Bugsworth Basin (Peak Forest Canal) – Sunday 28th July

It poured with rain during the night and some of the showers were very heavy indeed.

We left our mooring in the sunshine and headed off.  The Peak Forest Canal along to Whaley Bridge is spectacular – both Richard and I agreed that the scenery was probably the best we have encountered on the canals.  I didn’t take any photos but we will be going back that way!

There are two lift and two swing bridges to negotiate but I only had to do three as another boat was coming the other way for one of them.  There are a lot of low hanging trees and at one stage one of my cauldrons was knocked off the roof and fell into the canal – well actually the cauldron was still on the roof it was the plants that were in the canal!!  They were duly rescued and reinstated and we continued on our way.

 

We really had no idea of what we would encounter at Bugsworth Basin – I had visions of it being a basin at the end of a canal in a small town.  How wrong I was J  It is an amazing place but I will blog more about it tomorrow when we have a day off.

Muffin and mini Muffin

Richard and I took Muffin for a walk along the canal into Whaley Bridge and encountered a 4 month Cockapoo which looked just like Muffin did at that age – Teddy was absolutely gorgeous J  Further on we realised that Muffin wasn’t with us and turned round to see the water being churned up – yes you guessed it, he had fallen in AGAIN!!!  Richard ran back and pulled him out.  Muffin shook himself and carried on as if nothing had happened!!  We think he had been playing with an empty bag of human treats and must have lost his footing!

One wet dog!

On our way back to the boat the heavens opened.  We had our light waterproofs with us so put them on and stood under a tree however the rain just penetrated the jackets and we were soaked.  Poor Muffin got another soaking too!

Junction of Macclesfield & Peak Forest to Bugsworth Basin

6.57 miles
2 swing and 2 lift bridges

Junction of Macclesfield & Peak Forest Canals – Saturday 27th July

A very hot and sultry day.  I had a lift bridge to operate as soon as started out but then it was 6.5 miles of lockless cruising so I took the opportunity to do some housework and other things that have been neglected while we have spent all our time working locks.  I have to admit that I didn’t see very much so can’t say anything about the scenery.

However Richard called me up on deck as we approached the Marple Aqueduct which carries the canal 100 feet above the River Goyt.  The aqueduct was started in May 1794 and filled with water in 1800.  The railway viaduct next the aqueduct is even higher and pretty spectacular.

Marple Viaduct

Marple Aqueduct

 Ha – the lockless canal didn’t last long as we had the 16 locks of the Marple Flight to tackle.  It was very hot and I wasn’t really looking forward to it.  We agreed to do 4 locks each then swop over.  I did the locks first but when I got to lock 3 a walker told me that the pound between locks 6 and 7 was very low.  I thanked him and walked up to have a look.  Well there are low pounds and low pounds but this one was practically empty!  Even a rowing boat would have had a problem getting through!  I phoned C&RT who told me that one of the emergency team would go out to let some water down.

This is what I call a low pound!

We were being followed up the locks by Mr. Busybody (well that’s what we called him) as he took control of proceedings and started to let water down through lock 7 to fill the pound.  Richard was concerned that the next pound would be empty so he walked up and opened a few more paddles.  I have to say that it didn’t take long before the pound was usable again and we set off.  Mr. Busybody had his wife and three teenagers on board and seemed to be up our backsides all the time.  The pound between locks 9 and 10 was also down so Richard walked up to see if the C&RT man was still at the top – he wasn’t so he opened the paddles to let some more water down.  Mr. B then decided that he would help us so that he could get up the flight quicker – the trouble was that he kept leaving paddles open!!  Twice Richard had to lower bottom paddles as the lock wouldn’t fill up.

The canal at Marple

Eventually we reached the top – I had only done four locks and Richard must have walked to the top and back three times!  Muffin gave up about lock 10 and came on the boat with me.

At the top we moored up and opened a bottle of chilled sauvigon blanc and relaxed!

Stanley Lift Bridge to Junction of Macclesfield & Peak Forest Canals

7.78 miles
16 locks
1 lift bridge

Stanley Lift Bridge (Peak Forest Canal) – Friday 26th July

We were under way by 9am as Richard was determined to get in front of Little John (who had moored just up from us), I was still in the shower so he had to do the first lock on his own! 

This part of the canal is really beautiful.  Normally I don’t like overhanging trees but today, with the sun glinting through the leaves, it was stunning.  I took lots of photos but they really don’t do the real scene justice.

