In Fridays Boaters Update from C&RT, there was a section regarding the breach on the Aire and Calder, nothing new was mentioned but good that it got it’s own section between Coronavirus and the £10 million they are spending on the Yorkshire Waterways this winter. I suspect quite a chunk of that money will be going towards work on the Calder and Hebble at The Figure of Three Locks that were badly damaged in last February’s storms.
She’s still there. Thank you Al
A photo came through of Oleanna on Friday afternoon from Lisa. Levels still low in the marina, but stable. It looked grey down in Goole and the marina might even have been a touch icy still.
The North Bay, not looking as busy as it felt
Today Mick and I attempted to have a walk to the North Bay in Scarborough, we knew it would be busy as it was a nice day but hadn’t expected so many people in Peasholm Park, so we ended up doing a detour up onto Northstead Manor Drive.
Green Tor
Here very large houses sit above the park, one took our fancy straight away. Green Tor shows off it’s 1930’s credentials with green roof tiles, long stained glass window up the staircase. We had a peak in through the windows as we knew it would be empty being a holiday let. A look on the website shows the owners love of wallpaper. Huge rooms, well they would have to be as the house can sleep 14. It also has a hot tub and the garage has been converted into a games room and cinema!
We meandered down to the beach via the Open Air Theatre. It’s been quite a few years since we’ve walked through here. The lake that used to separate the stage from the audience has been concreted in. Concerts are being advertised, the first being Crowded House on the 8th June! Here’s hoping the season of open air concerts will be able to go ahead this year.
The North Bay chalets and us
My camera was out as normal, but today I was wanting to get some inspiration for a project I’ve been asked to be part of. The North Bay beach chalets caught my eye, as did many other things. We stayed close to the chalets avoiding the crowds on the main footpath and beach, then headed up the cliff towards my old street and a walk back home through town. A lovely walk on a lovely day, just a shame there were so many people about. My suggestion to Mick of getting up early and going for a walk before everyone else didn’t go down too well!
Aire and Calder Breach Site
The weather had also been good in Goole today. Mark Penn had been out with his drone taking photos of new housing, the Siemens Site and of course the breach site on the canal.
Boulders and earth filling the hole
More boulders and earth have been put at the end of the concrete section filling the hole that had appeared after Christmas.
Holes
There are a couple of square holes. One on the concrete above the culvert , this is covered and fenced off, then the other just to one side in a grassed area. They are almost certainly inspection holes to try to see what is below.
Base for the works
Another photo shows that the corner of a nearby field has been levelled off and hard core laid. A Site Office sits to one side and is kept company by a digger and dumper truck, this will obviously be the base for the works when they start.
River Don running parallel to the Aire and Calder
A longer shot across to the other side of the cut shows the pumps which are drawing the water away and into the River Don. You can see the cloudy water joining the darker waters. The whole area is water logged right now due to the amount of rain recently.
Thank you Mark for letting me use your photos again. It’ll be interesting to see the works from above when they start.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1.5 layers of wallpaper up, 2 windows, 1 doorway, 1 electric saw, 1 internal tree, 1 carpenters opinion sought, 1 day of rest, 1 router on order, 3 weeks, 20 x 20, 5.5 miles, 1 bored cat, 2 many people, 1 portacabin, 2 holes, 4C, 100% charged batteries, 1 roast chicken tonight, 1 Happy Birthday!
Writing a blog it’s interesting to see which posts seem to generate the most interest. WordPress and if I remember rightly Blogger give you information daily on views to your blog. How many views today, how many visitors, where people have come from and what if any links they have clicked on.
Thwaite Mill
Certain posts appear time and time again. Here on Oleanna the most popular post is about Thwaite Mills. This post usually gets at least one viewing a day and has stacked up 1442 viewings since I wrote it in March last year and in April this year it was viewed 151 times. This post was one of the first after we moved the blog to WordPress.
Pots of Putty
Thwaite Mills is an interesting place and very much worth a visit either by car or boat, although there is limited mooring. Here’s a link if you are interested. I suspect many views come from Google searches and not just to catch up on what we’ve been up to.
Magic
Lilllian’s blog has always been popular for the post regarding the Magic Roundabout in Hemel Hempstead, 170 views through the years since 2015. A small number of views in comparison. I think the photo of the road sign has been clicked on more times.
