Resuming our journey Apologies for quite a lengthy absence, we had a significant family health issue to deal with, which is now fully resolved and not expected to cause any further problem. However the account of our journey to Liverpool is now very behind schedule as we actually reached the big city a month ago now. (You’ll have to wait for photos) When I last wrote, we were in East Marton with its double bridge,
and it had started to rain. To be honest, it’s felt like it’s rained most of the past six weeks and as we were leaving the intense beauty of the Dales a grey drabness enveloped us.
Being true codiwomplers we do have the luxury of time and are able to stay put inside if it rains. But undeterred we dodged the showers and continued up the last few locks at Greenberfield.
And shortly after crossed the border from Yorkshire into Lancashire at bridge 149.
Then came the one way Fouldridge tunnel with its traffic lights. Because of number of widebeams using this canal it’s inappropriate for CRT to ask them to restrict passage to 8am as they do for other one way tunnels. So each direction has an allocated 10 minute time slot per hour in which to enter the tunnel and make it’s minute journey into the darkness. Can you imagine car drivers waiting 50 minutes for the lights to change.
We were now descending the Pennines and our first series of locks at Barrowford didn’t disappoint.
In one sense going down is easier because I can open the paddles fully to empty the lock but on the shorter locks it’s harder to open the gates without the helm getting soaked under the deluge from leaky gates.
This is true Yorkshire Dales country. We’re high up and it feels like the canal is still climbing although this is an optical illusion as we haven’t seen a lock since Bingley. It’s because we’re reaching the top of the valleys.
But we still had a few hundred feet to climb before we reached the summit of the canal and locking up began again at Gargrave.
We were a bit disappointed that the footpath closures meant the mooring in Gargrave was restricted and limited, which is a pity because it’s a pretty village, one that we have driven through many times. But the generous side of my nature says it’ll be a fantastic asset to the walkers and cyclists once it’s finished.
We moored one night but then took advantage of a fellow traveller to share the locks
People aren’t wrong when they say this is the prettiest section of the canal, and I think the Gargrave flight definatelty makes it into my top 10 for views. We were lucky that our dramatic cloudy backdrop held onto the rain until after we had cruised.
We were able to stretch our legs with some bracing walks
Thankful that we didn’t have too strenuous a climb to reach the top.
Sadly the weather didn’t play fair and we had to dodge some heavy downpours before reaching East Marton, though without rain you dont get rainbows and I was able to take advantage of a sunny break to show off my Towpath spinning.
It would have been easy to slip through the tiny village of East Marton if we hadn’t been on the lookout for the water point. And the lock keeper had told us that the Cross Keys pub did a good Sunday carvery.
We could just about see Firecrest nestled below us, in the far left, as we ate the best roast beef and Yorkshire pudding we’d had since I last cooked it in Boroughbridge.
Mum decided to take advantage of the scenic drive over from the Lakes to visit us in Skipton. So we decided to take advantage of their wheels and asked for a trip out to visit Bolton Abbey. I’d not been before and thought it was just the ruins of an old monastery .
Well I guess to some extent it is, but there’s oh so much more. Bolton Abbey is really the whole estate village, owned, run, and cashed in on, by the Duke of Devonshire and his family.
There is an active church known as the priory still attached to the ruins which is a place of beauty in its own right, with stunning stained glass
And the most unusual painted alter wall, depicting Madonna Lilies and other symbolic plants.
We could have sat and absorbed the peace that flowed through this building despite its turbulent past, being partially destroyed during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, but the outside was calling us
And as we sat to enjoy the view
We had to have a family photo
Those grey clouds were getting ominously closer so we decided to take a drive through the estate where we were able to stand in the ancient oak woodland and look down onto the River Wharfe and over to the Priests house in the distance
The whole area of Wharfdale is stunning, and I was so lucky to be taken for a drive through it. Even though its so close, its quite different from the views we get from the canal.
Oh good, I thought as we left Bingley, “No more locks for a while.” What I hadn’t realised was that by following the contours through farm land, was just how many manual swing bridges I’d have to open and close. Some were pretty and pleasant but a lot were simply fiddly hard work, needing a CRT anti-vandal handcuff key and help from passers by to get the heavy compressed mechanisms shifting.
But leaving the awkwardness aside we were travelling through some of the prettiest countryside.
And I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of stone bridges
Or houses that come straight down onto the canal
Even the mills across the fields were lovely
We had to chuckle to ourselves that we used to drive this way to and from the Lake District not knowing there was a canal on the other side. Although we could say the same about our cruise, who’d have thought there was a main road just over that wall.
We were looking forward to coming into Silsden because it’s one of the places we visited, if only because it was on our Lakeland route, when we were designing Firecrest.
But we’d never explored beyond the canal. So it was a pleasant afternoon walking around this lovely little town, watching the dogs watching the river ducks
And finding out about the nail trade that arrived in 1776 in Silsden from the Midlands.
We also found out that in the 1830s 3 Silsden men were some of the first to be transported to Austrailia rather than being hung for burglary. So we thought it was time to move swiftly on.
After a few more nights in the countryside
We moored up underneath the Victoria mill chimney in Skipton
We rushed off to have fish and chips from Bizzie Lizzies, another tradition from our 4 wheeled travels. Skipton is overflowing with fine foods, and is the home of several award winning pie shops.
We sampled as many as our bellies would allow. So we burnt off a few of the extra calories doing a bit of walking, and discovered the Skipton woods by the castle, guarded by the Huntress of Skipton.
