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
Sykehouse Junction to Bramwith Junction, Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation
Well overnight those little blood sucking b**tards made a feast of me, by the end of today I could count ten bites. The only one that wasn’t complaining was the one I saw happen so I applied cream to the area straight away which most probably helped greatly. I don’t think I’ve been eaten so much since I was a child!
A good vantage point
It was raining when we woke so we decided to let Tilly judge when we should move on today. The back doors opened for her to head off and explore. But she really couldn’t be bothered with getting soggy so early in the day, so she went straight back to bed.
River Went Aqueduct
The weather improved and by 11 we were rolling back the covers and getting ready to push off to cruise from one end of the New Junction Canal to the other. Opening in 1905 the canal was jointly funded by the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation and the Aire and Calder Navigation. It links the River Don Navigation, Stainforth and Keadby Canal to the Aire and Calder and was the last waterway to be built in England for commercial purposes. It stretches 5.5 miles and is dead straight, however this doesn’t mean it’s plane sailing as there are 6 bridges and 1 lock to operate. It looks like originally there were another two bridges now long since gone.
Commercial traffic still works these waters with Exol Pride running oil between Hull and Rotherham. Mick had noticed on vessel finder that the big blue boat had set off for Hull today, we assume they’ll return to Goole tomorrow and then head up the canal Wednesday.
Went End Footbridge
Once winded we crossed the Went Aqueduct passing under one of two footbridges on the canal that didn’t require any action from us. With nobody behind us today we’d not be leapfrogging our way along.
Going up
Soon at Sykehouse Road Lift Bridge I hopped off with the key of power. Waiting for a gap in traffic is all fine when you can see both ways, but from the control panel you can only see for about 20 foot either side. When crossing the road I’d noticed a car being overtaken and could still hear the engine running, however it wasn’t getting any closer. I’d expected it to have passed by now, so I had to walk back up onto the bridge and take a peek, there was the car, closer than before, still in the middle of the road with people stood round it chatting. It wouldn’t be coming anytime soon, so time to push the buttons. I held up 3 vehicles here.
One coming through
At Kirk Lane Road Swing Bridge we could see the barriers coming down, closing the bridge to road traffic, someone was coming the other way, we sped up hoping they’d see us. Once swung the bow of their boat came into view, the chap at the helm spotting us and relaid the information to the button presser. 0 vehicles were held up here.
Sykehouse Lock
The amber light was lit at Sykehouse Lock, meaning it was on self service. This lock is often manned and on the several occasions we’ve been through I’ve only had to operate it once.
This lock is operated with the key of power, as most locks round here, but it does have one difference it has three control panels and a swing bridge right over the middle of it.
Central panel
Your key goes in the central panel, which doesn’t have any buttons on it, but once turned your key is retained until all is closed again.
Swing Bridge open to the lock
A click can be heard from the road barriers for the swing bridge. These are manually pushed round until they lock in position closing the track that crosses the lock. You then lift the locking latch and swing the bridge out of the way until it locks into another latch. This completes a circuit which enables the lock now to be operated, the two panels, one either end illuminating.
The chamber was empty so I opened the gates and Mick brought Oleanna in, he hung back and passed a rope around a bollard whilst I closed the gates and then walked up to the other end to the panel there. The lock is 215ft long, Oleanna seemed a very long way away.
Button pressed and held for 2 seconds and the sluices started to open, they do this in stages until fully opened. Once full the Water Level light illuminates and you can open the gates, letting your boat out.
Sluices closed, gates closed. Time to lift the latch on the swing bridge to be able to close it again. This releases the locked barriers. Once the bridge is back in it’s latch and the barriers are opened the central panel gives a little click meaning your key can be retrieved again.
0 vehicles were held up here, 2 cyclists stopped for a banana break before retracing their route southwards.
Once a swing bridge
The next bridge is around 1.75 miles away, but along this stretch there used to be two more bridges, one obviously was a swing bridge, the other has left little if any evidence of it’s existence.
Lift
Kirkhouse Green Lift Bridge, I managed to get 6 vehicles here.
Another coming through
Top Lane Lift Bridge, the barriers came down as we got close, another boat coming through. We were waved on and passed under thanking the lady at the panel and only holding up 1 .
Swinging the last bridge
At Low Lane Swing Bridge you need to use your ears as the road bends round either side out of view. I couldn’t hear anyone approaching so pressed the button to open. Here we held up 2 vans.
Don Doors
Ahead were the Don Doors. These are two guillotine gates that are lowered at either end of the Don Aqueduct when the river below goes into flood. The aqueduct in normal times is full to the brim, any excess water spills over the sides down into the Don.
