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

Leeds Dock

 

After a good first night in Leeds Dock Carolyn was up early and with my credit card in her handbag she set off on the free ferry which would take her from the dock and in to the city centre.

Carolyn was amazed that after being dropped off from the ferry that she had to make her way up this tunnel to get to the city centre.

Eventually in to the city centre and there were so many shops .

While why Carolyn was away I had a wonder around the Dock . It’s had millions of pounds thrown at it and contains Restaurants and flats and reminds me a lot of Paddington Basin in London.

Go on Lad push a bit harder.

There is only room in the for 3 or 4 full length narrowboats to moor in the dock at present and sometimes especially in high season you just can not moor. But there is room for at least another 10 boats in the inner basin . But there is a low bridge that can be lifted which prevents entry to this basin . For some unknown reason either Canal and River Trust or Leeds Dock will not lift the bridge to allow visiting boats in. As in many places around the country they don’t seem to want visiting boaters .

The view down the Basin with Inca moored on the left in front of the Armoury. With Carolyn due back at mid day we have decided to have a look around the Armoury which is free  .

Yes Free is my favourite word and we have heard that the Armoury is well worth a visit.

Run for your lives . Carolyn laughing and with her hands on a Vickers machine gun.

This is the tower which has the main staircase around the outside of it . What a magnificent display of weapons.

There are displays from all ages .                                                                                      

I just love Guns and have had them in one form or another for most of my life . I actually had a shotgun similar to the one on the right which is a 5 shot automatic 12 bore . I also had a one similar to the side by side model next to it and several under and over shotguns. So the display brought back some good memories from my shooting days.

We have now spent longer here than we had intended to ,but it was well worth it .We now have 127 miles and 97 locks to do in the next 12 days to make our booking in to Liverpool. It means doing an average of about 5 hours a day which should be achievable as we head across the Pennines on The Leeds and Liverpool canal. (I just hope we can make it). Tomorrow it will be an early start as we have been told we need to get through the outskirts of Leeds which we have been told is Bandit country.

                                                                                                         Happy Days

Idiot Banksman

 

With only a short cruise today we had a lie in and eventually pulled ropes through rings at 08.40. We are just hoping that we can pick up a mooring in Leeds basin which now seems to be known as Leeds Dock .

As usual we are in a bit of a rush as Carolyn wants to have some time in Leeds as she has heard there is a rather good shopping centre there and with good links from the Dock she has my credit card ready to go.

At the moment there’s a lot of flood prevention work going on around Leeds with contractors everywhere. We were a bit shocked when this happened as we came out of Knostrop lock. There was a Banksman directing the crane who had watched us come up in the lock . Then unbelievably he guided the crane right over the top of us with this huge lump of metal attached to it. If it had slipped off it would have crashed down on top of us . Needless to say I shouted a few choice words at the idiot Banksman.

We just love passing all the old wharfs . It’s just a bit of a shame that the waterways cant be used to transport more cargos around the network and avoid so many needless road journeys.

Entering Leeds and just look at all these flats . There’s no way that we could live in one of them especially on the top floor.

After a good few hours cruising we arrived at Leeds lock and had to wait for a boat to lock down . How good is it to see that a lot of the old mills and warehouses have been converted in to living accomodation and offices instead of being knocked down.

What a brilliant idea is it that this is on hand to save the life of anyone that has fallen in to the water . But by the time you have rang 999 and waited to get through and then read the instructions the poor sod that had fallen in has probably drowned . I totally understand why this system is in place as we have passed so many locations where the lifebuoy or safety line has been vandalised or just thrown in the water.

This is where we leave the Aire and Calder navigation and join the Leeds and Liverpool canal .Hopefully at the top of this lock it’s a very tight turn left and then a lovely mooring just sat there waiting for us.

How lucky are we being able to moor here , We have heard so many stories about the Leeds Dock/basin being full and visitors being unable to moor. We had planned to spend just one night here but a local just happened to mention to Carolyn that this was the third biggest city in the UK and it has an amazing shopping centre and it was going to be even better than she had previously thought it would be. Looks like we may be here for a day or two…

                                                                                                          Happy Days

Yellow light ?

 

After a good night we pulled ropes through rings and dropped down Fall Ings lock leaving the Calder and Hebble Navigation and joining The Aire and Calder where we have the pleasure of electric locks.

A lot of the locks this way have these square holes half way up the lock with 4 or 5 on each lock wall . I’ve tried to find out what they were used for but had no luck. Anyone have an idea what they are or where used for ? .