Our journey westwards continued through some of the loveliest countryside, with the canal following the contours of the land. Land which rolled into hills, farms and valleys with woodland and views in abundance.
And on the whole, we were lucky enough to be traversing this section in good weather. We took advantage of some shady towpath mooring.
We found ourselves next to Low Wood Nature Reserve, which although next to a beautifully manicured golf course to the south,
took us ruggedly upwards through scrambling rocks just begging to be climbed.
Forget the golf course, this was our sort of playground.
And we found plenty of nature around the reserve.
Of course being surrounded by ancient oaks, is an ideal place to build a business if you love wood. Eric was beyond excited when he realised one of the companies he buys furniture grade wood from was within walking distance of our mooring.
And while he oohed and arred throughout the vast selection, okay admittedly I was also very impressed, he was very restrained and only bought a small piece to do some tweaks to Firecrest.
When we downsized to move onto Firecrest, it was Eric’s woodworkshop that was the hardest to leave behind. Fortunately for me, wool is much more squashable and I was able to sneak a lot more into the hidden corners of Firecrest. So when the weather is as good as it was this week I was able to indulge my hobby and sit on the bank spinning.
While we were relaxing and enjoying the world go by we realised every now and then a sweaty runner with a number shuffled past. I just had to ask about their race as they were so spaced out. It turns out they were competing a mega marathon, one of three CanalSlams, which entailed running from Liverpool along the towpath, all the way to Leeds. Oh my goodness that’s 117 miles. Not only is the distance mega, they were doing it non stop. After I’d picked myself up off the floor, I had a look at the website. 59 runners started the race, 36 completed it. There were checkpoints every 10-15 miles and they were allowed buddy runners for encouragement, although the buddies were not permitted to run ahead In case that made them pacers. They were allowed to sit in a support vehicle for up to 40 minutes break provided it didn’t move. They left Liverpool at 6am and the winner arrived 22 hours later. The last – I refuse to say looser- took 39 hours. According to AC canal planner it takes 66 hours for a narrowboat to do the same journey, I guess the runners didn’t have any locks or swing bridges to negotiate. I could have taken photos but I decided I would stand up and cheer as each one went past, I even topped up a couple of water bottles for them. I forgot to ask how they were getting back to the car park in Liverpool.
While we were in this area, we were lucky to meet fellow Braidbar Boaters on Mr Blue Sky. We took it as a great complement that they had designed their boat with a similar style bow as ours and had followed the continuing innovations in using an electric motor.
The mooring at the top of Bingley five rise is tricky. It’s either too shallow or there is a concrete shelf running just under the waterline. It’s frustrating because you don’t know you can’t get in until you try and fail, but this time it worked in our favour because we were forced to cruise on another 10 minutes to Micklethwaite. Close enough to walk back into Bingley and with a number of good country walks.
My trusty OS map showed me that we were right on the edge of Ilkey Moor, so off we went, humming that famous Yorkshire anthem to ourselves
The heather was stunning, and we could see for miles. That’s Keighley (pronounced keithly) on the hill on the far right. The canal meanders along the valley contours below Keighley towards Skipton.
And when we got to the top we realised just how vast and bleak the moor was. Can you imagine what it would be like in winter. Or how easy it would be to get lost. It was less than 4 miles to Ilkey but we decided we weren’t dressed for a proper hike.
It was blowing a gale up here, so yes even if we’d brought our hats we wouldn’t still be wearing them.
It was a bracing and invigorating walk. And as we descended back to the canal we found a nice pub for Sunday Lunch . And enjoyed looking back up the hill, which was a lot higher than the photo suggests.
The next day Eric needed to catch up on a few things so I took myself off to visit Riddlesden Hall, a NT property on outskirts of Keighley
A small but interesting manorial farm house, one of its outstanding features is the 400 year old Great Barn.
It’s collosal and virtually unchanged since it was built. It was used as a threshing barn and also house 42 animals in stalls around the edge. Inside the house is a collection of ornate needlework and some spinning equipment.
Micklethwaite was another lovely base to spend a few days exploring away from the canal. If we had moored at the top of the five rise, we would only have stayed one night and missed all of this.
And for those of you that don’t know the full Ballard of Ilkley moor here are the words and a translation
And the climb continues. Leaving Saltaire we headed off westwards to the Bingley staircases. Eric does most of the helming when we cruise, but as we’d got at least 11 locks and several swing bridges to do in today’s journey, I took us through Hirst and Downy
We’re really enjoying the scenery contrasts, one moment it’s rural bridges
The next it’s those industrial landscapes and mills as we passed through Bingley. Wonder what’s made in that factory.
There are experienced lock keepers assisting passage up and down the Bingley boat wash, I mean the Bingley 5.
And plenty of gongoozelers to watch and help, so it’s quite good fun, and really lovely.
Bingley 5 rise is considered one of the 7 wonders of the inland waterways. It’s a stunning feat of engineering, at 60 foot its the steepest and deepest of all the staircases. It was completed in 1774 and is now classed as a grade 1 listed monument.
Lock keepers know how to draw the water down each lock so boaters don’t end up flooded or stranded. It’s easy to get muddled as each lock opens directly into the next. I’m not sure if that’s a look of satisfaction or relief as we reached the top.
While I just stood and admired the view, before we popped into the top lock cafe for bite to eat.
Can’t believe we’ve only done 16 miles from Leeds. We thing they should add the number of locks and swing bridges as well as miles.