Wednesday 27 June 2012

We have now completed the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and are moored at the end of the Peak Forest Canal for the evening ready to begin the descent of the Ashton Canal into Manchester.


 We left Wool Road moorings on Tuesday morning passing under the impressive Saddleworth viaduct.  A bit of a disastrous day really.  Particularly when I managed to ground the boat just before a lock.  It took nearly an hour and lots of hard work to free it.  Managed to float it eventually but as a result we did not travel as far as we had planned to.






We eventually moored up below Roaches Lock walked back to the previous lock to the Tollemache Arms where we had a rather nice pint and a chat with some of the other customers.  Then walked back to the pub at Roaches Lock where we had dinner.  A very good evening!!

Set off at about 9:00 this morning, at the first lock a man threw a stick for his dog which jumped across the lock, a 7 foot leap.  He said the dog likes to show off, think he might be the show off though.  Stopped  at Tesco in Staleybridge for shopping.  Then decided to carry on and moor up in the Peak Forest Canal.  Apparently this is the best place hereabouts to moor as the Ashton Canal runs through a dodgy area.  Tomorrow we will go back onto the Ashton Canal and complete the journey of approx 6 miles and 18 locks into Manchester where we may stay for a couple of days.  Looking forward to seeing Manchester as not been here before.


Tame Aquaduct



Monday 25 June 2012

Huddersfield Narrow Canal

Sorry folks, no update for several days because too wet, too tired and then no internet connection.  All back on line now though.  On Thursday we left Aspley Basin and began our journey on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.  Two boats set off just ahead of us, Graham said that as soon as he started our engine both crews appeared and rushed around to get off first.  They succeeded!  Bit of a queue at the first lock as a result and surprise surprise it started to rain.  It rained on and off all day, more on than off it has to be said, although it did stop later in the afternoon and the sun made a brief appearance.  






We passed through Sellers Tunnel which is a rebuilt part of the canal passing under a factory which was built on the infilled, derelict canal and passed through the lock to Sellers Tunnel, where the top has been removed as the factory has now relocated.  One of the boats in front was stopped above Sellers Tunnel as it had something major round the propeller.  We stopped to see if there was anything we could do and said we would pass a message to their friends in the boat ahead as they had no mobile signal. Saw the other boat moored above lock 6E which was where we had originally planned to moor.  Passsed on the message and continued on as the water level was very low and mooring difficult.  Spoke to another boat crew who tell us the weather will be worse tomorrow.  Although, as it has rained all day so far, not sure how it can be worse.  Due to low water levels mooring was not really possible until we reached Slaithwaite where we were very grateful to stop.  Decided to go to the pub for a drink and bought an Indian takeaway on the way home.  Very nice and a most welcome end to a long and wet day. 

 




What can I say, Friday’s weather was worse.  Torrential rain and very cold and windy.  However as we have a date with Standedge Tunnel we decided to press on.  Not sure that it was the right decision, only a relatively short day (31/2 hours) but by the time we stopped we were soaked and frozen.  Had to light a fire to warm up and dry clothes and Graham’s waterproofs and boots were still wet the next morning.    




 Saturday was a better day weather wise, a few brief showers but mainly dry and definitely warmer.  We completed the last part of the journey, 12 locks and roughly 3/4 mile.  This took 21/2 hours.  Saw two boats coming down, both had come through the tunnel on Friday.  Moored up just past the top lock and walked the dogs down the route we had just come.  It took us 15 minutes.   Walked along to the tunnel and back through Marsden.  



 We are really into the hills of Yorkshire now.  Some beautiful scenery and it has stopped raining.  Although listening to the news it seems we had about 5 inches of rainfall on Friday and many nearby areas have flooded.

 This morning (Monday) the alarm went off at 6:00am.  Much too early these days!  Prepared the boat for it’s trip through the fearsome Standedge Tunnel and made our way to the tunnel entrance.  We are to be first through so not too much hanging around.  After measuring the boat to ensure we will fit we are introduced to Terry, who is our escort for the trip.  I had to stay inside with the dogs, although I was able to go out onto the front deck as long as the doors were shut to prevent escape.  The tunnel is an amazing experience.  A lot of it is blasted out of rock although there are brickwork sections.  It took two hours to complete the trip.  The tunnel is very tight in places and we scraped a few times, but on the whole the paintwork has survived intact.  Standedge Tunnel is the highest, deepest and at three miles, the longest tunnel on the inland waterways system.








We have descended a few locks from the summit and are now moored for the evening at Wool Road visitor moorings discussing where to go next.






Wednesday 20 June 2012

 It's a tight fit!



