Leaving Leeds

 

With some long days in front of us we pulled ropes from around bollards at our mooring in Leeds dock at 08.10.

Another first for us as we come across these ground paddles that seem to be in wooden boxes . So far some have been easy to work while others have been a bit on the heavy side.

A couple of hours out of Leeds and we reached Forge three rise locks which are a staircase . We were so pleased to see that there was a full time lock keeper working this flight. It’s always good to find a Lock Keeper on a flight like this as it speeds up your time on the flight.

Arriving at Newley three locks which is another staircase lock we were pleased to see yet another Canal and river Trust Lockie on duty which hopefully will make our trip up the flight a lot easier.

All was going well until in the centre lock and believe it or not the lockie forgot to close one of the ground paddles which made our trip up the flight take even longer ,but it also flooded the bottom lock.

There has been a breach here and to repair it Canal and River Trust has just dumped a load of clay in the side of the canal and put up a sign saying avoid this lump of clay . No doubt it will be a temporary permanent repair.

After a reasonably good cruise we picked up this mooring just before the Swingbridge at Rodley which would do us well for the night.

 

The following day and after pulling pins at 07.55  wemade our way to Saltaire and picked up the only spot on the Aldi moorings.It’s a bit strange how there is only one mooring here .

With the cupboards and the wine cellar filled from Aldi we cruised on through Saltaire passing all these disused warehouses.

After a shop at Aldi we pulled ropes from around rings and soon arrived at Saltaire wharf which was built in 1851 by Sir Titus Salt, a leading industrialist in the Yorkshire woollen industry. The name of the village is a combination of the founder's surname and the name of the river. Salt moved his business (five separate mills) from Bradford to this site near Shipley to arrange his workers and to site his large textile mill by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the railway. Salt employed the local architects Francis Lockwoodand Richard Mawson.

Similar, but considerably smaller, projects had also been started around the same time by Edward Akroyd at Copley and by Henry Ripley at Ripley Ville. The cotton mill village of New Lanark, which is also a World Heritage site, was founded by David Dale in 1786.

Salt built neat stone houses for his workers (much better than the slums of Bradford), wash-houses with tap water, bath-houses a hospital and an institute for recreation and education, with a library, a reading room a concert hall, billiard room, science laboratory and a gymnasium. The village had a school for the children of the workers, almshouses, allotments, a park and a boathouse.^[Recreational initiatives were also encouraged such as the establishment of a drum and fife band for school age boys and a brass band, precursor of today's Hammond Saltaire Band, for men of the village.

After a good days cruise we picked up a mooring just before The Bingley 3 rise locks which are locked overnight and only available for use with CRT employees from 08.00 in the morning . Just after ascending this flight we have the pleasure of the famous Bingley 5 Staircase locks which I am so looking forward to.

 

                                                                                                                    Happy Days