Lillian’s blog has had no posts posted since we handed her over to her new owners back at the end of June 2017. She normally has a trickle of views each week and sits low on the Waterways Ranking Site. So when I got a message from WordPress last week saying that her viewings were Booming! I was interested to see why.
But….what….how?!
Blimey they were Booming! On the 16th November there were 605 views by 476 visitors. What the!?! With 390 referrals from Google in a single day. Two posts were being viewed in particular, both regarding Emily Blagg.
Demolished house to make room for The Palace Theatre
Emily Blagg lived in Newark from 1887, she ran her own businesses, buying into a brick company and becoming a property developer, building houses for the local work force. She also built the local Kinema which was followed by The Palace Theatre. She then moved into producing metal pipework.
Built in 1920
Whilst we were in Newark during winter 2015/16, I did a bit of research into her and we visited several of the houses she’d built. The post Emily Blagg and The Polish has always been a popular post, but having 581 views in November out of the total of 629?!
I’ve had a look around Google to see if this November marks any anniversary for Emily Blagg but can’t find anything obvious. Maybe the interest was more to do with the Polish War graves, but pictures of Emily’s houses had been clicked on. Maybe there is a school or college doing research on Emily? Or maybe my Emily Blagg got confused with a more modern day lady who had hit the lime light for some other reason? Who knows? If you do please let me know.
Newarks War graves
All this interest in our old blog meant that Lillian gradually over the last week rose up the Waterway Ranking Site. I think she reached position 11 overall, beating this blog and many others. The 581 views are not reflected on the site as views are recorded in a different way than those on WordPress. Now that a week has passed since the mass interest Lillian’s blog will drop back down and go back to lurking towards the bottom of the ranks again. She’s already reached no 27.
Newark Cemetry
Apologies for this post, but as you know I do like numbers.
Earlier this week we were invited by my brother to join an on line presentation. The Lee Harris Bursary is awarded to a member of staff from 3DReid an architectural practice that my brother used to work for. The bursary commemorates the life of Lee Harris an architect who worked at the practice who tragically died from injuries he sustained in the 7/7 London Bombings in 2005. Inspired by Lees love of photography, travel and architecture the bursary provides an opportunity for members of staff to explore their architectural passions.
The presentation
This years winner was Thelma Mannion who proposed to travel the Llangollen Canal on a narrowboat, sketching the engineering of the canal, the aqueducts, bridges and tunnels. Originally she had hoped to do her presentation followed by an exhibition of her sketches, but Covid put a stop to that, so instead there was an online presentation which included her sketches.
Lynn and Brian, Lee’s parents were on line along with about thirty other participants. Jac (my sister-in-law, who also used to work for the practice) suggested we should make ourselves comfortable with a drink to watch, so we did.
The London Leckenbys
Using Microsoft Teams, our first time, we ended up not being able to see everyone at once, but we later rectified this. This was however the first time we have seen Andrew and Jac since last year when they joined us onboard Oleanna between Christmas and New Year. For some reason in lockdown 1 the London Leckenbys weren’t too keen on the idea of Zoom meetings, so we have stuck with the good old telephone. This and an aborted trip to York due to flooding means we’ve not seen them for nearly eleven months. It was lovely to see them again, even though it felt a touch like we were gate crashing an office do. But then when I lived in London I’d quite often turn up at the pub on a Friday night to join them all.
The presentation brought back memories of our trip back in 2017, and it turns out it is almost three years to the day since we turned off the Shropie and climbed up Huleston Locks to spend the winter on the Llangollen.
Whixall Moss Junction
Maintenance work was planned on the locks which soon closed after we’d gone through. Our trip back had to be timed to avoid other stoppages, but that’s what happens in winter and if you plan with them in mind you can keep moving.
Thelma travelled with her sister and their partners on a hire boat from Swanley Bridge Marina. A shame as I’d hoped she be starting at Hurleston and we might get a glimpse of our Lockdown Home mooring. They had the boat for a week and travelled last August to Llangollen where they walked to Horseshoe falls and marvelled at how energetic the River Dee is there.
Main points of interest to Thelma were the tunnels with their textures, the aqueducts and locks which are much smaller than you find on the Irish waterways which is where she spent most of her holidays when younger.
It was an interesting talk, even if she had them going down Grindley Brook Step Locks (Staircase) on their way up to Llangollen, and so nice to hear her enthusiasm for their trip. A very fitting way for Lee to be remembered by his colleagues. Thank you for including us.