Yesterday was a fairly long day, six hours cruising and heavy locks.  These locks are only 57ft 6 (Jeanie Deans is 60ft).   We managed to share some of the locks with a shorter narrow boat which made life a bit easier.  Met a lovely old boy on the way up who was telling me that he used to work for waterways in the 60’s and told me the correct pronunciation of Standedge (Stannege) Tunnel, commenting that you could tell I was a ‘foreigner’.  I agreed that I was definitely a foreigner to these parts, but was enjoying it here.  We made it to Cooper Flood Gates which is the last part of the river.  A very quiet and peaceful rural mooring, although there was some road noise it did not disturb us.

Today has been a lovely sunny day.  That is three hot sunny days in a row; it’s raining now though just to make a change.  A short day’s cruising today as the plan was to stop near Aspley Basin, look round Huddersfield and do some shopping, as there is a Sainsbury right next to the canal.  An early start, at the crack of 9:00am and after going round the junction after Cooper Flood Gates we passed through the lock and onto the Huddersfield Broad Canal.  That is it!  No more rivers to negotiate in the near future.  There are nine locks on this part of the canal, all wide beam locks but only 57 foot 6 inches.  However by careful manoeuvring we again managed to get through all the locks and made it to Apsley Basin.  So despite various people telling us that it couldn’t be done, it is possible to get a 60 foot boat to Huddersfield.  Some of the locks were a bit tight though and I wouldn’t fancy going down, although we met a 60 foot boat coming out of the first lock that had come all the way down, so it can be done.









Locomotive Bridge
The middle section of this bridge just lifts straight up so you can pass underneath!  I love that when you are on a boat you can bring traffic to a standstillJ


After two hectic days it was lovely to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the picturesque Huddersfield Broad Canal.  From tomorrow we are back on narrow canals with narrow beam locks that are 70ft long.  This will make life much easier

Monday 18 June 2012

Today has been a good day!  The water level had dropped enough at Castleford for us to be able to go through Castleford and back onto the river.  We cruised down to the lock and moored to fill up with water and empty the toilet before we got under way.  Unfortunately the elsan disposal was blocked so had to leave that.  Whilst we filled up with water the lock keeper arrived and prepared the lock for something coming up.  This turned out to be a large gravel boat.  Took some pictures of it coming through the lock to try and show the sheer size of these things.











The plan was to moor up somewhere just past Fall Ings Lock today, but as we were making good time and it wasn’t raining, we decided to carry on a bit further to try and make up for the stoppage at Castleford.  We had a couple of problems with some of the locks, which now have to be operated manually, including Fall Ings Lock where I just couldn’t move the paddles at the top end.  Graham had to come and do it and he struggled as well.  Today has been a mix of river and canal work, with some of the river levels being fine and other parts being well into the amber on the indicator boards.  It will be strange to get back onto the canal system where water levels tend to be too low.   



 



Went past BW's workshop at Stanley Ferry and spotted a pile of lock gates.

Also crosses the impressive aquaduct at Stanley Ferry where we also emptied the toilet, in the elsan disposal of course.



We moored up at Broad Cut Top Lock at about 5:00pm, and after sorting out the dogs and having a shower retired to the pub, conveniently sited next to the tow path, for a beer.  If the weather is kind to us again tomorrow we will likely have another longish day, and hopefully remain on schedule for our booking to go through the tunnel.  

Saturday 16 June 2012

Just a short update today as no movement because the river levels are still high.  However we did see a convoy of five narrow boats passing, four of whom we think must have passed through the lock this afternoon.  We have decided to sit it out until water levels go down.

The delightful Truly rolled in something noxious again and I had to clean her up with foam shampoo.  Such a pretty dog and such a mucky moo!!

Spent an interesting morning with Christine and Mal, who kindly brought us out the two Richlow Guides that cover the next part of our trip.  These are excellent guides and well worth the investment.  The Richlow Guide to the Chesterfield Canal was both interesting and informative and we enjoyed using it.

Watch this space for a further update when the weather improves and we can get underway again.  Hopefully we will still be in time for our passage through Standedge Tunnel, although it is raining hard again.


Friday 15 June 2012



At a standstill due to flooding again!!! Can’t believe this just as we decide to book passage through Standedge Tunnel and are working to a time scale we have an enforced stop yet again.  Not able to go through the locks today due to flooding and apparently all the flood gates on the Calder and Hebble (where we are headed) are closed so even if we could do this bit we can’t go any further.  This is a bit of a pain as we had arranged to meet people tomorrow at Wakefield, but having contacted them they are now coming here tomorrow.

In spite of the hold-ups I am loving this part of the waterways.  I had no idea there was so much commercial traffic still on the rivers and canals.  Several working barges went past today and every time it feels like we are being punched as the boat really gets shoved around.  Interesting to see though, and great that commercial traffic still around as it is what the waterways were created/ adapted for.