Aqueduct brimming
The last bridge is a footbridge over the canal just after the Don Doors, no key of power required here.
Footbridge and Mick
By now the sky was getting very dark again and the wind had picked up. After a couple of loads of washing yesterday we were wanting a top up, so we turned left towards Bramwith Lock where there is a water point just above it.
Approaching the junction
The tank filled as the heavens opened. A narrowboat came up the lock with the assistance of a C&RT Lockie. This chap is in charge of volunteers in the area. Last year they had 8, this year there are now 30 volunteer lock keepers and rangers, he’s kept very busy training them all.
Not wanting to descend the lock, we also didn’t want to get pinned against it’s top gates by the wind, so Mick decided to reverse back up to the junction before winding. We then pulled in to the towpath, tied up and let Tilly out. Well she wasn’t too pleased that it was raining and hung back for a while. Then she was off to stare into the friendly cover.
1 lock, 5.46 miles plus a little bit, 2 winds, 1 left, 3 lift bridges, 3 swing bridges, 2 footbridges, 12 held up, 2 worked for us, 0 leapfrogging/hopscotching, 4 hours, 1 steady internet connection, 1 hour homework, 1 hour setting up, 1 blustery wet day, 1 full tank, 1 load washing, 2 much drying inside, 1st performance at VET after lockdown, 10 bites itching, 24 hourly pill, 1 tube of anthisan!
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.
Paul the weatherman hadn’t mentioned rain this morning! We decided to sit and wait it out for a while hoping it would dry up. Three boats came past us before we were ready to push off, the last two were paired up. One of the ladies said that there was a boat following them, so we should have a partner for the locks today.
Waiting our turn
We waited for them to descend and then filled the lock back up for us. With the gates open I could now swing the bridge just above the lock, the other boat had just arrived dropping off crew as they came.
Bridge
The swing bridge was easy to move, it was just when I pushed it shut that I had a problem, the locking latch didn’t want to lift back in to lock it. I tried pushing the gate again, but was needing to lift the latch at the same time, impossible for one person to do. Luckily I’d delayed a couple of walkers who I enlisted to push the bridge whilst I held the latch up, job done, thank you.
Hirst Lock
The smell from the bakery was wonderful this morning, the wind in just the right direction. We dropped down the lock and headed on our way, our locking companions said they’d be stopping in Shipley so we’d be on our own again.
Saltaire Mills
On past the textile mills of Saltaire, now galleries, offices and residencies. The history of the Italianate alpaca mill can be found Here. Sadly mooring in the shadow of the mills is restricted to 6 hours during the day, no overnighting here, not that that was our aim for the day, we still had quite a distance to travel.
A few small cottages back onto the canal, their stonework still blackened from the smog created by industry long gone. These take me back to visiting my Grandparents house in Thornton, Bradford, an old school house with an outside loo.
Poolting on through Shipley we passed an old arm, crying out for redevelopment of the mill, it would create extra moorings too in a town where visitors only have a few places to pull in. Our locking companions managed to pull in opposite some permanent moorings were a Valley Cruises day boat was tied up, the company having stopped trading in Coventry last year.
Easy to swing
Dock Lane Swing Bridge is now operated with the help of the key of power. Back in 2014 you had to drop barriers and then stand on the bridge to turn it with a windlass, very heavy work which I passed on to Mick. But today with only a couple of buttons to press the job is an easy one.
Minimal List crew
On through Oddies Swing Bridge to Buck Hill Swing Bridge which had just been opened. A boat on the other side was having difficulty manoeuvring to get through the bridge hole, but the lady managed it and the chap kindly held the bridge open for us. After we’d passed the penny dropped, NB Perseverance is the Minimal List vloggers boat. I follow them on Instagram so knew they’d been on the Chesterfield Canal earlier this year.
At Field 3 Locks we caught up with the two boats ahead of us. They were just descending the first chamber of the staircase. There was time for chats as the boats worked their way down from one chamber to the next. We waited for the boats to be in the bottom chamber before we lifted the paddles at the top of the staircase. A check of the level in the middle chamber to make sure it was in the green before we started to fill it from the top chamber.
The top chamber of Field 3
The middle chamber has two overflow spills, the bottom has one. One of them is close to the top, skimming off excess water when the level reaches it, but the other two have openings a few feet from the top. This puzzled me for a while until I had a closer look at where they join the bywash.