Yet again we are on a river and going with the flow. It’s funny that when ever we are near or under a railway bridge a train always goes over making us jump.

It was then to Stanley Ferry and over the famous aqueduct where we crossed the iron troughed bridge which is suspended between bow-spring girders .It’s similar to the one in Sydney but this one was built a long time before that one .

Passing Stanley Ferry works where all the lock gates are made for this area. We have seen many gates with Made at Stanley Ferry stamped on them so now we know where they came from.

Here we go and it’s electric lock time . Every lock has a set of traffic lights to warn you of the state of the lock as you approach . Last night we both read the meaning of what the lights meant .

Red light = lock in use moor up and wait

Yellow light = The lock keeper is away and you will have to do it yourself

Green light = proceed in to lock

Red and Green together = the lock is ready and the lock keeper will prepare it for you

flashing red ligh = flood conditions unsafe to continue

Anyway as we were approaching the lock we could see that it was on yellow ,so I said to Carolyn what does that mean and she said I don’t know I’v’e forgotten and how funny was it that I had forgotten as well . We must remember to write things down . In the end we found out that yellow meant self service so we followed the instructions and dropped down the lock with no trouble.

After a couple of hours and a couple more locks we made it down to the junction near Castleford and made a left turn where we joined the river Aire and instead of going with the flow we were against it ,so more revs needed and more fuel used .

It was then a good hours cruise to Lemonroyd lock which has a 13 feet and 6 inches rise.

Not only that but it was enormous and made us look very small inside . Like all the other locks we have done the yellow light was on and we were on self service. Not knowing how fast and turbulent the lock was going to be I put our centre rope through one of the vertical wire’s on the side of the lock so that I could control Inca as we went up  In the end it was very gentle and there was no need to have used it . I suspect it’s like The Thames locks that go on half speed when in self service operation.

We picked up this mooring above Lemonroyd and opposite the marina which will do us before an early start in the morning when we hope to get in to Leeds and pick up a mooring in the basin/

                                                                                                                     Happy Days

Lump of wood

 

After a good night at Mirfield we pulled pins at 07.40 and continued our journey along the Calder and Hebble navigation . You always know that you have to give rivers respect when you see all the debris in the trees which shows how high it goes in flood conditions.

This is a lump of wood ,but it’s no ordinary lump of wood it is in fact known as a Handspike. We had heard about these a long time ago and were told you couldn’t do this navigation without one as it was needed to lift the paddles on the locks. Carolyn found this one in the chandlery at Huddersfield where again we were told we needed to have one . It’s basically a bit of 3x2 but this one is made from Hardwood. We had been told they were about £10 to buy so imagine my horror when I was told they have gone up to £18 .. That’s three bottles of Red wine ! . But we have to have one so we bought this one.

Arriving at our first lock that needed the Handspike Carolyn grabbed it and we walked to the lock . The lock was empty and needed filling so we opened the gate paddles which used a normal windlass and then looked at how to use the handspike . At this moment a local boater came over and told us that as we were going down the Calder and Hebble we didn’t need a handspike as we could use the gate paddles on all the locks instead. In fact he said that a normal piece of softwood would do the job and failing that a mooring pin could be used. Needless to say I was a bit peed off , but having bought the lump of wood we thought we might as well use it once just to say we had.

At least I held it after Carolyn had wound it up.

The locks on this navigation are only a couple of feet longer than the Huddersfield broad which is OK until you get a leaky one like this and I can’t get any further forward to avoid getting wet.

Yet another first for us and we have never come across ground paddles like this before . There should be two but as you can see there is a hole where one is missing . The paddles were so heavy to lift that Carolyn had no chance and it took all of my weight to shift them.

It doesn’t get much better than this . The Sun is coming out and we are going with the flow on a river . We are only using 1,000 revs on our engine instead of our usual cruising revs of 1,300 on canals and are going three times as fast.   Just the ticket…

After 7 locks and a good 5 hour cruise we reached Wakefield . Straight on is the weir so we have to take a sharp right and hopefully pick up a mooring for the night.

We were lucky to pick up this mooring opposite The Ruddy Duck and will have an early start in the morning as we drop down Fall Ing lock (spelt correctly) and leave the Calder and Hebble navigation and then join the Aire and Calder navigation where all the locks are electric and some of them are a bit on the large size ,so it should be a bit of a break for Carolyn after so many locks in the last few weeks.

                                                                                                Happy Days

      FOR SALE    lump of wood  Handspike which is essential on The Calder and Hebble navigation . Used once !! open to offers.