We are ready.
The Shire Cruiser's boat Worcester arrives and breasts up to us to take on water. CRT people start arriving in force. A man with a big measuring stick arrives to measure Aqua Beatha. She just fits: right on the maximum width of 6'10" and one inch under the maximum height of 6'2". I don't know whether to be relieved or not. L lets out his breath. One thing must go tho - the navigation lights. They are hard wired and L can only remove the outer cover and the bulb - good enough says CRT man.
After a detailed safety talk with the three boat skippers, Worcester was the first to go.
After a 40 minute wait. L got into the compulsory gear. No safety helmet big enough to fit him so he has to make do.
Two CRT men (one Safety Officer and Edward - who happens to be Brenda and Keith's son - on his first day on the job as a trainee) start loading safety equipment aboard and put two extra spotlights on the roof of the boat.
One last loo trip for L and we are ready to go. I take up my spot as extra ballast on the edge of the bed in the front cabin where I will get a ring side view.
We are off.
The start of the tunnel was brick lined which made steering easier except L had to stoop
When stooping became backbreaking he had to resort to the upturned rubbish bin
until after some time it started to buckle under his weight.
The CRT Safety Officer provided sporadic advice, usually just before it went bang. As L, said, the S.O. would say a little bit left - bang - a little bit right - bang.
Once we got to the rough rock section things became dramatically more difficult. Lawrence had to really concentrate on where the centre of the opening was especially as the light reflected unevenly off the jagged rock face. Until the boat hit a protruding bit of rock which was the true indicator the boat wasn't dead centre.
From my ringside seat - when I can force myself to look up - I can see what we're going to hit before anyone else, but by then its too late. Cowering cowardly and cringing at every crunch, I tried to concentrate on Dirk Pitt's daring dos, but kept reading the same page over and over.
Somewhere in this section Lawrence's forehead found a piece of protruding rock. With out the helmet, he said, he would have been knocked unconscious.
Just as he thought he was getting more confident, the tunnel through in some bends to challenge him again.
When we reached the centre point there was a left right kink to join the two tunnels. The tunnel took about 10 years to build and was completed in 1811. It was dug from both ends simultaneously and due to a miscalculation failed to meet in the middle - hence the S bend.
First sight of light at the end of the tunnel. I heard the CRT bloke say to L don't get excited we've still got half an hour to go.
The pinprick of light grew ever so slowly larger.
Freedom - at last
With a temporary stop outside the tunnel to disrobe Lawrence and offload the safety gear and CRT blokes. Lawrence's helmet had a dint in the front and sported a soot mohawk from scraping on the roof. No time to check on A.B. we had to be on our way.
Leaving the tunnel and Saddleworth moor behind
We moored up in Diggle in front of Worcestor with the hill we just went under behind
Time to check the damage. Surprise, surprise - for all the crunches and bangs, there was surprisingly little damage - just a bit more paint off on a front corner roof rail, an area already denuded of paint (not by us) and about 2-3 inches of paint off on one of the roof rails and more blacking off the rubbing strakes which is what they are for. Phew. Hmphh, Worcester had done far worse.
After recovering from the ordeal we walked down the towpath to Grandpa's cafe and icecreamery and sat beside the pound for lunch, and of course icecream.
A sculpture in the park with the moorland beyond
Leaving L to have a nap I wandered back up the towpath and discovered Twin Sister just mooring up. They didn't get to start their trip through the tunnel until noon as they had to wait for our Safety Officer to drive back up over Saddleworth to take them through. They of course, old hands that they are - this was their 19th trip through the tunnel and Twin Sister being a smaller boat than A.B, came through totally unscathed. I stopped to tell Keith that Worcester was about to move on if they wanted to come down and moor behind us. While we were chatting Brenda popped her head out and asked if we would join them at the Diggle Hotel for dinner. Saying that I would have to check with L when he got back, I continued my amble up the towpath to photograph the Diggle end of the tunnel. Not much fanfare this end, but very nice gates.
There are actually four tunnels underneath Saddlemoor; the canal tunnel, the original, dead straight single bore railway tunnel of 1849 (taking only four years to build, the engineers having learn't a thing or two building the canal tunnel) , an 1871 duplicate and a double track railway bore of 1894. The canal tunnel lies below and between the railway tunnels (I'm glad I didn't know that when going through!). There are linking adits interposed along the tunnel by which the spoil for all the train tunnels was removed on barges via the canal tunnel. We had to stop at three of these adits so the S.O. could ring in with a report of our progress. And when a train went past a great woosh of air would be forced into the canal tunnel which was quite unnerving at first.
In the days of steam, dense clouds of train engine smoke would be forced down into the canal tunnel, billowing out, in the fullness of time, from either end of the canal portal giving them the look of " 'ere be dragons".
Working boats were originally legged through Standedge, the average time being 3 1/2 hours (which means if legging had been an olympic sport, Lily's dad would have been a champion!).
One Thomas Bourne had the job of taking the barge horses across Standedge/Saddleworth? Moor, a job he held for 37 years, during which time it is calculated he clocked up almost 250,000 miles leading horses to and fro. In 1824 a steam tug was tried but only lasted nine years before the leggers took over again.
Between 1811 and 1840 an average of 40 boats a day used the tunnel so little Thomas' legs must have got a real work out! Unless he rode one of the barge horses.
Factoids:
3 1/4 miles long
Deepest point below ground level: 638 feet
Apparently 50 people were killed during its construction.
Coming back I deviated down a side path to get a better view of the moors - and a cluster of new housing! Looking South
But the views are amazing, Diggle is really tucked in at the head of the Tame Valley
Looking South East
Looking north
The old textile mill, deep in the valley.Built by the Co-operative Wholesale Society in 1911. In its time it wove both wool and cotton, but now houses various light industries.
Meeting up with Brenda and Keith at their boat at 6.00pm we strolled up the towpath and up and over the western entrance of the Standedge Tunnel to the Diggle Hotel where Brenda and Keith very kindly shouted us dinner.
After which we went back to Twin Sister for a cup of tea and looked at some of the amazing things (a replica of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a model boat and a Hurdie Gurdie are just two things that spring to mind) Keith, a retired engineer has built, not only for his own enjoyment but also for his grand and greatgrandchildren. B.T.S when they lived in a house and had more room he built, totally from scratch, manufacturing everything himself, a miniature train steam engine which he took to steam rallys from where he knew Fred Dibner - a hero of L's. Lawrence, of course, was totally entranced.
Brenda, who used to sing in a Methodist choir, is equally talented and keeps all her descendents clothed in garments knitted on request.
They can produce so much out of a little narrowboat, I don't understand why Lawrence needs such a big shed, from which he continually poaches more space AND a model boat room!
We didn't get home til 10.00pm. We enjoyed our evening very much.
3 1/2 Miles, tunnel 1 hour 45mins.
No comments:
Post a Comment