Huddersfield (Narrow) (West)

It’s all very different “up north”! Well the Huddersfield Canal is. We got to Portland Basin, having negotiated the Ashton flight of locks. Sadly, there’s so much metalwork chucked into the canal on that flight that we bent the prop on “Chance” when we hit something hard. James attempted a repair with a huge adjustable spanner through the weed hatch but, suffice to say, we will need a new prop at some stage.

After Portland basin (the junction with the Peak Forest canal) we were then onto the Huddersfield (narrow) canal and virgin territory for us.  A very different canal to ones we’ve been used to. For one thing there’s not a lot of water in it! Which means very slow progress and, with our 30 inch draft, we were scraping the bottom quite often. The architecture can be very different with some tight and strange approaches to the locks as in this case at lock 23W. W, by the way,stands for West (of the Standedge tunnel).

We had to cope with security locks on all the lock gear coming out of Greater Manchester as well as some very strange operating gear.

As we left Greater Manchester behind the scenery became very spectacular. Here’s someone contemplating the views.

We definitely knew we were beginning to cross the Pennines – there were 32 locks in the 8 miles from the start of the canal to the Standedge tunnel. It was hard work and the weather was dreadful for most of the way but the scenery began to make up for it.

The Huddersfield (narrow) is a very narrow canal mostly but occasionally there are “breathing spaces” where it opens out a bit.

Oh! James is always fascinated by physics. In this case the whirlpool made by the water being sucked into the lock chamber made a wonderful sound!

Well, after an uphill slog we reached lock 32W and entered the top pound of water on the canal and just around the corner was the entrance to the famous Standedge tunnel which we were booked to transit the next day (Wed).

We moored up outside the tunnel for the night and took on fresh water - partly because we needed some and partly because it would make the front of the boat lower. The tunnel is notoriously low and narrow and any form of modification to make the boat lower has to be a good thing!

The tranquillity of our mooring was broken mid afternoon when, at 2:30, a hundred school children descended onto the towpath for a spectacular event that was about to happen. 

The famous “Flying Scotsman” came speeding past at 3 o’ clock! It was an awesome sight and a great surprise to us as we’d only been told about it by a dog walker just before the school children arrived.

After a bit of a lie down we walked up to the Diggle Hotel in the evening for a meal together (to build up our stamina for the tunnel tomorrow!)

Just thought it might be fun to squeeze in this pint size pic of pint size Pauline with her pint size pitcher. (She borrowed it from Neil really!)

Doug, Pauline and Neil – enjoying very good food indeed in a lovely quaint, family, villagey sort of hotel / bar /pub / community-get-together sort of place.

Walking back “home” after our meal we could look over the railway bridge towards the trees where “Waterlily” and “Chance” were lying hidden. In the background is the brooding mass of Saddleworth Moor …….

……. and, in among the trees, as we crossed over the tunnel entrance our “homes” wait for us. Tomorrow was going to be another day and one not to be taken lightly but one not to be missed either.

It Never Rains but it Pours!

We stopped for couple of nights in Stockton Heath (Wed/Thurs) to catch up with numerous friends and get a couple of jobs done.

The first job was to help Neil and Pauline get a sofa out of their boat. Well! First the doors had to come off then the cratch had to be dismantled. The sofa just went through the door - and just in time too! Our friend Bill (and his mate with a van) came round the corner to take it away just 10 seconds after Pauline sat  down for a rest! Good job done.

The second job promised, initially, to be even more of a problem than the sofa. The 240v alternator on “Chance” developed a fault in the pulley. It has a ‘free wheel’ ratchet mechanism which was slipping and failing to generate power at low revs. Cutting a very long story short, instead of having to courier the alternator across the country for repair, and then limping along without 240 volts when we need it, we found a specialist on the doorstep just two miles away who was able to replace the pulley within hours! With the sun beating down on him, and also having to embrace a hot engine, James was perspiring nicely as he took apart and reassembled things. He was ably supported by Neil as two heads are better than one in these things. Another good job done.

With sofas out and alternators repaired it was time to get back to more enjoyable things. On Thursday afternoon our cruise friends Bill and Jill with Bill’s daughter Fran and her husband Brian, and Bill and Jill’s son John came onto “Chance” to celebrate Jill’s birthday with a few bottles of Champagne. Then ………

……….. James, Jill, John, Doug and Bill all went down into the town for a wonderful celebratory meal at Bistro Pierre. With two difficult jobs completed and a birthday celebrated, the day was incredibly successful.

On Friday morning we set off from Stockton Heath for the journey into Manchester. The journey was well punctuated with a stop in pretty little Lymm to get to a post office then three further stops for fuel, water and black water pump out and a gas bottle. You have to laugh but it transpired that we couldn’t get all three done in the same place due to Thorn Marine being unable to do any of them!

Anyway, the terrific Bridgwater Canal being deep, wide and hard edged on both sides most of the way, afforded a brisk sprint for “Chance” and, in four and a half hours we were passing Old Trafford – home to Manchester United Football Club …….

