of the column and this opens the gate.

Here is Leo moored at Uppermill.  The visitor moorings are the other side of the bridge but they are very dark and gloomy under tall trees, so we moored here in the sunshine.  It was a bit tight for the trip boat to get past us, but no-one seemed to mind and there are very few boats moving on this canal.

These stepping stones near our mooring lead across the River Tame to a park and into the High Street.  Uppermill is a pretty place with an interesting museum and seems very popular with tourists.

And here is one view from the transmission mast mentioned above.  The place you can see in the middle of the picture is Diggle where the Standedge Tunnels start and go under the hills in the distance.










Tuesday took us up the final 11 locks to Diggle where we moored overnight waiting for our passage through the tunnel on Wednesday.

This railway viaduct right next to a lock carries the trains towards the Tunnel at Diggle.

The scenery at the top of the Huddersfield Narrow is fantastic.  You really feel you are up in the hills and that seems incompatible with travelling on a boat.

Here is the entrance at Diggle to the Standedge Canal Tunnel.  The iron doors represent a narrowboat with two 'leggers' propelling the boat through the tunnel which was the way they used to do it.  Thank goodness we have an engine rather than a horse.

There are four tunnels through the hills at Standedge.  The first was the canal tunnel built in 1811, then a single line railway tunnel followed by a second single line rail tunnel.  Finally this double line tunnel was built and is still used by trains travelling from Manchester to Huddersfield and on to Leeds.








And so yesterday we went through the canal tunnel.  The statistics are impressive for this canal tunnel.  It is the longest (three and a half miles), the highest (645 feet above sea level), and the deepest (650 feet below the surface) in the country and some say in the world.  Not all narrowboats can fit through the tunnel which is only wide enough for one boat and its shape and low roof mean some boats simply won't fit.  Before you go through, the Canals and Rivers Trust people measure the boat.  Hard hats are supplied and lifejackets if you don't have your own.  Also a CRT person comes on the boat with you to guide you through.  There are a number of adits or side passages which link to one of the old railway tunnels and another CRT person drives through that tunnel to monitor the boat's progress.  At one point you can see up and through to the modern railway tunnel.  If you are lucky (we weren't) you can see a train whizz past at 60 mph.  Passage through the tunnel took us an hour and three quarters.

Boats come through 3 days a week from East to West in the morning.  Here you can see the second boat that day coming out of the tunnel.  We were going West to East and these go through in the afternoon of the same 3 days.

Some sections of the tunnel are rough hewn through rock and sometimes the colours of the rock are quite bright.  You can see rusty reds and yellows in this picture.

Some sections are ghostly white like this one.  This is because the rock has been sprayed with concrete to consolidate it.  This picture shows how bent and twisted the channel is.  In the centre, the tunnel diggers from East and West were 25 feet out, so that there is a prominent zig zag in the middle.  This is quite tricky to steer round without hitting the sides.  The worst projections have been painted in yellow which is helpful.

And here is Leo having come all the way through to Marsden.  You can see the tunnel mouth behind us.  We were expecting that Leo would have a few scratches and minor damage, but we were pleased to find that there was no damage at all.  The only projections we touched were at or below the waterline.






Having come through we went for a meal at the Riverhead Brewery Tap in Marsden.  The food was excellent and the beer, brewed on site, was tasty and well kept.  We celebrated with Richard and Anne on Ryeland who we have been travelling with for a few days and who came through the tunnel just before us.  A very pleasant evening to finish off an unusual day.

Having come through to Yorkshire, we now have 42 locks to descend to reach Huddersfield.  We came down the first 11 today and we are still higher than any other canal in the UK.

The scenery is just as good on the East side.  We walked up after mooring below lock 32E to the heather clad hills shown here.

And here is the view from higher up.  In the distance is Huddersfield and you can just see one of the reservoirs for the canal in the valley.

We came across this splendid ram on our walk this afternoon.  Fancy carrying those horns around all the time!

This is the view looking back up the valley of the River Colne towards Marsden and the hills behind are those we passed underneath in the tunnel yesterday.

Here is Leo with Ryeland behind moored in this lovely spot with views both sides of the canal.












Over the next few days we'll be working our way down the many locks to Huddersfield.  Once there, we say goodbye to narrow locks for the rest of this season.  First steps from Huddersfield are on the Huddersfield Broad Canal which has nine locks down to join the River Calder.  Our plans for the rest of this summer are probably to go up the River Ouse to York and beyond though we will be guided by the longer range weather forecast as that river has a reputation for flooding.  And as I type this the rain is drumming down on Leo!