To walk along the pound, past the now repurposed Titanic Mill to the next lock to set ready for his lordships arrival
The locks come thick and fast today and the sides of the canal are very shallow and it is sometimes impossible to get to the side so it was a day of walking for me. The approach to lock 18E
Plenty of water coming down. So that is no the problem
Haven't seen this many sheep since we left Manchester
Rare shot of L winding down a ground paddle
As I walk along I'll tell you a little about the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. It was opened in 1811 and abandoned 130 years later. In 1973 the Huddersfield Canal Society proposed its restoration.
The locks on the HNC are skinny and deep, only about 6" wider than A.B. herself.
The River Colne running beside the canal
After years of hard work the full length of the HNC from Hudderfield to Ashton-under-Lyne was re-opened in May 2001. During the restoration 69 locks were restored, 5 new locks built, 3 aqueducts restored, 12 new bridges created, over 5kms of tunnels restored and 2 new tunnels were built under existing buildings. Quite an undertaking!
L putters off to the next lock, carefully keeping to the middle of the canal, leaving me to close the gate behind him and waddle along the towpath as fast as I can to catch and overtake him to get the next lock ready for his grand entrance.
Distant moors, the Colne is a much wider valley than the Caldervale
Old mill chimney beside the canal
Coming into Slaithwaite we spotted this water point on the right just above the lock. Having left the other boats, we thought, far behind us, we moored up and L took a shower as I filled with water.
Just as L finished his shower a man elderly man appeared from below the lock, windlass in hand. Thinking it was one of the boats we were behind yesterday and that they would also want water I told him to hurry up. Sockless and shoeless L appeared and we hurriedly wound up the hose, stowed it and cast off and the boat behind started to rise in the lock and it was then I realised it was neither of the boats we had followed up the canal yesterday. Too late, we were committed to going on.
Slaithwaite is an attractive town, the canal taking you right through its centre.
L coming toward lock 23E. At this lock I couldn't make either of my handcuff keys unlock one ground paddles. A man leaning out of the window of the lock cottage was trying to give me instructions but I couldn't hear him over the noise of the water (I am only telling you this because it will be relevant later). So with only 1 ground paddle open, the old couple behind us soon caught up.
The next lock had a guillotine for a back gate, that you had to wind up manually. It was hard, really hard, I thought my arms were going to give out and being the not very charitable person that I am, I thought this'll slow the old bugger down behind us.
Just in front of the lock were this duck and her four ducklings feeding who were very reluctant to move as I opened the gate to let A.B. out
Nice old crossover bridge.
How green is my valley?
And again
Nice to know Vera is still on the job!
It was while I was walking along the tow path toward lock E29 that a little white van crossed the bridge just ahead and stopped and a head popped out the window and called out hello, we've found you at last. It was Lynden and his offsider from Aqua Narrowboats.
Unbeknown to me because I hadn't been on board since 8.00am, Justin had tried to ring me, 20 times, to tell us Lynden was on his way to service the boat and bring new linen and to arrange a place for us to meet. Lynden had been chasing us up the canal since Linthwaite, looking for us. And it was the man hanging out the window of the lockside cottage back at lock 23E who told them we had gone through at 11.15.
Lynden decided the easiest place to service A.B was in the lock, I said but we have someone on our tail and he "replied don't worry, look ahead" - the pound ahead was really low, no-one would be going anywhere for awhile. There wasn't even enough water to fill the lock completely. Not long after Lynden disappeared down the engine bay to change the oil, the boat behind us caught up and the man came up to see what was going on, with a hrumph he disappeared again. Being totally unprepared for Lynden's arrival I had to climb down into the boat to strip the beds and gather up all the dirty linen for Lynden to take away with him. When I finished that I walked up to the next lock to let down some water, the pound beyond that being only short I walked to the next lock which just happened to be after the longest pound we had encountered today to also let water down from it. Meanwhile the man on the boat behind had rung CRT who said they would come out shortly.
Having walked all the way back again down to 29E to check the pound the man, who was on the lock landing talking to Lawrence said to go and close everything and wait for CRT. So back I trudged closing the gate and ground paddles on the next two locks.
And returned to 29E, stopping along the way for a much needed fag.