The photos in this post are from our trip in 2017. Sifting through the hundreds I took during November, December and January it was hard to edit them down to just a few.
Beautiful
The deep snow that fell gave us one of our favourite boating days as the sun came out and we had the canal more or less to ourselves, stunningly beautiful.
Back in Scarborough work continues on the house. One living room and dining room have patched in wallpaper and fresh coats of emulsion and gloss. The room that we call the Shed has also had a freshen up, the scars of several tenants and takeaways now erased. The flower bed at the front has been cleared of gravel and plastic in the hope that our blue geraniums will return.
Next job is curtains, then we can move living rooms and have an open fire again, just so long as we can keep Tilly from climbing the chimney!
There is still plenty more to keep us busy and off the streets.
A day of not venturing far, well Tilly might have but who knows where she ends up!
A couple of days ago a C&RT stoppage had come through saying that Kilnhurst Flood Lock was out of order due to a hydraulic pipe. This almost certainly meant that Exol Pride was stuck on the far side of the lock, so yesterday when we moved we knew we’d not be bumping into a big blue boat.
Here she comes
This morning a bit before 10am another notice came through saying the lock was now operational again. Exol Pride would be on it’s way. For a narrowboat it would take 3.5 hours to do the journey, Exol most probably a bit less. So it wasn’t a surprise when about an hour later Oleanna started to move, stretching her ropes to their full extent. Around 15 minutes later we could hear the engine and sure enough the big blue bow came round the bend behind us.
Before the lock is Sprotbrough Road Bridge and a pipe bridge, for these the wheelhouse of Exol Pride is too high, so as they approached the wheelhouse sank into the depths of the boat, leaving just enough head height for the helm to be able to stay standing up.
A trip up here wouldn’t be complete without seeing Dolly Earle
About an hour later a dutch barge came past, followed by another. This one we’d been expecting to see at some point. We’ve spotted Dolly Earle every time we’ve been up this way, quite often mooring up beside them as they dry their washing, they always seem to have washing on the go.
Getting ready
Just after lunch I prepared a batch of cheese scones, Mick put chairs and our plank table up on the bank ready for our visitor.
Lovely to see Fran
Fran, Mick’s niece who lives in Sheffield came for a visit. She is an NHS physiotherapist who works with children, this morning she’d been into two schools seeing to peoples needs. We all kept our distance sat on the bank, enjoying cuppas and freshly made scones as we caught up on news of her new washing machine and family and much more.
With little sun it was a touch chilly sat outside, we’ll be getting our padded down coats out soon to have meetings like this. It was lovely to see Fran, the first of our family in the flesh this year.
Today
Once we’d tidied everything away we decided to have a short walk along the river bank, heading down stream. It takes a little while to cross the bridge as there is only one pavement and that is on the other side of the road from both the moorings and the direction we were wanting to go once we’d crossed.
On street view September 2016
A coffee van had been serving cyclists and walkers all day from the little car park opposite our mooring, but had now packed up for the day. I stopped to take a photo of Oleanna across the way. Four years ago we’d been moored in exactly the same spot when the Google car came past, both of us were stood on the bank at the time. Street view has been updated since.
The old pumping house for the Hall
We turned and walked under the bridge we’d just crossed, walked up to the lock. Alongside the huge chamber is a kind of layby where a couple of boats are, what was this used for? Was it part of the feed to the water wheel that used to power Sprotbrough Hall pumping water up to the village?
We soon came across what had been the pumping house, some wheels and cogs still visible. A sign explaining about it is really quite annoying. Full of information but highly polished silver it is next to impossible to read, taking a photo for later proved impossible and I was so occupied in just trying to read it very little of the information stuck. It did how ever make for a slightly arty photo!
Ballustrade above
One thing I do remember is that the ruin is a grade 2 listed building and the mechanism was put into storage in Barnsley for safe keeping, which now has been lost!
A rather grand affair
Sprotbrough Hall was built for the Copley family in 1670 and remained in the family by hook or by cousins for many a generation. It was a Jacobean house with some influence from Versaille. The Hall and estate were sold off in 161 lots in 1925, FS Gowland from Ripon bought the hall with 115 acres of land for £9100.
