Colne Valley Beagles and other things of interest.: NARROWBOAT IN SEPTEMBER

Leeds and Liverpool canal

Some scenic images from a narrowboat trip on the way from Skipton to Leeds.

The inevitable heron

Skipton on a non-market day. The broad main street has stalls both sides three days a week.

Skipton has a busy waterway with the Leeds and Liverpool canal and many hire boats and day boats as well as the private boats.

Passenger trip boat 'Cobbydale' passing through one of the swing bridges that are a feature of the Leeds and Liverpool canal. For single handed boaters the swing bridges present a bit of a challenge sometimes, as they operate from the opposite bank to the towpath and some can be quite heavy and stubborn to shift while others are a dream being electrically operated. I have found my crowbar handy but this year they seem to have been much easier. I think some of the hand operated bridges must get bumped shifting the ballast weights inside and so the tail end then rests heavily on the sill and friction does the job of jamming it.

An attractive bit of a house seen from the canal arm that runs below Skipton Castle

Skipton Castle

A broad beam trip boat returning to base in Skipton

Feeding ducks and pigeons watched by an opportunistic and hopeful passing beagle.

Leeds and Liverpool canal at Farnhill

Morning light at Riddlesden on the Leeds and Liverpool canal

A fine ‘traditional style’ narrowboat – never barge! – moored against the owner’s garden in Riddlesden. This boat will probably have a traditional style boatman’s cabin at the stern with the engine room containing some thumping great old slow running, but quiet, diesel engine just in front behind the red painted side doors.

Just reflections

Swine Lane Bridge near Keighley – L&L canal

Travelling blacksmith moored above Bingley Five Rise locks

Blacksmith in his ‘forge’

Starting to descend in the first lock of Bingley Five Rise flight

The lock keeper opening a ground paddle. Ground paddles allow the water to drain to the lower level through an underground sluice and exit below the lower waterline thereby causing less disturbance. Going down a lock it doesn’t matter much but used coming up a lock it allows the boat to be more stable by allowing the water to rise before the gate paddles are opened. This prevents the violence of water gushing from the sluices in the gates, referred to as paddles, from inundating the front of boats and allowing a progressive calm rise to the next level. On the Five Rise all operations are controlled by the keeper and done in a steady smooth and safe manner.

Down the first lock ready to move forward to the next chamber. The factory in the distance is Damart, well known for thermal underwear.

Looking back at the now empty chamber before the gates are closed.

After descending the next chamber this is looking back at the previous lock gates, with a bit of leakage, and the ‘cill’. The dreaded ‘cill’ is the ledge of the lock threshold above and is more pronounced on some locks than others. Boaters have to be careful never to allow the stern of the boat or rudder to rest on the ‘cill’ while emptying the lock below as it will cause the boat to tip as the water level drops and sink the boat from flooding the front. When coming uphill. the bottom of the gates have a square ‘door’, which is the sluice or paddle, and this is not opened until the water in the rising lock has reached a lavel for it to be safe and comfortable to the boat or boats going up. Generally speaking these broad locks will hold narrowboats side by side. Here is a video of one chamber descent - Descending Bingley Five Rise

Boat descending Bingley Three Rise locks

After the Bingley comes Dowley Gap two rise set of locks just after a waterways pub called The Fisherman’s. There is just one more lock for a long distance now.

An early misty morning before Hirst Lock on the approach to Saltaire

Narrowboats moored overnight below Hirst Lock

Passing a moored traditional style boat on the way to Saltaire in the early morning mist.

The mills of the textile textile genius and benefactor, Titus Salt, are just around the bend. Titus Salt

The Leeds and Liverpool canal between the mills of Saltaire. The mill building on the right is residential and a 'No overnight mooring' restriction is imposed on the old Salt’s mills moorings. After arriving I was washing the mess left by legions of ducks, which appeared to gorge on vindaloo slugs, from the stonework near the back of the boat to avoid treading in the mess. A voice, at 9.15am, was hollering. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from for a while. Once it registered that it was aimed at me I eventually saw a face hanging out of the top right hand window of the tall right hand building. After a lot of shouting, ‘You there!’ and 'Up Here!’ it finally got my attention. ‘Stop making that noise, people are trying to sleep!’ it bawled. All I was doing was swilling some water over the stonework from a plastic bucket and using a soft car wash brush to clean it. They seem to be very sensitive there as on a previous visit a chap rushed out as I arrived to ensure I didn’t consider overnight mooring. I heard tell the residents objected to the Saltaire Festival being held nearby too. Clearly they wish to enjoy a hermetic privacy. They are lucky they don’t live opposite a working mill. I suggested he closed his double glazed window, maybe triple glazed, who knows, and went back to bed as he would be waking everyone else.

It was Saltaire Festival while we were there. More on another post maybe. But this is a licensed travelling canal trader with her wares

Rodley swing bridge in the distance. Rodley area tends to be the place one stops overnight before going forward to Leeds. From here to Leeds it is a most delightful scenic section of the canal. However boaters are advised to pass through the Kirkstall area preferably in the morning. The Forge and Newlay three rise locks are secured overnight, keepered during the day and with a security guard with a Rottweiler in attendance, to ensure a pleasant passage. Actually I have moored overnight in Kirkstall on a hot sunny weekend in some trepidation due to tales lock keepers rejoice in telling, but it was uneventful and very pleasant.

This historic old boat, Abbey Pride, built around 1915, was at the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation according to a plate on the side. Maybe it was already in service with the RN in some form or other as it isn’t listed on the register of Dunkirk Little Ships as far as I can see.

Having passed through Newlay Locks not far away, the first locks since before Saltaire, this is the second three flight staircase This is Forge Locks where the keeper is using a ground paddle to drop the locks for a pair of narrowboats. The gate paddles are already open as you can see from the position of the rack and pinion mechanism on the top of the gate, but the ground paddles being opened as well just speed up the process. There is then one more lock, Kirkstall Lock, and a fine scenic run through Kirkstall and near Armley to the few locks before Leeds city

A boat passing into Kirkstall by Kirkstall Brewery, which I think was turned into a student village although I have never noticed any about. In it’s heyday as a brewery it had a backup engine installed in 1948, one of a pair that were made in 1943 for a submarine but never used, which is now in the Anson Engine Museum in Cheshire.

Road bridge at Kirkstall

The narrowboat Justice - which has been continuously cruising for the last two and a half years with pauses for over-wintering somewhere en-route.

There are many residential boats just slowly meandering around the inland waterways with assorted crews from stony broke hippies to affluent pensioners enjoying a wonderful peaceful but interesting way of life. And there are other live-aboards that never ever move anywhere.

As you can see I like bridge reflections

Boats approaching the last locks before Granary Wharf and Leeds city. This is Lock Six, Spring Garden lock The white thing is the casing of a ground paddle for this lock which has a spiral screw inside to lift open the underground sluice to let water enter the lock.

There were good murals here once but over time they have decayed

A forty foot narrowboat with one fifty seven.

A fine old mill building, part of a larger one since demolished – Castelton Mill was originally a flax spinning mill.

Leeds looking towards No2 Office Lock with Granary Wharf beyond.

Why not finish with another heron! This one you might not notice is standing on one leg, which is I am told is referred to as ‘unipedal resting’. It is not on the Leeds and Liverpool canal but on the Calder and Hebble canal and can often be seen here high up on the old buttress of a demolished railway bridge at Mirfield where it is lord of all it surveys.

Sunday 4 October 2015

NARROWBOAT IN SEPTEMBER - SCENIC

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