 

As we approached Lock 10W we noticed that it was full (all the others have been empty) and we thought that the gates must have been replaced and there was no leakage.  I went into the lock Richard shut the gate and opened the paddles at the other end.  It seemed to take an age to empty so Richard went to look at the paddles at the top of the lock and when he looked really closely they were locked and open!  I think you can see from the photo that closing them could be easily overlooked as the white markers have disappeared.

We went through Scout Tunnel – rather an anti-climax after Standedge! 

Just before Lock 8W there is a low bridge, number 46, – and I mean low!  I hardly needed to dead the flowers after going through it!  The chimney got knocked off too. 

 

 

After the lock the canal goes under an electricity pylon – it does look odd.  This was another part of the canal that had been filled in and rebuilt.

We stopped in Stalybridge right outside Tesco so I stocked up on the heavy things.  Stalybridge was one of the towns where the canal was filled in but, along with the help of the local council, there are now four new locks and five new road bridges.  Lock 6W is in the middle of a new square named Armentieres Square after Stalybridge’s twin town in France.  There is also a lot of mooring between locks as well as by Tesco.

As we descended down into Ashton-under-Lyne the scenery became one of desertion and sadness.  We have seen so many mills that have been renovated and are now flats but along here they are just dejected and waiting for some love.

The Huddersfield Narrow Canal ends just before Ashton-under-Lyne and we entered the Ashton Canal for a mile or so before turning onto the Peak Forest Canal and mooring up just beyond the junction.

 

We have so nearly done the whole of the Pennine Ring – just the Ashton Canal into Manchester left to do.  But that will have to wait for another time.

We have really enjoyed the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and it is on our list of canals to visit again though next time we will go south to north.  It’s been hard work but the scenery has more than made up for it.  We have not had the problems with water that we thought we would have – just one incident.  We only draw 20 inches so maybe that’s why it’s been a lot easier for us than others.

 

Roaches Winding Hole to Stanley Lift Bridge

5.66 miles
14 locks

Roaches Lock 15W (Huddersfield Narrow Canal) – Thursday 25th July

It has been a day of events (I was going to put dramas but that sounds a bit OTT!) 

We had a bit of a lie in and Penny made the tea but then dropped her bombshell saying that she and Jim had decided to leave us today.  I was very disappointed but do understand that it was the right decision.  Firstly they had the car right by the boat and secondly they had been planning on driving to north Devon tomorrow and were very concerned about driving down the M5 on the first Friday of the school holidays.  It was the usual scrabble trying to find all their belongings (we still have a windlass, a baseball hat and a pair of knickers on board!) and then the sad time when they drove away – I hate it when visitors leave us.

 

Saddleworth Aqueduct

Richard and I moved on down the canal passing the Saddleworth Aqueduct which is yet another wonderful structure.  Then our next event happened – Muffin fell in the canal!!  He has had a number of near misses but this time he missed!  He took a flying leap from the bank onto the boat which was too far away.  His snout hit the boat and he fell in and quickly started swimming towards the bank.  Richard was walking on the towpath and managed to pull Muffin out, who then shook himself and carried on as if nothing had happened!

We pulled over in Uppermill for lunch as we had come across Little John (the single hander) and we know how slow he can be.

 

Roaches Winding Hole

At Lock 19W we had our final event.  We usually keep in the middle of the canal at locks instead of waiting at the lock waiting point because it is so difficult to get to the side on this canal.  But as Little John was still in the lock and there were C&RT men working on the lock we pulled over.  By the time we had filled the lock from the pound we were in we were well and truly stuck!  The two C&RT men came and tried to help rock us off but Mary H wasn’t going to budge.  Richard had to go back to the last lock (with a two way radio) and let enough water in until we could get the boat free.  It took a good six inches of water to free Mary H.  I’m just glad that the C&RT men were there!

At lock 16E we had an extremely heavy shower and all three of us got rather wet.  It was still raining as we got to lock 15E so we pulled over at the moorings below the lock for the night.

 

Wool Road Moorings to Roaches Lock 15W

2.74 miles
9 locks

Wool Road Visitors Moorings (Huddersfield Narrow Canal) – Wednesday 24th July

 The alarm went off at 6.30am and we managed to drag ourselves out of bed by 7am!  That might sound early for an 8.30am start but we had to sort out the beds and bedding with four people on board.  The C&RT men came over and measured Mary H, we waited with our fingers crossed until we got the all clear – she wasn’t too big to go through!

Lutra went first and then we went to fill up with water as the weight would put us lower in the water.  Apparently there are also some large water containers which can be used if a boat is too high.  Soon it was our turn to go through.  Richard was given a life jacket, high viz jacket and a hard hat as according to our pilot, Fred, he was important!