1892, the hall and gardens
By 1926 the hall was being demolished, the rubble used to fill the cellar and excess stone was used as foundations for houses in Brompton Road. Much of the village is now built on the Halls estate. Little remains of the original house, the stable yard remains now apartments and looking up from the river bank we could see the ballustraded viewing area which was directly infront of the hall. A very interesting article with photos can be found here.
1966 there is now another estate above Lover’s Leap
We continued our walk to the A1 bridge, traffic hurtling across above us at speed, I wonder what it was like back in April stood on the river bank when there was so much less traffic.
A footpath took us up into the village where we weaved our way around the roads where once the hall had stood. At the methodist church the railings were festooned with blue ribbons, each one marking a life lost in a Doncaster hospital from Covid-19.
I so hope no more will be added
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 niece, 2 lovely hours, 12 scones, 3 consumed, 9 left oh dear! 1 walk, 1 hour setting up, 8 hours shore leave, 1 problem solved, 1 big quiche, 3 big boats, 9.
This house looks like it’s straight out of a period drama
Bramwith Junction to Sprotbrough Visitor Moorings, Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation
Blue skies and blue canal
A slow sunny start to the day, we pushed off a little after 11 and headed for Barnby Dun. The canal rippled silver as we made our way. Only one boat moored here, it’s always been busy. We pulled in to deal with rubbish, empty the yellow water tank and fill with water. Our chosen mooring today would hopefully have a recycling bin so we kept hold of such things for later.
Looking back at Barnby Dun Lift Bridge
Chores done we untied and I headed to work the lift bridge. This is a busy bridge with traffic coming from two roads on the panel side and the road bending round on the other. I waited for there to be no one in sight or within hearing distance before I turned the key and pressed the button. A second after the button was pressed (and held) a black car sped up towards the bridge, was it going to screech to a halt? The thought passed through the drivers mind, but even though the wigwag lights were flashing the car sped up. I released the button straight away. The barriers here are made up of two parts one for each carriageway, the enter barrier drops first followed by the exit. Maybe the car would have cleared the barrier in time, but I didn’t want to risk it.
A calm round of golf for this chap
Once the car was clear, along with one following! I applied pressure again to the button and the bridge did it’s thing. Around 16 patient car and van drivers were held up. This is the nearest I’ve been to someone zooming through barriers.
At Kirk Sandall the housing estate that has been planned for years is going up. The rubble across the way from St Oswald’s Church is now housing. The once lonely church seems to be being surrounded. The church is only open a few days a year but is well worth a look round as we did back in 2016, the next open days are the 19th and 20th September.
I suppose you don’t have to wait for plastic to grow!
Several of the new houses over look the canal an original stone wall being the limit to their gardens and big wooden fences give privacy to one another. The end house seems to wanted the view but then planted plastic ivy up their railings for modesty purposes!
Lock ahead
Another mile on and we could just see the lights at Long Sandall Lock. Red. Then red and green. A volunteer Lockie had spotted us and was setting the lock for us. With the centre line round a bollard we rose up gradually to the Doncaster level.
This was where we were wanting to moor for the next couple of nights, but unless we got the two boats to really nudge up tight and then overhang the moorings a touch there wasn’t space for us. A change of plan was needed and we’d be hanging onto our recycling for a few days longer.
Doncaster was our next option, not so good for Tilly, but she’d have to cope. Approaching Strawberry Island there were big earth works going on opposite. A large pontoon floated a welfare hut and diggers trundled back and forth. Up by the next bridge a very large full skip boat was being pushed past an empty one. We slowed our pace to below tickover as they winded and returned.
Dark photo of the skip being winded
The Environment Agency are bolstering up the river bank here as it very nearly got washed away in the November floods last year. £1.6 million is being spent here to repair a 40 meter slip of the flood defence embankment. Over 100 individual repairs were identified on the flood defences in South Yorkshire and £12.8 million is being spent to help protect around 6000 properties.
The visitor moorings came into view. They were full too! How come everyone wants to be in Doncaster all of a sudden?! Removing git gaps here would have only created about 35 to 40 foot, so nowhere near enough for Oleanna. Stocking up from the wonderful Doncaster deli would have to wait and we’d have to carry on upstream to find a mooring.
Big locks now, all key operated and no gongoozlers standing watching over your shoulder as access to these big locks is restricted. These all automatically refill, which is great coming down stream, but it takes time to empty them. No real hardship as all it takes is a two second push on a button and then time. Mick pulled Oleanna away from the lock and waited mid stream as the East Coast Main Line trains rumbled over my head.
