Through the Pennines and down the other side

It has been too long since we updated this blog and we have come so far in the last week.  From the wild hills of the Pennines we have come down to flatter and lower lands.  We are now cruising down the River Calder aiming for Castleford and then up the River Aire to Leeds.

Last Tuesday it was extremely hot and humid.  We walked up in the hills above Diggle and even on the tops there wasn't a breath of wind.  In the evening we walked to the Diggle Hotel for a meal and we fortunately stayed there during a torrential thunder storm.  Walking back to the boat we had to ford a new stream by the Hotel that hadn't been there when we arrived!

On Wednesday we cruised through the Standedge Tunnel.  This is the longest (three and a quarter miles), the highest (the canal is 650 feet above sea level) and the deepest (around 650 feet below the surface at its greatest).  There are four separate tunnels through this hill.  The first built was the canal and then two single track railway tunnels and finally the modern double track rail tunnel.  The two single track tunnels are now disused and as you cruise through on your boat a CRT chap drives through one of these to check on your progress at a few of the adits that connect with the canal tunnel.  There are 47 of these sideways adits in the tunnel but only three of them are used to check on progress.

Here is Leo waiting to go into the tunnel.  Boats cannot pass in the tunnel, so boats East to West go through in the morning and West to East in the afternoon.

You have to book passage through the tunnel and high and square boats cannot fit through.  You are required to have a CRT 'chaperone' with you as you go through.  Here John and Trevor from CRT are either side of Ian at the tiller.  The CRT chaps came with some powerful LED lights which certainly helped avoid the sticky out bits!

Helen took some pictures from the front of the boat.  Here we are passing though a brick lined section of tunnel.

And here we are in a rocky section.  Our passage was made more tricky by a thick mist that we didn't have last time we came through here.  You can see the beam of our headlight in the mist.

Here is one of the side adits with the  CRT chap who was driving through the parallel railway tunnel.

One significant difference of the Standedge is that the tunnel is far from straight.  The builders sought to avoid the shale rocks that were unstable and so deviated to one side through the millstone grit.  Also the two tunnels dug from each side did not meet so that there is a prominent zig zag in the middle.  All of this makes it difficult to steer through.

And here is the other side of the tunnel at Marsden.  The unusual looking boat is an electric trip boat that runs trips for tourists into the tunnel.  We got through this time in an hour and a half and, we're pleased to say, we had no damage to paintwork above the gunwhales.







After a lovely meal and fine beers in the Riverhead Brewery Tap in the village we retired to bed and on Thursday set off down the first of the 42 locks down to Huddersfield.

On Thursday morning there was a thick mist.  We have been travelling with a boat called 'Rubbin Along' with a lovely couple called Geoff and Sue and their German Shepherd called Harriet.  Here you can see Rubbin Along in the first lock, 42E.  The 'E' means east and all the locks on this side have that suffix.

One of the locks was restored by Blue Peter, hence the shield shown on the lock beam.

Some of the bridges through here are very low.  This one was as you come out of a lock.

We went for a walk from a lovely mooring above lock 31E.  You can see the beams of sunshine coming through the trees by the side of the River Colne.  The canal follows the River Colne down the east side all the way into Huddersfield.

Here is Leo moored above 31E.  This was a wide section of canal like being in a lake with a couple of attractive reservoirs just above us.

On Friday we carried on down.  In this lock you can see what I think are mason's marks in the stones.  Each stonemason had his own signature mark and you see similar marks on cathedrals and other historic buildings.

 At Slaithwaite (pronounced 'Slowit') is the only functioning guillotine lock gate on a narrow canal.  Sadly there have been endless problems with it and at the moment it has to be worked for you by CRT, so again you have to book in advance.  The older CRT chap had brought a young assistant with him to turn the handle to lift the gate!

Through Slaithwaite the canal had been  built over and had to be dug out through the middle of the village during the restoration.  It is a very narrow channel, so it is just as well that there are not many boats through here!

Some of the locks had excellent water spouts to wash the boat.

Now you may well ask what is going on here.  In mooring by the Titanic Mill (see below), Ian was holding a rope round a bollard which unfortunately slipped off and he fell backwards into the canal!  This is the first time in 5 years that one of us has fallen in.  Just as well that the water up here is very clean.  There are no pictures of Ian in the water and mercifully none of Ian stripping naked before going below to change. Here he is wringing out his clothes and hanging them on the fence to dry.

Here is Titanic Mill.  It was so named because it is huge but also because it was completed in 1912 when the ship went down.  It has now been converted to flats.










From here on Saturday we went down the last 16 locks into Huddersfield.

