At the bottom of the lock we stopped at the CRT Services to fill the water tank and dispose of the rubbish. Leaving lovely Hebden Bridge
However we didn't escape entirely unnoticed. As we passed the day boat hire moorings, the owner who was instructing a group of people on the operation of one of the boats called out to Lawrence to ask if we would wait at the next lock for them.
We got to the lock in question, set it and waited and waited (you do a lot of waiting on the canals - it would drive Rhonda insane). Eventually they arrived with the owner trying to give instruction, but hardly any of the 6 on board were listening. Lawrence and I looked at each other and groaned, this could be painful, especially for A.Beatha. We had to remind each other of the help and advice we received from other boaters back in 2014.
Eventually they got their boat into the lock alongside A.Beatha, not doing too badly for their first time, A.B. only copping a couple of bumps and a scrape. With the man in green still giving the driver instructions it was left up to me to show the windlass wielders how to drain a lock and open gates etc.
Old boat, which would have originally been built to work on the Mersey or Humber Rivers, on the permanent moorings below the lock.
This one doesn't look as though it has moved in a looong time
And this one has a great garden going
Coming out from under Bridge 14
Lock 7 coming up which, luckily for us and A.Beatha, turned out to be one of those with a bulging wall, allowing only 1 boat at a time.
View from the lock landing
One of the modern bridges put in when the canal was restored in the 80's, lined with corrugated iron.
View coming out from under the bridge
Valley edge
A very rough looking soccer? field
We are getting there - slowly!
At lock 6 we decided to outpace the dayboat, those on board seeming to be more intent on partying than boating, so L helped with the lock working at lock 5.
View down the valley
Crow or a raven?
I told you the Canadian Geese
outnumber the livestock in the fields
Coming into Luddenden, where incidentally, Branwell Bronte, the Bronte sister's ne'r-do-well brother was, briefly, the station clerk.
Leaving Luddenden
Old mill undergoing transformation into apartments.
Heron
Serenity
This is what, with pick and shovel, the navvies had to dig out to create this section of the tunnel
We reached the moorings before Tuel Lane Lock about 1.40pm. Originally there had been two locks hereabouts but after the canal had become derelict the locks were filled in and built over. When the canal was restored in the 1980s the only way the road could pass the road ahead was to build one very deep lock (a nerve wracking 19' deep, and taking 570,000 litres to fill) opening into a tunnel. Therefore this lock can only be operated by CRT folk and Monday to Thursday passage must be booked.
We rocked up, ahead of schedule (due to 'giving it a bit of wellie' to ditch the dayboat) and fully intending to moor up for the night and make our passage in the morning. Two boats were being let into the lock as we moored up so I wandered down to the lock to have a nosey. Peter the volunteer lockkeeper on duty said these were the last two boats booked for the day and very kindly offered to work us through today if we wanted, saying there were much nicer moorings below this and the next two locks. We took him up on his offer.
Entering the lock
Going down
At last the doors open on the deepest lock in England and the tunnel with its immediate right hand bend lies ahead
All ran smoothly until the last lock and this is where we had a bit of a disaster. Lawrence temporarily moored up where he is in the pic while I first opened the ground paddle on the right to start filling the lock and then walked around the lock and wound up the left hand paddle. Unfortunately I became entranced watching the white geese and their goslings near the gate beam. After awhile I became aware that the background noise I was hearing was glass tinkling and breaking. Looking up I saw A.Beatha listing at an alarming angle and the noise I had been hearing was all the glassware falling out of the cupboards on A.B. I dropped the paddle and was hurrying around the lock to drop the other paddle when Peter, the volunteer lockie, appeared, coming down the towpath and rushed to L's rescue.
Filling the lock had lowered the pound and A.B. got hung up on some large old coping stones that were lurking under the water just where L moored up.
With Peter's help L. managed to push A.B's stern into deeper water where the propeller could dig down while L reversed A.B. off the stones. L then kept the boat out in deeper water while Peter helped me finish filling the lock and work Lawrence down on through. It is volunteers like Peter that keep boaters feeling vaguely charitable about the CRT and without them the waterways would soon be buggered.
At 3.05 we moored up below the lock where Peter suggested. After cleaning up all the stuff that had fallen out of the cupboards, remarkably only 1 one glass was broken, and all the foodstuff still edible (yes Tim, really it was) we went to the Cobblestones bistro situated in one of the old warehouses in the basin for either a very late lunch or an extremely early dinner.
Sowerby Basin (pronounced Sorby) (which marks the end of the Rochdale Canal and the beginning of the Calder and Hebble Navigation) is choc a bloc full of old warehouses, now restored, housing a variety of business. The Baptist church in the pic below was built with stables underneath to house the barge horses. By refusing to let the owners of the Rochdale Canal build their own stabling in the basin the boatmen working the Rochdale Canal were forced to pay to use the Baptists stables. Not very charitable - just like the Pentacostals! The church has now been turned into apartments.
And for all you fans of the TV series, Sowerby Bridge is part of Halifax.
The Rochdale is one of 3 canals which cross the Pennines (and I think the first). It was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1794 and completed just 10 years later - an amazing feat of engineering and building. With its wide locks it was able to handle barges, Humber keels and even small coasters, some of which traded between the Continent and Irish ports. However it had two major weaknesses - the number of locks over its 32mile length and its requirement for a copious supply of water at the summit. The canal was officially closed in 1952 and restoration began in the early 80s.
Oh and joy. An old boater moored up behind us late this evening, having just put in a 13 hour day!
He was born on a boat and still lives on a boat. Anyway, he makes his living these days by, among other things, magnet fishing at the locks for dropped windlasses, cleaning them up and selling them. Ever since leaving Manchester I have been desiring a long handled windlass (provides greater leverage). New ones cost around GBP25.00 and I got a cleaned up 2nd hand one for 8.00. I'm chuffed.
6 miles, 8 locks, 2 tunnels, 5 hours
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