Don’t go that way
Now out onto the River Don. More flood defence works could be seen and several groups of high-vis clad men stood pointing at the timbers at the entrance to the weir.
Doncaster railway bridge
Trees and high bridges brought us up to Sprotbrough Lock. A fisherman was just packing up on the pontoon, just as well as there would have been no avoiding him. An old chap stood and watched and then chatted to Mick as I walked up opened the gate to the lock and proceeded to empty it. This old fella walks ten miles a day with the aid of his walking stick, a stretch of the river from one bridge to the next and back again. Winter months he doesn’t venture quite so far.
Setting off for the lock
Up the lock we hoped for a space, it was way past lunchtime now and both of us were feeling peckish. Only two boats to be seen, plenty of space for us and a much nicer place to be than Doncaster, phew!
Tilly set off to explore the island whilst we had our lunch. Then we tuned in to listen to see what Mr Johnson had to say. Covid-19 cases have been rising so the ‘rule of 6’ is going to be enforced by law. Local restrictions may now include curfews should they be needed. They want to ramp up testing (haven’t they always!) and hope to have a test which will give results in 20 minutes, which would allow those with a negative result to lead a more normal life, which might just include visits to theatres! Well we’ll see if this world beating ‘moonshot’ will come off or end up failing.
Little boat in big lock
Trials at sport events will be cancelled for the time being. Today one such event was at Doncaster races, tomorrow there will be no spectators. Maybe that’s why all the visitor moorings were full?!
3 locks, 1 lift bridge, 16 held up, 1 boy racer, 9.04 miles, 2 moorings full, 3rd time lucky, 1 batch garlic mustard and cheese crackers, 10, 1 quinoa quiche base, 1 macaroni cheese with extras, 0 visit to Scicluna, 0 tapioca starch, 0 treat cheese, 7 flies still, 1 spider.
Once breakfast was over it was time to make a move upstream. We have done the route into York on Lillian twice, however I know the river better from the banks on this side of the city. This is where I grew up, over looking the river which I was taught to respect from a very early age. Things change, but along this stretch only the trees seem to grow bigger and higher than in my childhood. The advantage of living beside a flood plain is no new chimneyless houses have popped up.
Lines of cruisers
From Naburn the riverside moorings are full of white shiny cruisers all their pointy noses facing upsteam. Acaster Malbis has houses to match with big gardens stretching down to the river.
York Marina busy
There were tents and gazebos at York Marina and they seemed to be doing a roaring trade, most probably in teas and coffees overlooking the river.
The wire sculpture of a fisherman and his dog on Naburn Railway Bridge
We tried checking the price for diesel on their pump, but as it serves both petrol and diesel I couldn’t tell which cost £1.65 a litre! We’ll hang on till Boroughbridge.
The west bank of the river now becomes more interesting, lots of different sorts of boats, all the moorings individual clinging onto the high bank. In some places it’s like a shanty town, it must take years, decades to collect the stuff some have piled high. Others have new swiss style sheds that have sprung up during lockdown, their fresh yellow wood waiting for the winter to be toned down by nature.
Archbishops Palace. We used to walk down the east bank with the dogs and stand and look at the Palace. At 7 or 8 I never thought about who lived there, but today neither of us knew who the new Archbishop of York was, I had to look it up! We knew John Sentamu had retired after 15 years, now Stephen Cottrell is the 98th Archbishop, I believe he took on the position early in the summer. Four years ago scarecrows stood in the riverside garden, today it just looked neat.
Not the nicest bridge to cross the river
The A64 then crosses the river, I remember the days before this was built and then the gradual increase in traffic across it which could be heard from our house, it also supposedly blocked out the tiny view of the palace from my parents bedroom. A brave runner ran against the traffic high above us, then she popped up again on the east bank keeping pace with us as we headed upstream.
Fulford Hall
Fulford Hall, now apartments sits on the bend where the trip boats used to wind. Then I could just make out Landing Lane (Lovers Lane when I was a kid) between the trees. My Dad in his latter years felt he’d achieved a good walk if he reached the benches here for a rest, I think Bramble his dog was glad of the rest too, accompanied by a restorative square of liver cake Dad made especially for her. He was also very popular with all the other local woofers.