When we realised we would not be moving today we went for a walk into Castleford.  A busy town centre with a bustling market.  Our route into town took us over a very smart looking footbridge over the weir, which is impressive.  Spoke to a boater who tells us he is 79, still looking fit though and obviously he and his wife still enjoying their boating.  He was telling us some tales about various places they had been on a narrow boat, very interesting!  Not sure how long we will be stuck for hopefully be able to move tomorrow but who knows.  Did not see as much rain today as expected from the forecast so hopefully looking good to be able to continue soon.


Thursday 14 June 2012

Today has been a good day weather wise, but the forecast for the next few days is a bit grim.  So we decided to try and get some miles done today.  We left West Haddlesey Lock at about 9:30 aiming to get to Castleford by this evening.  A good trip, had to operate all three locks on the River Aire manually, but once back on the Aire and Calder navigation all the locks are manned and operated for you.  This is a brilliant system and we were lucky that we went straight through all the locks with no waiting and no hard workJ  Got to Castleford by mid afternoon and moored up on the visitor moorings.  Phoned Christine co author of the Richlow guides, who we met yesterday, and arranged to meet her and Mal tomorrow as they are bringing a guide to the next part of the trip out to us.  Lovely people!









Spoke to a guy that we shared a lock with today who told us that when he tried to book passage through Standedge Tunnel he had to wait 9 days so decided not to bother.  As we want to do this tunnel we thought we better check it out.  So Graham sorted out a schedule for getting there and then gave them a ring.  We are now booked to go through on the 25th June at 9:30, first boat through that day.  This is the first time we have had a definite time restriction so hope we make it ok.





 We are now back on commercial waterways and saw two huge working boats today, Battlestone that we met soon after leaving Ferrybridge Lock Farndale that went past when we were moored.  Had to go out and retie the ropes when it had passed! 



One of the many big boats moored along these waterways.



Wednesday 13 June 2012

Naburn Lock



We have had exciting times since I last updated this blog, well relatively speaking anyway.  We left Boroughbridge on Thursday morning, intending to cruise down to York and stay there overnight and for most of Friday and then continue on to Naburn, which is only about an hour from York.  However on arrival in York there was limited mooring available and as we didn't fancy the spots on offer we carried on and moored up in Naburn.

As we stopped it began to rain and continued raining for most of the night and on and off for most of Friday as well.  On Friday evening we went to the local pub and had an excellent meal and a couple of pints.  However when we got back to the boat the water had risen right to the top of the bank and we and the other narrow boat, Freedom, also moored there decided to move to the floating pontoon at the top of the weir.  This was a good move as the next morning the path to the mooring was under water and the level still rising.  So we had to sit out the floods, yet again.  Spoke to the lock keeper on Sunday and he said that he would not let any narrow boats out of the lock and onto the tidal Ouse until the water had dropped by 1 metre and this was unlikely to be before Wednesday. 



Before and after pictures of the weir at Naburn Locks showing the difference in the river levels after the rain! 






We found plenty to do though, saw short eared owls again and even saw a fallow deer in a field one morning when we were walking the dogs, watched it for ages.  Went into York on the bus on Monday to do some shopping and have a day out.  Saw Michael and John from narrow boat Evenlode, who we saw on the way to Ripon, and passed on the information from the lock keeper.  Also met up with Steph and her husband on narrow boat Largesse.  Had a good gossip with them all and said we would phone them when the water had dropped enough to moor at Naburn.  The river in York was very high and we were glad that we hadn’t stayed there on Thursday.


Freedom and Jeanie Deans snuggled up on the floating pontoon at Naburn Locks!



A sad sight on the River Ouse!


Eventually left Naburn on Tuesday, a day earlier than expected.  All three narrow boats, Evenlode, Largesse and Jeanie Deans went into the lock at 2:30 and proceeded in an orderly fashion to Selby, where Evenlode and Largesse went first into the lock, whilst we waited outside.  As usual the boat performed beautifully sitting nice and straight against the flow while we waited for the lock, thanks Norton Canes!!  Cleared the lock and moored up overnight in Selby.

This morning we did the shopping, took two trips to the supermarket due to having eaten everything.  Then we moved on, mooring up at West Haddlesey lock where the Selby Canal meets the River Aire.  A short day, only about 1.5 hours.  Had a chat with a couple who were passing and during conversation realised that she was the author of the guide to the Chesterfield Canal that we used earlier in the trip.  She was delighted to hear that we had gone right to the end of the Chesterfield as not many people do and she was involved in the restoration of the locks right at the end.  Chilled for the rest of the day and sitting writing this with a beer.

Tonight's mooring at West Haddlesey Lock




Onto the River Aire tomorrow and onwards to the Huddersfield Broad Canal and Standedge Tunnel (eventually not tomorrow).