These may start off low in the lock chambers but the spillway (for want of a better word) angle upwards towards the by wash. So as the chamber fills the water gradually rises up the spillway and once it reaches the top the excess water flows over into the by wash until both chambers are level and the gates can be opened.
Looking back at the 3 rise
With a good half hour before we’d reach the next staircase we decided to have lunch on the go, first though was Strangford Swing Bridge. This gives access to a large Yorkshire Water processing plant that stretches for quite a distance. I then ducked below to make a cuppa each and lunch. I’d just resurfaced (the quick boiling electric kettle helped) as we approached the next swing bridge which was open, hooray, my crispbreads wouldn’t go soggy. Except the bridge closed, oh well!
Yorkshire Water on the other side
Dobson 2 Locks was busy. One of the boats from in front of us was waiting on the lock landing and explained that when they arrived there had been a boat waiting for a partner to go down, they’d been waiting an hour. So with the knowledge that we were following the pair infront of us split up.
C&RT chap blocking off a broken ground paddle
Two boats were rising, a C&RT chap was helping. One of the boats had been having difficulty, their well deck had been filling with water from the leaking gates. This had risen to such a height that it was starting to flow into the cabin!! The C&RT chap stopped them thankfully. He instructed them to remove the bags of coal and stuff that were blocking the drain holes in their well deck and to CLOSE the front doors.
Our turn going down
As they rose the two chaps at the back chatted away to each other. Both myself and the C&RT chap spotted that one of the boats was right against the bottom gates and was about to catch his tiller under the paddle gear. Both of us shouted for him to move forward and quickly. The same thing happened in the next chamber to the same chap! Not a care in the world, one chap stood on his cabin roof to take photos as they left the lock, the other chap too busy chatting to notice he was steering straight towards Oleanna’s bow. Thank goodness the C&RT chap had been there otherwise there might have been a sunken boat or two!
Thank you
Down we went with the assistance of the friendly chap in blue, he’d only come to the workshop above the lock to cut a couple of pieces of wood! Our two boats descended the staircase without incident and passed through Millman Swing Bridge holding up around 18 cars and vans, a record for this trip.
Mick had rung ahead to see if Apperley Bridge Marina might be open for diesel, but unless the caretaker happened to be about they were closed today. No rush to top up, we can last a while longer, so we carried on towards Rodley where we planned to moor for the night.
Neighbours for the night
Moored up and tyre fenders deployed to keep us afloat, Tilly headed off through the fence with large signs asking people not to throw their dog pooh bags over it, we wondered if they’d mind cat pooh!
During the day we’d had a phone call from the Lock Keeper at Selby, dates for a passage up to Naburn were discussed and we are booked in. Here’s hoping the weather stays fine and the river behaves.
This afternoon we had passed out the other side of the Bradford covid zone where extra lockdown measures are in place. Mick popped across to the new posh housing estate on the other side of the River Aire to the convenience store for a bottle of wine. After an early meal we walked down into Rodley to meet up with our friends Graham and Tracey.
Tracey works in marketing and has been working through lockdown, Graham designs and builds theatre sets, is a lighting designer and production manager whom I used to work with a lot. At times Graham and I spent more time together than we did with our other halves. If the pandemic hadn’t come along we’d have been working together on a couple of projects this year.
A lovely evening in the garden
Graham has kept himself busy during Lockdown and has built them a wonderful garden room on two levels with plants already climbing the posts and rope light back lighting a step. A lovely place to spend a couple of hours in very good company, drinking maybe a little bit too much wine, all socially spaced.
6 locks, including 2 staircases, 7.46 miles, 8 swing bridges, 18 held up, 2 swung for us, 1 hour shore leave , 1 cat not impressed, 1 bottle, 1 damp grey day, 1 lovely evening, 2 good friends, 1 garden room to covet.
Foulridge Wharf to GreenHill DonkeyRose Bush Mooring
Foulridge Wharf
My sour dough starter might have been left a touch too long between feeds in the fridge. I got it out a few days ago and have been doing my best to encourage it to bubble up. I’ve reduced the size of it to help with flour consumption, keeping the ratios the same as before hoping for little discard. But it’s sleepy so I’ve had a discard jar on the go. I won’t be baking bread or pizza until it bucks it’s ideas up but the discard does make good pancakes! Add a few blueberries and well, yum.
Pancakes!
Our Sainsburys delivery was half an hour early, which we didn’t mind and the only thing missing from it was the price of one box of wine, we got the red wine we just weren’t charged for it, Bonus!