 

What the skipper wore

The entrance to the tunnel is very small and, being at the front of the boat, it was quite eerie.  Sadly none of my photos taken in the tunnel have come out well and would look just a blur on the blog – so you will just have to imagine the following account!

Going in

The first thing that Fred pointed out was that there are legging plates on the roof every 50 yards so that the leggers knew how far they were into the tunnel.  The roof is so jagged in places that we wondered how many broken legs and ankles must have occurred whilst legging.  The tunnel was bored through different types of rock – the millstone grit is very hard and can still be seen with alluvial stripes but the other rock is shale which had to be bricked over as it is soft.  To clear the way one man would hold a chisel and two men would hit it in turn - the man holding the chisel would then turn it after each blow.  The space they created was then filled with gun powder and ignited.  There were approximately 3,500 navvies working on the tunnel living in three villages – one at each end and one in the middle.

There have been a few rock falls over the years and these have been sprayed with concrete.  In places Richard had to go slowly as it was extremely narrow and the roof very low – in fact he hit his head about 20 times throughout the trip, just as well he had a hard hat on!  The train tunnel runs parallel with the canal and at times you can hear a train rumbling past.  Sometimes you can see a mist which happens when pressure in front of the train and a vacuum behind it occurs which then goes down the canal service tunnel and causes it!

We thought there might be a ghost but the only story that Fred came up with was that a man had fallen off the back of his boat in 1913 and drowned.  The tunnel was drained so his body could be recovered however they also found the body of a woman with her throat cut at the same time!

 

Coming out

I sat at the front of the boat with Muffin.  Penny (and Niamh) had gone to Huddersfield to get something for her bites so missed the event.  Muffin didn’t like it at all and got very cold, in the end I wrapped him up in a towel and cuddled him and he settled down.  After an hour and a half we emerged into the daylight and the warmth – it was very welcome.

The Diggle flight

We did nine locks of the Diggle flight to get down to Wool Road Moorings.  The locks are very easy to operate as all the mechanism is on one side and there is only a single gate at the top and the bottom of the lock.

The Diggle flight

Penny and Jim took us out for dinner to the Swan Inn at Dobcross which is the Marston pub of 2013 – the food was very good and very reasonably priced and we had an excellent evening.
 

Eastern Portal of the Standedge Tunnel to Wool Road Moorings

4.30 miles
9 locks

East Portal Standedge Tunnel (Huddersfield Narrow Canal) – Tuesday 23rd July

We were woken up about 6am with a tremendous thunderstorm – I’m convinced I could hear it rumbling around in the tunnel!

Sid's Cafe

Today was a day off and with the use of the car.  Richard is a great Last of the Summer Wine fan and really wanted to go to Holmfirth where it was filmed - to keep the skipper happy we all went along with the idea!  We managed to find a parking space in the town which was much busier than Richard thought it would be.  We went to the Tourist Information Office and got all the low down on where to find the important locations.  We wandered down to Sid’s Café and sat outside to have lunch.  Richard couldn’t seem to keep the smile off his face!  Next stop was Nora Batty’s house which is now a holiday let.  Underneath is where Compo lived and is now an exhibition centre which of course we had to have a look in.  I have to admit that I did find it interesting and gave things in a chronological order – Richard watches LOSW on Yesterday and one day it can be episode 4 and the next it’s episode 106, so the exhibition has helped poor confused me!

Nora Batty's House

After Holmfirth we drove into the Peak District National Park to Longdendale where we took the dogs for a lovely walk on part of the trail.

Compo's kitchen

On our return to Mary H we had been joined by Lucia and Little John (the single hander from Saturday) who will also be going through the tunnel tomorrow.

  

The original main cast members

 Richard decided to start the preparations for tomorrow.  Everything has to come off the roof and with our rounded cratch that had to come off too.  Of course nothing is easy and it poured with rain when he was half way through! 

East Portal Standedge Tunnel (Huddersfield Narrow Canal) – Monday 22nd July

So Plan A or Plan B?!  I walked up to the tunnel entrance to see if we could go through today but was told that “there wasn’t a hope in hell’s chance of going through” - that told me!!!  It’s all to do with pre-booking and only having the number of men on duty for the booked boats.  It makes sense but we thought we would ask.

Marsden

While I waited the arrival of Penny with the car, Richard and Jim walked up to the tunnel entrance again and came back saying that they had negotiated with the C&RT people for us to move up to the tunnel entrance, after 4pm, until we go through on Wednesday.  Penny arrived about 2.30pm with Niamh – Jim had been waiting for her at the lock for 2 hours – devotion or what? 

