Down to Leeds and out on the River Aire

 We have now completed our crossing of the Pennines on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal having come into Leeds a couple of days ago. Today we have come down the last two locks onto the River Aire right by Leeds Station and tonight (Wednesday 24th July) we are moored at Woodlesford about five miles to the east of the city. So here is the tale of our last days on the Canal:

Here, looking back, is the view of Saltaire from the canal. Saltaire is a World Heritage site and was originally built by Titus Salt, to process raw wool coming into the town along the canal. He built not only the huge factories either side of the canal, but also houses for his workers, a church to improve their souls but no pub as he was a teetotaller. The pub in the town is called "Don't Tell Titus!"

To the side of the canal passing through Shipley is this rather uninspiring ditch. At one time this was the start of a three mile branch into Bradford. Most of the course of the Bradford Canal has long been built over, so it is unlikely ever to be restored.

Coming closer to Leeds we passed through Rodley where this swing bridge is found. Rodley is reckoned to be the last safe place to moor overnight before embarking on the final locks down to the city. Though things are improving this has been the place for dissolute youths to vandalise boats and the locks. We saw no sign of such damage this time and the CRT chaps we spoke to have not had any trouble this year.

Behind Violet Clare, the boat we have been sharing with for a few days down to Leeds, is what is becoming known as the 'swing bridge from hell'. This bridge is privately owned and was put in as a stronger bridge to take trucks to access a proposed development site. A normal swing bridge takes less than 5 minutes to open, pass through, and close behind. This one takes 15-20 minutes even when you have learned how to do it and that takes detailed study of the complex instructions. We set off down to Leeds about 7.30 am but fortunately we had a rehearsal of this bridge operation in helping another boat through the previous afternoon.

This staircase of three locks is Newlay Locks, one of three staircase sets of locks on the descent into Leeds. Again you can see Violet Clare coming out of the locks with Judy to the right waiting to get back on.

I can't remember if I've featured one of these before. It is a horse ramp to allow a horse pulling a boat to get out of the canal after falling in.

Nearly four hours after setting off, here you can see Leo coming into the centre of Leeds. The brick faced round tower to the left is called the Candle Tower and the white one in the centre is Bridgewater Place.

And here we are moored above Office Lock near Granary Wharf in the centre. The canal here is alongside the main railway into Leeds Station and it is quite noisy, but we are on the side of the canal away from the towpath so there are very few people around. You can see the Candle Tower behind our flowers.

We had a couple of nights in Leeds and we revisited this scupture by Andy Scott famous for designing and building the huge horse sculptures at Falkirk known as the Kelpies. It is in the newish Trinity Shopping Centre. The bundle on the horse's saddle is wool.

This is the fine Victorian Market building.

And here is Crown Arcade, another Victorian masterpiece.

All the way along the Leeds and Liverpool there have been milestones like these. Each shows a mileage from Liverpool in whole units and miles always plus a quarter from Leeds. This is the last one hence a quarter mile from Leeds. On the other side it displays 127 miles from Liverpool.

This morning we came down Office Lock, so called as the offices of the Canal company were alongside and the building is still there. Next comes River Lock which marks the very end of the canal and lets boats down onto the River Aire. Here looking back you can see the lock from the river in the centre of the picture. Candle Tower is again in the photo and Leeds Station is just to the right.

Here we are boating on the river through the city. Notice the yellow water taxi coming towards us. The blue bridge is Leeds Bridge.

And here we are approaching Crown Point Bridge. Just beyond this bridge boats must turn right to avoid the weir and head towards Leeds Lock, the first one on the river.

This view was taken looking back from below Leeds Lock as we left the city centre behind us.

After weeks with the limited horizons of the canals, the River Aire seems very wide and deep. Leo goes much faster on the deeper water so it took us very little time to go down the river to Woodlesford.

Here we are about to pass under the M1.

After we had moored above Woodlesford Lock this monster came past us. Though she seems much larger, Sectan is only 60 feet long and just over 15 feet wide and was built to fit the locks of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, bringing cargoes transhipped from ocean going ships at Hull to Leeds and beyond.

Woodlesford Lock is very well looked after and like the village of the same name has flowers everywhere. Even the grass is cut, a rarity these days on the canals.

So now we are on the River Aire and our aim next is to turn up the River Calder to access one of the two other routes back over the Pennines. So we will be going up the Rochdale or the Huddersfield Narrow Canal depending on which seems more likely to be dependable. It should be apparent by our next blog posting which way we are going. Watch this space.