Aire and Calder and the Calder and Hebble

 We finished our cruise on these two waterways this morning so it seems a good point to summarise our experience on these closely linked waterways. They are really continous with the Aire and Calder taking us from Leeds to Wakefield via those two rivers and the Calder and Hebble taking us on from Wakefield to Cooper Bridge. So here goes:

This is Lemonroyd Lock, probably the largest on the Aire and Calder and the last before the River Calder joins the Aire at Castleford. It certainly made Leo look very small - more like a toy boat.

This splendid curving footbridge crosses the Aire at Castleford. The mill behind is Allinson's Flour Mill. The channel in the middle of the river is a fish pass.

From the confluence of the rivers at Castleford we turned west to go up the River Calder. The picture shows the railway arches over the river at Methley.

At Stanley Ferry we passed the biggest lock-making place on the UK inland waterways. The picture shows completed lock gates and they are being sprayed continously with water presumably to stop them warping on drying out before installation.

At Stanley Ferry the navigation crosses the Calder on an aqueduct which is a similar construction to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Here is the view from the aqueduct looking at the Calder below.

This part of our travels has been sometimes on the river and sometimes on cuts with locks to take us around the weirs on the river. Here we are approaching Fall Ing Lock to come off the river onto the cut at Wakefield. A floating pontoon on the river allows crews to get off and work the lock.

While boats passing through Wakefield use the navigable cut to by-pass the weir, some boats do moor on the river itself just above the weir by the Hepworth Gallery. As this picture shows these are moored in a very higgledy piggledy fashion.

We had a look round Wakefield Cathedral. This carving on the miserichords in the choir stalls looks as if it has been carved from a real person.

We found this strange fellow in the shopping centre. He seems to have leg irons and wings and is carrying a boat with two angels in it. There was no helpful label to tell you what it was all about!

This blue plaque was on a small building by the river. It was the phrase "for long Britain's richest" company that I thought was interesting. There was a lot of money to be gained then from investing in the best commercial waterways, some paying annual dividends of 25% year after year.

There are four places in England which have a chapel on a river bridge. Wakefield is one of them. The other three can also be visited by narrowboat.

Here is a little deviation from our story. At Wakefield we joined the Calder and Hebble navigation which continues up the River Calder. it has some strange paddle gear as shown here. The cylinder on the left has rectangular slots into which you insert a 'spke' about three feet long which forms a lever to turn the cylinder and thus lift the paddle.

Knowing we were going to meet these paddles, Ian cut a notch out of a piece of 3 inch square timber that we had picked out of the cut earlier this summer. The slot in the cylinder is about 2 inches by 3.

The Calder and Hebble locks are tricky to work. Our tools are set out on the roof. In the middle are the normal windlasses we use. To the right is a Wey Navigation windlass which is longer and gives you more leverage when the blessed things won't move. And the pick axe handle on the left we found at one lock. It proved to be lighter and more effective at working the Calder and Hebble paddles, though it is a case of a round peg in a square hole.

Our flowers - petunias and geraniums - have turned out very well this year.

On Sunday we stopped briefly in Horbury Bridge to buy a Sunday paper. As you can see it has an unusual claim to fame.

On the edge of Dewsbury we moored in a quiet spot. Nearby we saw this Scout boat coming through the Thornhill Double Locks.

There is a mile long arm here that runs into Dewsbury. As the picture shows it is very weedy. We have brought Leo this way in the past but we are glad we decided not to this time. It probably would have entailed several trips down the weed hatch!

The basin at the end of the Dewsbury Arm had some very well kept boats. It also has a pub called "The Leggers" where we enjoyed a drink in the sunshine.

Sunday evening was sunny and still and gave some very clear reflections across the cut from Leo.

Monday was a series of short hops on the river with navigable cuts between. Here we are coming in to a very short river mooring below Greenwood Lock.

Back on the river after Mirfield we passed these piers which once supported a railway bridge.

And we came to Battyeford Lock (behind the left hand boat) where we left the river again. These two broad beams were trip boats and, since one was occupying the lock landing, the crew were kind enough to open the lock to let us in.

Above the lock at Battyeford is the South Pennine Boat Club which has some fine moorings with all necessary boat yard facilities. Quite impressive.

And so last night we came to Cooper Bridge where there is a canal junction. On the left is a flood gate, closed when the Calder is in spate, and Leo is moored a few yards down the cut beyond the gates to the left. Behind me the River Calder continues upstream to Sowerby Bridge where the Calder and Hebble meets the Rochdale Canal over the Pennines to Manchester. Our way lies ahead going a short way downstream to join the Huddersfield Broad and then the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. But that is a story for another day!