The tunnel entrance

We moved down to tunnel entrance, filled up with water and moved across the canal and moored up.  It was a lovely evening so we finally got round to having the barbeque – phew I can hear you saying!

Our barbecue camp

Richard, Penny and I took the dogs for a walk round the Tunnel End Reservoir.  This was built between 1798 and 1806 as a feeder for the canal and held 22.7 million gallons of water and fed by the River Colne.  However in 1799 the banks broke and flooded Marsden.  The breach was rebuilt but it fell into disrepair due to silting.

Not a bad place to barbecue

A bit of history about the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the Standedge (pronounced Stanege) Tunnel:

The canal was built to link Ashton-under-Lyne with the Huddersfield Broad Canal.  Work started in 1794 and work was completed from Ashton to the bottom of the Diggle flight and from Marsden to Huddersfield but the next problem was to link the two by a 3 miles tunnel.  The tunnel took 16 years to build and ended up being 23 feet off its proposed centre-line.  The Diggle end was also found to be higher than the Marsden end and the invert had to be lowered and the linings rebuilt.  Good old Thomas Telford was brought in to sort it all out!!  There were fourteen construction shafts and there are four passing places – White Horse, Old Judy, Red Brook and Brun Clough.  The tunnel cost £123,804 (£6 million in today’s money) to build and the canal cost £402,653 (£20 million in today’s money).  The first boat went through on 10th December 1810 with the official opening on 4th April 1811.

The tunnel is 5698 yards long (3 miles and 418 yards), 600 feet below ground and 650 feet above sea level – it is also in the Guinness Book of Records.  There are four tunnels in total, the canal being the lowest and the oldest.  There were two rail tunnels built in 1849 and 1871, though these are now not used by trains.  The current train tunnel was built in 1894.   The last working boat to go through was in 1921 and in 1938 it was no longer maintained - the canal tunnel was closed to through navigation in 1944 but was still used for drainage and water supply functions.  The last boat to pass through the whole canal was the Alisa Craig in 1948 which carried Inland Waterways campaigners who wanted the canal re-instated.  The journey caused interruptions to various industrial water supplies and the British Transport Commission quickly removed lock gates to prevent further such voyages.  Subsequently most of the locks were filled in and road bridges demolished.  Scout Tunnel was bricked up and long lengths of the canal were sold off.

The Huddersfield Canal Society was formed in 1974 and campaigned determinedly to restore the canal, taking 10 years to raise the necessary money.  Restoration of the canal started in 1981 and the first boats went through on May 1st 2001.  Since the restoration boats used to be towed through the tunnel by an electric barge and had to be covered by a rubber sheet which used to damage boat paintwork.  Nowadays boaters steer their own boats under the supervision of a C&RT pilot.  But more about the passage through the tunnel once we have actually done it!

The view from our barbecue camp

Marsden Lock 42E to the East Portal of the Standedge Tunnel
0.47 miles
0 locks

Marsden Visitors Moorings (Huddersfield Narrow Canal) – Sunday 21st July

We hadn’t really decided last night whether or not to move on or stay in Slaithwaite for another day.  We switched on Breakfast Time and the weather forecaster said there could be thunderstorms tomorrow so we decided to go.  We knew that it was unlikely that we would be able to moor before Marsden so that meant another 21 locks.

Sparth reservoir

We left about 9am and after 3 locks we were out in the countryside again.  Just before Lock 24 we found a homemade bakery in an old converted mill and it was open so I bought a lovely hot loaf for our lunch.  Lock 24 is yet another guillotine lock but this one is manual whereas the others have been electrified.  It was jolly hard work and I’m glad that I had Jim to share the winding with – it seemed to go on forever!  Above Lock 24 there appears to be some mooring – whether or not you can get the boat alongside is another thing. 

Dry spillway at Sparth Reservoir

The locks are well spaced out – 21 of them in 2.77 miles – I ended up walking the whole way, it just wasn’t worth getting back on the boat.  The scenery is wonderful though I did find myself not really getting chance to take it all in as there just wasn’t time.  We celebrated the 7th lock of the day by having a cup of coffee – in the lock of course as there is nowhere to tie up.

The canal at Sparth

The River Colne runs beside the canal nearly all the way – you can hear the water bubbling its way down and every now again you can hear it making a slightly louder noise as it falls over a weir.  Sadly the only photo I took of this part of the canal is very poor and not good enough for the blog.  At Lock 31E there is a winding hole and mooring – as there is a boat tied up pretty close to the bank I guess you can get alongside there.  Just below Lock 32E there is, what looks like, a large concrete staircase – this is supposed to have water pouring down it from Sparth Reservoir but, as you can see from the photo, it is practically empty. 