Stocking up
As I worked my way through sorting the shopping Mick topped up the water tank as our long hose reached the tap from our mooring. The Billy crew had come through the tunnel this morning and had enjoyed a breakfast at the Cargo Cafe. We’d considered one ourselves, an evening meal a few years ago had been very nice, but pancakes needed to be made so as not to waste that sour dough discard.
NB Billy came past, leapfrogging or hopscotching us again. I suspect we’ll be passing them tomorrow.
A load of washing finished in the machine and it was time to leave our neighbours, a grey boat who likes to run his genny and engine til quite late and NB Elvira who it turns out reads the blog, Hello!
Lancashire
Our cruising will slow down now, there are more moorings to choose from and views to enjoy and hopefully people to catch up with. So we checked our map and chose a mooring we hoped would be free.
Busy at the pooh plant
The sewage works that sit a short distance away is having major work done. The round settling pits look to have gone and there were diggers, all sorts on site. Wagons had been passing us at the wharf every hour or so for the last day. Yorkshire Water are upgrading their waste water treatment processes, enabling them to remove more phosphorus from the water before it heads back into rivers.
Mick in Lancashire, Pip in Yorkshire
At Bridge 149 we looked over our shoulder, a sign welcoming you to Lancashire, we were almost at the border. A stream coming down from the hill is the border and a white sign marks the place.
The border sign behind us
This border has moved around through the centuries and it wiggles around quite a lot here too, but we class this as the Border. Back in Yorkshire by boat after more than a year.
Yorkshire
Another half mile and we kept our eyes peeled for the mooring. Mick spied a couple of bollards on a high wall, that was it. We pulled in carefully so that I could get the bow rope around the first bollard, a pesky rose bush in the way made this a touch difficult. To get the stern in an Andy manoeuvre was called for, but this would have been quite painful for me and the cratch cover. We managed to get close enough into the side and then the sheers came out to do a bit of pruning, the bow rope could then be tied up.
Spiky mooring
A quick check for feline hazards, none other than a lot of bikes, the doors were opened and Tilly set free for the afternoon whilst the sun did it’s thing drying the washing on the whirligig.
Different play mates today. A donkey to ride on and some geese who had funny noses. She thinks they are Swan Geese, but that doesn’t make sense. Anyhow, none of them minded me sitting on the wall watching them, although they were a touch rude sticking their tongues out at me every now and again!
On the cat walk
This outside has several catwalks, all at different levels. These turned out to be quite useful when woofers came by, they could smell me but not see me! There were also some holes which needed me to stick my arm down, but I didn’t find anyone or thing there.
Our mooring for the night
With my flattish starter not rising enough for pizza I popped a gammon joint in the oven to bake, thinly sliced potatoes for dauphinoise, a kind of Christmas Eve meal to celebrate being back in Yorkshire.
One clean and tidy drawer
0 locks, 1.54 miles, 1 full water tank, 1 load washing, 1 clean pooh box, 3 boxes, 1 free, 11 bags shopping, 1 rendez vous arranged, 80% hire boats, 5.5 hours, 5 swan geese, 1 chocolate donkey, 1 happy cat again, 1 cupboard and 4 drawers cleaned and sorted, 0 bin bags needed for a year, 2 happy boaters back in Yorkshire.
Barrowford Locks to Foulridge Wharf Visitor Moorings
A slow start to the day, a slow breakfast with no shore leave for Tilly, she quickly accepted this and went back to bed. The boat behind us had gone up the flight on his own and one boat had come down, so we were lucky that the bottom lock was empty and waiting for us.
Barrowford Locks
11:15 we pushed off, I walked up to the bottom lock of the flight only to find that the handy little bridge that used to span the bywash has vanished and the route now is blocked. There was a well worn footpath up the next lock so at least I wasn’t stranded on the off side.
Swapping with the first hire boat of the day
A bit of levelling was required before I could open the bottom gate, by which time I could see that a boat was just entering the lock above. It took a little while before Oleanna was settled in the lock and I was able to lift a ground paddle, above the lock was already emptying, the water running straight down and around the bywash. We were about half way up when a boat approached from below, NB Billy.
Helping NB Billy up
We swapped locks with the downhill hire boat and then awaited Billy before entering the second lock in the flight. Clare and Sarah were on their own, Pete and Steve having gone to move their car, they would be returning to join us by bike.
Oleanna smiling
Fortunately there was just enough water in the pound to fill the lock without Oleanna going aground and for Billy to make it over the top cill, so need need to run water down. The chaps soon arrived back and joined the crew.
Gongoozlers
There were plenty of gongoozlers about, all interested in the locks and our boats as they rose in the next few locks.