…… and soon after that we arrived in Castlefield Basin where we spent the night. Well - half the night if the truth be known, the rest was spent ‘on the town’!

Having left Pauline and Neil behind for a night, on Saturday morning they joined us in Manchester for the journey up the notorious “Rochdale 9” set of locks through the city.

Being a canal through a very busy city a good part of it disappears under various buildings and short tunnels. Actually, it wasn’t a bad place to be as the weather was atrocious!

For the entire journey the rain fell like stair rods.

Pauline, working the very heavy locks with Doug, was a real stalwart.

The rain was so heavy the coffee tray filled up within minutes!

When they built the canals they thought of everything – even a little niche for Doug to stand in out of the rain while the lock emptied!

Both Pauline and Doug were drenched to skin and both had slipped and fallen down and James helped a man to his feet after he fell of his bike. But, were we downcast – not a bit! The day ended well with us mooring up in the lovely Piccadilly Village for the night ready to tackle the Ashton flight of locks in the morning.

Views along the canal at Piccadilly Village …….

….. and our moorings for the night.

A Flurry of Friends.

From our lovely quiet moorings at Barlaston we wended our way towards Stoke then onwards to Etruria (original home of Wedgwood potteries) where we were delightfully surprised by the arrival of friends James and Debbie (nb “Lois Jane”) who we only saw very briefly the day before.

They travelled with us through the Stoke locks until we arrived at Etruria where a canal festival was in full swing.

Lock 40 at Etruria Junction was alive the visitors, all interested in us ‘coming up’ in the world.

Out of the way of the crowds we moored up briefly and, before James and Debbie left us, we all enjoyed an early glass of wine with a slice of Pauline’s terrific cake. Doug, Debbie, James, Pauline and Neil on the back of “Chance”.

Not to be left out – Dudley (James and Debbie’s 14 month old puppy dog) had a cuddle from Doug.

Getting through Stoke and Etruria, we passed Middleport where some of the priceless old buildings and Bottle Furnaces are in dire need of restoration.

Another iconic piece of British heritage needing a bit of TLC was this Jensen Interceptor parked next to the canal. (Only James was interested of course!)

After 40 minutes inside we were soon safely through the mighty Harecastle tunnel and into the lurid orange waters on its north side.

After negotiating the four locks at Red Bull we reached the delightful moorings at Church Lawton where we had the most sumptuous BBQ.

“Chance’s” Taff rail has many uses, not least of which is to be a very adequate buffet table.

The evening’s entertainment included a bit of towpath ballroom dancing from Pauline and Doug.

Later, as the sun began to set and the air took on a night time chill, Doug got out his new glitter ball (thanks to Dave & Allison, nb Free Spirit) and Pauline got out her blanket!

Many locks have much to interest the boat steerer who, spending quite some time many feet below everyone else, is not party to all the interesting gossip going on between the lock operators. 

What a treat! Acres of “real” plant nursery. Tens of thousands of baby species trees and shrubs growing over many years and to be later sold to discerning  gardeners.

The canal banks are now at their zenith with wild flowers and grasses providing a carpet of colour.

Including those at Red Bull there are 25 locks which make up “Heartbreak Hill” for the canal boater. Many of the locks still have duplicate chambers which helps with the passage of large numbers of boats sometimes. Here “Waterlily” and “Chance” sit side by side on their way down to the Wheelock valley.

A good day’s boating brought us down to Middlewich where we moored for the night above King’s Lock. In the early morning of Tuesday the stillness and silence of the canal was mesmerising.

Tuesday’s cruising was to get us as far as Anderton and, as the canal meanders around in the valley of the River Dane, we came across the numerous “flashes” – wide, open waters caused by the collapse of some of the underground salt mines in the area. Mooring your boat on one of these gorgeous expanses of water is a real treat.

At Anderton we had a planned visit by great friends Bill and Eileen and their friend Gill (who we missed meeting in India earlier this year).

In the canal side Stanley Arms we all had a great meal and, of course as usual, it was the company which made things even more special.

From Anderton it was to be a ‘3 tunnel day’. Here is the delightful setting just before we entered the very wiggly Barton tunnel …….

……. and here we are winding our way through the bends in the tunnel.

After the Saltisford Tunnel came the long (1290 yard) Preston Brook tunnel. There are timed entries for this one and, at south portal, we had to wait 20 minutes for our slot.

Preston Brook is the end of the 92 mile long Trent and Mersey canal and the start of the Bridgewater canal. The atmosphere and character of the Bridgewater is very different. The bridges have names, not numbers, and you regularly come across little canal side cranes to lift stop planks into place. As there are no locks on the canal stop planks are needed to section off parts which may need to be drained for maintenance. 

With our mooring at Stockton Heath within reach we cruised through the sylvan setting of Higher Walton on the outskirts of Stockton.

Safely moored up, we were visited by our cruise friends Jill and Bill for a catch-up chat over wine and nibbles. We shall be spending more time with Jill and Bill and their family very soon but it was great to spend time with them now.