 

Marsden flight

Suddenly there is a flight of locks in front and they are really lovely.  We noticed a boat in front of us so decided to move out of Lock 33 and reverse back and stop in the lock tail for lunch to let the water replenish itself.  (Our fresh bread was wonderful!)

Marsden flight

There isn’t much space between the locks on the flight and in fact some pounds are so short they were built circular to hold enough water.

 

Marsden flight

Just before the last lock, 42E, there is a low bridge with a pipe across the canal.  Jim was at the helm and suddenly stopped as he realised he wasn’t going to get under the pipe with the plants on the top!  I had been setting the lock and a lot of onlookers were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the boat which didn’t come!  I went down to see what was happening and we realised that we were going to have to strip the roof.  We are quite proficient at this now but with all the onlookers on the towpath it wasn’t easy!  We were finally through the last of the eastern locks and ready to moor up.  C&RT had told me that we needed to be through Lock 42E before 4.30pm and at the tunnel entrance before 8.30am the next day.  What they didn’t say was that you HAVE to moor up just above Lock 42E and you are NOT to go down to the tunnel entrance until after 4pm the day before you go through the tunnel.  If it hadn’t been for a local man we would have happily gone down to the tunnel entrance and then got stuck with the trip boat.

View over Marsden

The moorings aren’t brilliant.  On one side there is a high wall with tall modern houses and on the other side there are trees and dense vegetation.  We have no phone or internet access and very little TV signal!

Gongoozlers at Lock 42E

Richard and Jim walked down to the tunnel to see if there was any chance of us going through tomorrow but the C&RT people on duty were from the leisure division and couldn’t help us at all!  We decided to ask again in the morning when the tunnel people came on duty.

Once again we had planned to have a barbecue but with a busy towpath beside us I ended up cooking everything in the oven!

Slaithwaite to above Marsden Visitors Moorings 42E

2.77 miles
21 locks

Slaithwaite Visitors Moorings (Huddersfield Narrow Canal) – Saturday 20th July

We arrived back on Mary H on Thursday early evening.  We opened the doors and the heat hit us – we opened every window but everything was really hot.  We moved the boat up to the services and unloaded the car – the plants survived their 500 mile round journey and looked really lovely at home.  We then moved across the canal and moored outside The Aspley, a pub restaurant, sorted out the boat and then availed ourselves of their fayre.  We we sat outside watching the boat (which meant we didn’t have to shut the boat up) and had a very good meal.

Emerging from Sellars Tunnel into Lock 3E

On Friday Richard took the car down to Barby Moorings which will be Mary H’s new home in the winter.  Penny and Jim met him there and brought him back to Huddersfield.  Meanwhile Muffin and I fried in the boat – it got up to 32 degrees at one stage though there was a cool breeze blowing up the canal at times.  The travellers arrived for a late lunch then Penny and I hit Sainsburys – it was nice and cool in there!  Penny left Jim with us and drove over to Crewe to stay with our cousin for the weekend.

Kirklees College

We were up at 7am this morning and ready to leave just after 9am - we wanted to get a head start before it got too hot.  We weren’t too sure how far we would get so just headed off into the unknown!  We had heard some real horror stories about the Huddersfield Narrow Canal – would they turn out to be true!

Leaving Lock 3E into the new narrows

The University surrounds the canal as it winds its way out of Huddersfield.  However the buildings are not what you would expect as many of the old mills have been converted into student accommodation and faculty buildings though there are a few more modern additions. 

Coming into Milnsbridge

A lot of the first part of the canal has been rebuilt so you get the mixture of the new and the old – in places it is rather like a whole new canal.

Milnsbridge

As you leave Huddersfield the old mills still surround the canal – some derelict, some converted for new industry and some for flats.  Milnsbridge is quite pretty with a combination of old mills and new flats.  Next stop is Linthwaite though the canal passes a fair distance away but the valley is dominated by Titanic Mill which was opened in 1912 and closed sixty three years later – it is now flats and a health spa though I really don’t think the balconies look right.

Titanic Mill

We arrived in Slaithwaite (pronounced Slaw-it) about 4.30pm having followed a single hander for 8 or 9 locks – we did try to help him as much as we could but it really did hold us up.  As we went through the last lock of the day, number 21, there were four visitor’s moorings but they were all taken – so what to do!  The single hander moored up close to the services and we breasted up alongside – there was nothing else we could do.  We had planned to have a barbecue but it wasn’t possible so it was a trip to the fish and chip shop.

Aspley Basin to Slaithwaite Visitors Moorings

4.81 miles

21 locks