Lock 5E is a strange one being positioned almost on top of an aqueduct over the River Colne.  Here is Leo sitting on the aqueduct waiting for the lock to fill.

Lock 3E is entirely new having been built in a different place during the restoration (the canal was reopened in 2001).  It is beside a university building.  The lock built of concrete is about 9 feet wide, but we have no idea why since the others are all 7 feet wide.

Below 3E is a long tunnel, the first of several on the last mile into the city.

And below lock 2E (which you can't even walk to) is a narrow channel below street level which was only opened out to the sky a few years ago.  As you can see the channel is also heavily overgrown.

And so into Huddersfield where we went for a wander round on Saturday afternoon.  Can you see the lion up on the facade of this building which is called the Lion Arcade?

Amazingly this is the railway station which has been described as a stately home with trains inside.  There are fountains outside and a statue of Harold Wilson who was born here.

At first we moored by the University but we feared the steps opposite would be a good place for drunks to gather and so it proved later.  So we moved opposite Sainsbury's and here is the view from our second mooring.








If your boat is 70 feet long and 7 feet wide you can come over the Huddersfield Narrow but no further.  The gauge of the Huddersfield Broad Canal which carries on to the east is 14 feet wide but only 57 feet long.  Fortunately Leo does fit and so we carried on seeking to share locks with Rubbin Along on Sunday morning.

This strange Meccano like contraption is the Locomotive Lift Bridge in Huddersfield.  The whole of the bridge deck lifts into the air to allow boats to pass underneath.  It used to be wound by hand but is now electrically powered.

 Although the stated gauge of the Huddersfield Broad is 57 feet long that doesn't mean you can get two 57 foot boats in a lock together.  We did so for the first lock but had to lift the front fender on Leo to get the gates open. The later locks were shorter so we had to go singly, with the boat diagonal in the lock to clear the cill at the back.  And there are walkways attached to the bottom gates which can scrape the paintwork on the bow.  So not easy.

At the bottom of the last lock you come out on the River Calder.  You need to turn left upstream to avoid the weir and soon turn sharp right back on yourself to enter the cut at Coopers Bridge.  Here you can see Rubbin Along coming up the river and needing to turn to the left of the sign on the left of the picture.

We moored on Sunday evening near Shepley Bridge Marina and carried on down river on Monday.  The Calder navigation has sections of river with some lock cuts to bypass the weirs.  Here we are going to turn right through Battyeford Flood Gates off the river.  The orange buoys mark the weir.

And here similarly a river section ends with Ledgard Bridge Flood Gates to the left of the orange buoys.  On the river with wide and deep water Leo charges along so our miles have clocked up effortlessly in the last couple of days.

I stared at this for some time until I realised what it was.  It is a giant bicycle pedal marking a Sustrans cycle route alongside the river.

Last night (Monday) we moored at Calder Grove almost beside the Navigation Inn.  Our good friend Ralph cycled out from Wakefield and met us for a pleasant meal at the pub.  It was good to catch up with him.  We hope you got back safely, Ralph.







Today (Tuesday) we have come down river through Wakefield and are moored tonight above Woodnook Lock near Castleford.

On one river section we passed under the M1.  Now we know we're on the east side of the country.

 Fall Ing lock coming out of Wakefield is the first of the really big locks (about 140 feet long) and is also the point where the Calder and Hebble Navigation becomes the Aire and Calder Navigation.

The River Calder here is even bigger than further upstream.  This picture is looking downstream to Broadreach Flood Lock where a long section of canal leaves the river itself.

At Stanley Ferry (where lots of lock gates are made) we saw quite a few really big boats befitting this large commercial waterway (though there are no commercial craft at present).  This is Morgenster which sounds Dutch.

At Stanley Ferry the Canal crosses the River Calder on two aqueducts.  This is the older one which is of the same design as the Sydney Harbour Bridge but is 100 years older.  The newer, larger aqueduct is alongside. 

This is the view looking down from the Aqueduct to the River Calder below.













Woodnook Lock where we are moored has some problems at the moment and CRT are helping boats through in two time slots, morning and afternoon.  We are hoping to go through tomorrow morning and by evening we will probably be in the centre of Leeds going up the River Aire which joins the Calder at Castleford.  Which  brings me to the poem about the ladies of Castleford:

Castleford lassies are bonnie and fair,

They wash in the Calder and rinse in the Aire.

So we are nearly home and we will probably do a final posting on this blog once we get back to Skipton where Leo will spend another winter.  But we will not rush the last few days up the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, the scenery is too good to miss.