By the time I got back to the lock Will and Clare from CRT had arrived. Telling us to sit tight they walked on up the tow path to let water down from the pounds ahead!
Although the water I had let down earlier had finished filling the lock we had to wait for enough water to fill the pound so we could get across it and into the next lock. With A.B. through and into the next lock Will and I closed the gates on her and proceeded to fill the lock. Meanwhile the boat behind us came into 29E and filled the lock, but had to wait until we left 30E and Will drained it again for them to have enough water to get across the pound.
I left Will with Lawrence and A.B. for my fifth long walk back up to 31E, passing these cows, that were still lazing around in the same position as my first trip well over an hour earlier,
to join Clare to let down water so Lawrence could bring A.B. across the pound. Well that was the plan. But it all went to shit when Lawrence trying to leave 30E became jammed while trying to exit the lock. The word came up to Clare let more water down, he's caught on the cill. Clare (who is in charge of the Standedge Tunnel and has the dimensions of the boats going through) and I looked at each other. I don't think so we said simultaneously. Clare said something must be jammed between the side of the boat and the side of the boat. But blokes being blokes, Will and the man from boat behind said no, he's caught on the cill. So Clare and I dutifully let down even more water. Nothing, A.B. was still jammed, couldn't go forward, couldn't go in reverse. I said to Clare I'm going back down, what if I got a whole lot of people to stand on the back of the boat, the front might lift enough for whatever it is to slide under the boat. Good idea she said, so back I went (for the sixth time, but who's counting!).
By the time I got back Will had the barge pole and was poking at something, but couldn't move it. I proposed my possible solution to Lawrence, he said no, we already tried that. I decided to walk along the gunnel to opposite where Will was poking away with the barge pole. Leaning as far away from the boat as I could, Will yelled "I can feel something" so L edged along the gunnel and joined me, Will said, don't dare move I'm sticking my arm down between A.B and the lock side. And he could feel the obstruction - a great big, solid root ball, but he couldn't budge it. Just then four inquisitive walkers strolled passed and asked if they could help. With them on one side and L and I on the other we managed to rock the boat enough that Will could, with the barge pole, stab at the route ball between rocks, pushing it slowly further and further under the boat until, at last, A.B. was free.
Here are three of our willing walkers, without whom we would have had to spend the night in the lock.
The other willing walker and the bloke from the boat behind us
And Will, CRT man and a demon with a barge pole. Success he says
So leaving Will to close up the lock after Lawrence and to drain it again for the long suffering boat behind us I began the increasingly long trudge back up to 31E to Clare to help work A.B. through.
Clare suggested we moor up in the pound on the bollards about 31E. Seemed like a good plan we were both pretty tired by then. And the view was chocolate box
We came through the lock and Lawrence tried to moor up at the end of the bollards, leaving room for the next boat to come in behind us. And bugger me, we get hideously stuck again! We tried poling her off. We tried all full ahead. We tried all full astern. We tried all full astern whilst Clare and I shoved with the pole. We tried rocking the boat. Nothing. :( :( :( Then the boat behind us came up in the lock and dropped the pound further which made us more stuck.
There was nothing for it, Clare had to ring the CRT bloke in charge of their precious weir and ask him to let more water down. After a lot more waiting the pound filled a little and with more rocking and polling we slid free. However we couldn't get into the side and had to continue along to the end of the pound, where once again we ran aground but managed to reverse off and just poke out nose in close enough to get a line around the bollard.
Clare was fantastic she waited round long enough to make sure we were okay with being skewed across the canal. By then we were beyond caring how we were moored up - however I was a little sorry at losing the mooring at the other end of the pound, it was such a pretty spot.
Here we are, again not going anywhere.
CRT Weirs. Water supply for the canals has always being a problem, right from the start, especially the three that cross the Pennines. When the canals were closed the government sold of most of the storage weirs and dams. Now that the canals have been restored there is very little water storage left for the canals to use. Last summer supplies got so low that all the trans Pennine canals were closed. And with no spring break so far this year, and the weirs being on average at 60%, its odds on that the will be closed this year as well.
Clare left us at 4.00pm, promising that we would be floating by morning and that she would ring us to check we were okay.
Stuck in the middle of nowhere it was time to break out a M&S quiche for dinner! High cuisine indeed.
4 miles, 15 locks, 8 hours.
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