Raspberries on the right
Between Locks 49 and 48 Clare spotted raspberry canes on the offside. Whilst the next lock emptied Mick managed to pick a handful, well ten, he didn’t want to get stuck and the wind was a touch blowy, so it was hard to hold his position and pick at the same time, if ever there was a need for Mountain Goat Frank Matthews!
Remote control lawn mowers
Bikes were loaded back onto Billy, then Clare and Pete swapped roles. Fountains were out cutting the grass around the reservoir. The chaps had two remote control lawnmowers, not quite the size that I’d seen at Hurleston during lockdown. They’d just finished and were driving them up the ramps onto their pickups.
Up at the lock there was a very tame pigeon wandering around the lock gates quite happy eaves dropping our conversations. Pete brought Billy into the lock, but didn’t give her a big enough push to get her nestled behind a bottom gate. A second attempt was needed all the time Clare giving words of advice from above. As the gates closed behind Oleanna we spotted that Mick had a new passenger, the pigeon.
A ring around it’s leg suggested it was a racing pigeon. Had it stopped for a rest? Was it in need of some food?
Photo courtesy of Clare on NB Billy
It had a good wander around our pram cover but then flew off. He’d been hoping to hitch a ride and give his wings a rest, but we were obviously going the wrong way!
Rising up
We’d just started to lift the gate paddles when Pete vanished inside. Was there a problem? Was he alright? Clare was concerned with nobody at the helm, so she went to be by the tiller, keeping Billy’s stern away from the bottom gates. It turned out that he’d gone to get the rubbish from the well deck as we were alongside the bins.
Looking a little bit low
Looking down over Barrowford Reservoir the level looked quite low. C&RT had lowered the levels of several of their reservoirs for maintenance earlier in the year and as lockdown started to be lifted it looked like there wouldn’t be enough water to last the season. Locks on the Leeds and Liverpool remained closed for a while, then they brought in timed passages, but with the amount of rainfall we’ve had over the last few weeks levels have improved enabling the locks to be open full time. The level must have looked really low back in April and May.
Hello!
Lock 45, the last lock up onto the L&L summit. Since starting our ascent up Poolstock Locks a week ago we have climbed 400ft and 9″. Apparently we are now at the same level as we were at in Birmingham back at the beginning of the year according to a programme we watched the other evening, although google suggests we might be 8 meters higher!
Pete, Steve and Sarah at the top lock
The Billy crew were stopping for water and lunch whilst we wanted to get through the tunnel and claim a mooring for a shopping delivery. So we waved our goodbyes for today. We pootled on leaving the views behind us.
A chap on one of the offside moorings asked if we used to have another boat and had been in a magazine. Sorry we didn’t get your boats name or yours, but thank you for following us.
Blue sky
Not quite a mile to the south portal of Foulridge Tunnel where we knew we’d have to wait. Foulridge has red and green lights, the passage window of ten minutes on the half hour heading northwards and on the hour for south bound. So we had around about a half hour wait for the next green light. A hire boat had positioned themselves in the middle of the waiting moorings, not quite enough space behind them for us, so we pulled in in front.
Red
One boat came through and when the lights turned green we checked it was okay for us to go first, we wouldn’t have minded waiting but it maybe was just as well as their boat didn’t seem to have warp drive!
Foulridge Tunnel
Having a big torch at the back of the boat shining up at the ceiling meant we got to see all the formations on the brickwork. Fins of what look like shark jaws all line up against each other as the water drips off them. Maybe the sharks were hopeful that there might be a cow swimming through. Here’s a song about Buttercup. Sadly I didn’t get a photo as we were being followed so couldn’t stop.
Cafe Cargo open
Back in the light we warned a Silsden Hire boat of the slow boat behind us and then we carried on to find a mooring. There was space for a couple of boats on the 3 day moorings which would be great for our delivery tomorrow. First we tried at the far end, furthest away from the car park for feline safety, except there was something stopping us from getting into the side. We pulled back, but that was even worse. The close proximity to a shaft/well with birdies down it made our minds up, unsafe for Tilly. The bird looking back up at me was very relieved!
I’ve got enough to contend with without a Cat down here!
We pushed out and reversed back to another space, close to the water point and car park, then we spent the rest of the afternoon saying ‘NO’ a lot to Tilly.
Buckets
7 locks, 2.58 miles, 1 mile of tunnel, 3 mysterons, 0 cows, 6 hire boats, 1 lost pigeon, 6 crew, 2 boats, 3rd mooring lucky, 0 shore leave, 1 delivery confirmed, 1 Paul Hudson.
