Huddersfield Narrow Canal and some big decisions about where we go next

The story so far is that we had reached Huddersfield and were hoping to go further travelling over the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, through the Standedge Tunnel and down the other side to the edge of Manchester. While waiting for some better information from CRT we spent Friday 2nd August catching the train up to Marsden at the summit of the 'Narrow' and walking about 9 miles back down the canal to Huddersfield. So here is the story of that day and some more information at the end about where we are travelling next.

Right next to the railway station at Marsden is Lock 42E shown here (the 'E' is for east as in the east side of the Pennines). 42E is the top lock on the east side before reaching the tunnel.

Half a mile upstream at Marsden is the entrance to the Standedge Tunnel. This is the longest (at over 3 miles), highest (at 650 feet above sea level) and deepest (at 650 feet below the hill it goes through) in the country and possibly the world. The strange looking vessel moored beside the Visitor Centre is an electric trip boat which takes people into the tunnel, though not all the way through.

From the tunnel, after cups of coffee at the Visitor Centre, we began our walk down the canal. Here we are at the next lock down (41E). There is a fine view forward from here.

This is the Blue Peter Lock. In 2015 this lock featured on the children's TV programme in which a new lock gate was made and fitted.

Below 33E the canal (shown on the right of the photo) passes Sparth reservoir (on the left) which is a source of water to top up the canal.

We worked our way down the canal to lock 24E on the edge of Slaithwaite which is curiously pronounced 'Slow' as in 'cow' followed by 'itt', so 'Slowitt'. 24E has a guillotine gate on the downstream side which needs to wound up by hand.

Before the canal was restored, some parts around Slaithwaite had disappeared altogether and, as spare room was short, some of the sections of canal here are only wide enough for one narrowboat. Problems might arise if a boat is coming the other way, but there are passing bays.

Below Slaithwaite where we had lunch at the Little Bridge Cafe, the canal passes through Linthwaite where this huge old mill is to be found. Known as 'Titanic Mill' for obvious reasons, it is now converted to flats or should I say apartments.

As we grew closer to Huddersfield we began to see why we were not being allowed further up the canal. Here below 13E it was clear that the canal was running dry.

The canal follows the valley of the River Colne and at Golcar it crosses the river by means of an aqueduct.  This aqueduct has apparently leaked water into the river for over a year and it has not been properly repaired. The tarpaulin here was a stop gap solution but is no longer working despite countless gallons of water being pumped up from the river into the canal.

We walked down below the aqueduct and in this photo you can see water leaking from the canal into the river. And this is with only a few inches of water left in the canal. Imagine what it must be like with another three or four feet of water in the canal.

Here's another photo below the aqueduct and you can see spurts of water coming into the river.

At lock 4E the canal crosses the river again in another (non leaking) aqueduct and then immediately goes into the lock and soon after under a very tall railway viaduct.

Passing Kirklees College there is another section where a new channel has been built for the canal and a brand new lock at 3E.

After 3E the canal passes through two modern tunnels under buildings and this section cannot be walked as the towpath does not exist. Out of sight in this section is lock 2E and then another tunnel. People like us following the canal on foot must take to a signposted route along roads and here is where the path rejoins the canal. You can see the entrance to Bates Tunnel and the strengthening bars holding the walls apart.

These strengthening bars continue above the narrow channel of the canal as far as Lock 1E, the last on the east side.

This photo shows the channel just above 1E. Stop planks prevent the canal water above reaching the lock. Without these the lock leaks so badly that the channel above would soon be dry! Again probably due to lack of maintenance. We remember problems with this lock when we brought Leo this way in 2016! You can see in the photo above the lock gate and before the stop planks the stone floor of the lock. Usually there would be so much silt that you could not see the stone construction of the lock floor but here you can. The water in the Huddersfield Narrow is wonderfully clear although peaty from its source on the moors above. Once past this lock we were quickly back to Leo moored in Aspley Basin where Huddersfield canals Broad and Narrow meet.

 On our walk down the 'Narrow' we had met a CRT engineer who told us that it would be at least 2-4 weeks and quite possibly longer before the Golcar Aqueduct is repaired. We have therefore reluctantly decided that the 'Narrow' is not a viable option for us. The Rochdale Canal whose course is nearby has all sorts of problems too. A return via the tidal River Trent relies on passing under the Vazon Sliding Railway Bridge (another wonder of the waterways). That bridge is also in need of repair, this time not by CRT but by Network Rail. So we are presently retracing our outward route to go back over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. There will be fewer blog updates partly because you will have seen this before, but also because we fear the L&L might run out of water as it has done most years and we want to get over it before that happens. So our pace of travel has gone up considerably. Today (Wednesday 7th August) we have come west from Leeds covering 10 miles, 16 locks and 7 swing bridges! That's a lot more of each than we have been accustomed to travelling lately.