Metres from the Bank

A rather grey day with little sunshine, making photos rather poor today,sadly. It was cool to begin with but most of the day was warm enough, especially as we had non-stop locks.

That, after all, is what the Huddersfield Canal was all about: It is the shortest canal route across the Pennines, the Leeds and Liverpool is the longest, and was intended to offer a faster link. The locks are generally quite deep and being close together meant that it would be easier to set the locks and keep the boat on the move. However, this also means that the pounds are short and that one lock full of water often reduces the water level, especially in the shorter ones, by around 300mm. When there is really no much depth anyway, this can slow down progress considerably. If we add in the report that the original workmanship was often poor and the design poorly thought through then it is little wonder that it fell into disuse and has taken a lot of effort to restore.

Two years ago when we came this way many of the locks were still those put in during the restoration and were in a poor state. Since then many have been replaced and it is clear that the local maintenance team try to look after them, The mechanisms are certainly well greased!

The main problem we find now is that not only is the canal shallow but there are precious few places where it is possible to come anywhere near the bank, even to leap ashore. Frequently we had to stop and reverse having ground to a halt on underwater debris. There are many pretty sections and it is a pity that it is so difficult to stop and admire them. For lunch we had to stop in the mouth of a lock - fortunately no other boat came along. All day we have only met a single boat on the move.

Lunch stop

Before setting off, yet another trip to Sainsbury was planned, not only for today's newspaper but also some strawberries and the tin of pineapple to put on pizza that we forgot last night.

Then to the water point to fill up - the one on the service station side of the canal was in use by the adjacent residential boats - and then across to empty the elsan and throw away rubbish.

Eventually we were underway properly and under the bridge out of Aspley Basin that looks impossibly small.

A couple of former wharf cranes stand amongst the new buildings of the university which surrounds the canal on both sides for the first couple of locks. They are a reminder of the prosperity that the canal brought to the town.

Lock 1E - that's a start but there are another 41 to the summit at Marsden. Perhaps we won't attempt all of them today!

We will pass many former mill buildings alongside the canal but these near the beginning are all part of the university.

When the canal was restored several parts had been built over in the section through Huddersfield and different solutions had to be found. The first one keeps the canal open to the sky but the tall piled sides required additional stabilising girders.

Bates Tunnel

Two other sections were formed into tunnels - Bates and Sellars Tunnels. The former is still the next section and means that there is not a continuous towpath between the locks. Signs warn crews to stay on board.

Alice spotted a pigeon nesting on a ledge a few metres inside the tunnel.

Mike spent much of the day teaching Alice how to control the boat as it comes into the lock. She still would need something to stand on to steer effectively but she now is excellent at slowing and stopping the boat which means that both of us can help work the gates and paddles. Alice learnt quickly and gradually started to make her own decisions about when to change the throttle setting!

Sellars Tunnel has changed radically. Although there is still a section underneath the wide road, the buildings over the canal have been demolished since 2011 and the canal opened out. Lock 3E has also been moved. New buildings for Kirklees College stand alongside.

But it is now so close to the bridge that boats have to wait before approaching the lock to avoid being affected by strong, turbulent water flows as the lock empties.

A little further on at the end of the new section is the site of where Lock 3E was when we came before. It itself was constructed during the restoration.

Both girls took an interest in the flowers and plants that can be seen from the canal.

Buildings on both sides of Lock 8E have been re-developed - one of them still bears this commemorative plaque from when it was originally started in 1838.

Jess was now also joining in the lock operation and discovered that she could wind some of the hydraulic paddles all on her own!

She was even more excited when she found that she could open and shut some of the gates unaided.

The afternoon saw some occasional sunny spells which helped to make some stretches look as if they were miles from anywhere!

Christine and Jess walked from the previous lock to look at Golcar Aqueduct with its rounded waterfall in the river below.

Moored metres from the bank

A couple of locks later and it was time to look for an overnight mooring. Everywhere was still very shallow and we had to use the gangplank even for the closest we could get.

3.6 miles - 14 locks