Wonder if they were looking for the penny Harald dropped in 1066
Today two chaps were magnet fishing off the little beach here. This is where the Battle of Fulford took place in 1066. King Harald III of Norway and Tostig Godwinson, his English ally, fought and defeated the Northern Earls Edwin and Morcar in September that year. It is estimated that 1650 died in the battle, so there may be interesting things to find on the river bed. Recently Fulford Parish Council had a crowdfunding attempt to buy some of the land for the community. But sadly even though they reached their target their funds were out bid at auction. I hope the new owner realises what they have.
There it is
Just a short distance on it was time to very gently coast upstream. We kept our eyes peeled for a house set back, peeking above the friendly cover on the banks. To either side of my family home are big houses, my Dad’s house much smaller, but somehow, my Dad’s is the only one you can get a clear view of from the river. The window visible is my parents bedroom, the room where I was born.
Fenwicks Lane in 2013
In the last year or so the current owner has added a bedroom to the back and altered the conservatory, as part of the building works new larch cladding has replaced the old original wood which had darkened with age. The house my Dad designed and built is still there.
Millennium Bridge
Onwards to the Millenium Bridge a possible mooring that needed checking out. We’ll need to be a touch creative with our mooring as other than a chain there is nothing to tie to. We checked the depth and that was good too, the fact that we’d be moored close to a chilled medication boat has nothing what-so-ever to do with it!
Now we were joined on the river by trip boats and day hires doing circles. We managed to avoid them.
The blue of Blue Bridge just visible
The Blue Bridge over the end of the River Foss has recently been away for restoration and it looks like a temporary bridge had been installed. The Foss Barrier behind is sadly closed due to work being carried out on it, we’d been toying with a little trip up as far as you can get, but that will have to wait for another time.
A classy car
We spotted a weather vein on top of my best friend Emma’s house, sure this wasn’t there when the Snowdons were residence.
If anyone fancies buying us a big present one day
A rather lovely looking Dutch Barge sits on the Clementhorpe bank. If we were ever to win the Lottery we would love to own one of these for the large waterways. Their lines are just so lovely, of course we would keep Oleanna meaning we could still climb over the Pennines.
Skeldergate Bridge, which recently we found out that the northern most arch used to have a lifting section to it to allow taller boats access to the busy quaysides upstream, this last opened in 1975. Originally a toll bridge which replaced a busy ferry it opened in 1881 and was designed by Thomas Page, it was the third modern bridge in the city. The bridge became toll free in 1914, the citizens of York were so happy they held a regatta to celebrate.
Kings Staith was busy as always, well apart from when it’s flooded! All the trip boats and hire boats were out and plenty of people were sat out enjoying the sunshine. Here is another possible mooring, but with ladders to climb to get on and off Oleanna we are unlikely to use it.
Ouse Bridge, image from the internet
Under Ouse Bridge the oldest of the bridges in York. This is where the first bridge across the Ouse stood in the ninth century. Several versions have followed including one that in 1367 had the first public toilets in the country installed. The current Ouse Bridge was built in 1821.
York Press used to be printed here
The back of Coney Street, the main shopping street from my youth follows along. The old printworks for the York Press and the Mansion House all back onto the river before Lendal Bridge, another crossing designed by Thomas Page.
This was the second bridge to cross the river, its original foundation stone was laid in 1860, during it’s construction disaster struck and it collapsed killing five men. The bridge was rebuilt to Thomas Page’s design and opened in 1863. The new bridge put the Lendal ferryman out of business, he was paid compensation of £15 and a horse and cart.
How did that picture get in there?!
The moorings along the bottom of Museum Gardens is the most popular place to tie up in York, nothing to do with the other chilled medication boat being moored here. Today we’d have managed to squeeze in, but here was not our chosen mooring for the day, we still had quite a few miles to go.
Scarborough Railway Bridge
A trip boat had pulled out ahead of us and now took it’s time to give it’s commentary on the Scarborough Railway Bridge, with it’s new footbridge that leads into the station platforms. Past the bridge the trip boat sped up and we followed until it reached Clifton Bridge where it winded, giving it’s horn signal mid manoeuvre!
Winding at Clifton Bridge
The river is now surrounded by willow trees, many having shed large branches into the water, luckily most still attached to the bank so not a hazard to us today. Under Skelton Railway Bridge which takes the East Coast Main Line up towards Newcastle and Edinburgh, no trains obliged for a photo.
Kingfishers were about again today, darting across the rivers surface keeping us amused whilst nothing much else could be seen. Then a few trees other than willows showed on the banks of the river, a house and then a tight turn to the right where the River Nidd joins the Ouse and sandy banks encourage dogs and children to swim. Here is the boundary to Beningborough Park in which sits Beningborough Hall a National Trust property we visited in 2014 .
We were surprised to see the pontoon for The Dawnay Arms empty on a Friday afternoon, but then again they are closed during the afternoon. Here’s hoping it is empty on our return as we’ll be stopping to treat ourselves to a meal here.
Fishing waist deep
Below Linton Lock the river widens out and is very shallow. Buoys mark the shallow water and fishermen were taking advantage to wade their way out to tempt the fish to their lines. I hopped off at the pontoon and walked up to set the lock.
Wheels, paddles raised
The mechanism for the bottom gate paddles is an unusual one. Horizontal wheels on the gates need to be turned to raise the paddle below the water. This takes quite some time to do, then the lock takes quite a while to empty. Once I was certain it had levelled out it was time to open the gate. This is windlass operated so if your arms weren’t tired enough from turning the wheels they would be by the time you’d got the gate shifted. I’ve made a mental note to try the other gate when we come back as it may not rest on the ground quite as much, hopefully it will be easier.
Oleanna all the way over there
Then there is everything to close up before you start filling the lock, those wheels to spin closed and the gate to wind shut. I looked longingly at the large cool glasses of beer sat in front of people by the lock, they looked so good!
The position of the ground paddles is quite a distance away from the lock, this makes it impossible to see what is happening as you raise the paddle. With no sight of Mick or Oleanna I wound the paddle several times then checked over the gate, a bit more, check again, a bit more and so on. I think it increased my steps for the day. Slowly Oleanna rose, still quite a distance down in the lock when the levels equalised.
Rising in Linton Lock
We’d been hoping for a space on the visitor pontoon here. Two cruisers seemed to be taking up most of the space, but was there more room further on. Mick headed off whilst I closed up the lock. Just after the cruisers was a space big enough for us, even if the pontoon ran out and we’d be overhanging the slipway, it would do for us tonight.
1 lock, 15.71 miles, 1 palace, 9 bridges, 1 birth place, 1 Daddy Fatso house still there, 1 day reminiscing, 2 moorings checked out, 2 chilled medication boats, 1 sunny day, 1 home city, 1 table booked, 2 wheels, 0 view, 1 boat squeezed in, 1 very late lunch, 0 shore leave, 5 Kingfishers, 300+ photos today.
Oleanna had a touch of a list on this morning, but once the boat in front of us headed to the lock above and emptied it the surge of water levelled us out. Well that was until the next boat came up the lock below which then came past at quite a speed, however that didn’t really matter as we were on the bottom anyway.
Highlander Lock
Around about 11am we pushed off hoping that any showers had passed, but keeping our waterproofs near by. A widebeam had only shortly come up the lock but it needed a good top up before I could open the gates. A chilled medication stand stood next to the lock a chap busying himself inside, but he wasn’t open much to my disappointment. It would have been hard to open and close gates and paddles with one anyway.
Ahead at the next lock there was a boat coming up, meaning gates could be left. Here there was a right gathering of eager windlass operators, one lady winding up the top paddle as the gates closed! She soon realised her mistake and dashed to the bottom gates. I didn’t have to do a thing other than chat.
Bye bye Gargrave
Below a short boat and a couple of narrowboats were waiting so it was just as well I’d decided to walk on to our next and last lock for a while. NB Kindred Spirit was just setting up to sell chilled medication too and the weather vain was hoping it had hit a six.
Holme Bridge Lock 30 has the busy A65 crossing it just below. This is the first lock most hire boats will encounter after they have picked their boat up. I remember on NB Rosie walking round and unlocking all the handcuffs with a key attached to a small buoy provided by Silsden Boats.
Green!
The bottom gate beams have writing carved into them. This is one of the four sites that were chosen in the inaugural year of Canal and River Trust to have lines of commissioned poems carved into them. Here Ian McMillan’s words were carved by Peter Coats. The other gates in this series are at Hillmorton Locks 4 and 5 on the Oxford Canal, Milnsbridge Lock 9E on the Huddersfield Narrow and Farmers Bridge Lock 8 on the BCN. More information can be found here.
Down we went the leaky top gates getting the stern of Oleanna a touch wet. Just as I’d opened the gates a voice shouted up from below asking to leave them open, no problem, I’d be happy to. Below were two boats, one a hire boat with it’s novice crew, nervous of what was to come, the chap from the other boat suggesting their front doors should be closed, very wise.
Illegal green
The valley now is wider, fields roll off in all directions. The recently cut grass glowing out from all around. When I was at college I once designed a set of costumes for a ballet and included this colour in four of my drawings. But my tutor, Sue told me off. These four dancers (part of the corps de ballet) would totally pull focus, up stage everyone else and everything on stage. She called this colour Illegal Green and I was never to use it unless it’s natural abilities were required! So far I’ve succeeded in avoiding it.
Canoes in the way
Now with the locks behind us for a while, swing bridges take over. There are many along this pound of the Leeds Liverpool. In the past they have never got the better of me, but sadly this was not going to be the case today.
Waiting for the canoes to clear
Highgate Swing Bridge just would not budge. A group on canoists were approaching from the other side, two had already ducked under the others waited for me to open the bridge. I explained they could wait ten minutes whilst Mick came to give a shove from the towpath or they could limbo underneath. They chose the latter, although one chap did give me quite a filthy look.
It took a while for Mick to tie up and come and assist. All it took was an extra push from the towpath side to get it moving, then I was okay. Under where the bridge sits when closed to boats there was loads of mud. As I shut it I could hear it sucking onto the structure and holding it firm again.
Letting other boats through
In contrast Thorlby Swing bridge was so easy, I could have moved it with just one hand. Two boats were coming towards us here so I waited to let them through.
Then Niffany Swing Bridge! This bridge sits alongside the A6069 on a bit of a bend. On the offside is a farm and caravan site so it gets used quite a bit.
Niffany B**tard Bridge
I unlocked the handcuff and started to swing it, except it stalled after about a foot. I tried pushing it back to take a run up, but it was stuck fast on what lay below it. Mick would have to come and assist again from the towpath. He didn’t need to do much before the bridge started to move again. Of course just as we’d got it moving a motorcaravan turned up wanting to turn off the road. I was not going to close the bridge and have to reopen it.
A lady jumped out and waited for the bridge to close again. She crossed over as I started to try to close the handcuff again. As she stood and watched me, just a little bit too close, I felt under even more pressure to get the lock back in place. The chain didn’t play ball, then the screw didn’t engage. I was about to give up, but tried again whilst I was watched and commented at. At last it was locked. As I walked across the bridge the lady had to double check my work which I’m afraid got my back up. ‘It’s as locked as ever it will be!’ The bridge wouldn’t move anyway without a lot of sideways movement.
A bit closer
Now the gardens of Skipton joined us, someone has added a sign post to their display.
A new development of apartments sits by the canal just recently finished by the looks. Bland photographs of the interiors, but the building has a nice modern feel outside whilst sitting well in it’s surroundings. £159,000 will get you two bedrooms and a parking space, First floor £180,000.
New apartments
As we approached Gawflat Swing Bridge, a busy pedestrian crossing, a chap stood up and pushed it open for us. It turns out that the bridge has become quite stiff and some people may have injured themselves so now C&RT are operating it, shame they weren’t doing this at the others we’d had problems with.
Gawflat Swing Bridge being swung for us
We pulled in to fill with water and I walked ahead to look for a space. We hoped the two Silsden Hire boats would maybe pull off before our tank was full. But both boats were padlocked shut and no signs of life, they’d stopped for more than just lunch. No other space available before Brewery Swing Bridge.
The towpath was very busy so in the end we decided to take the advice from the other boat that was filling up and to move back through the bridge behind us a little further out of town where there was plenty of space. So the chap at the bridge did his thing again. I stood at the front just incase we needed to push off from the bridge as the wind was pushing us about quite a bit.
Sadly for Tilly there is a road within 30 ft of us so no shore leave today. We’ll just have to cope with a sulky cat, or maybe go out and avoid her complaining.
3 locks, 4 swing bridges 1 twice, 1 motorcaravan held up, 1 annoying lady, 1 full water tank, 1 bucket on the roof, 1 illegally green world, 1 mardy cat.
