A few days R&R in Skipton

We’ve had a bit of an idle few days, a few minor maintenance tasks needed to be done, the grocery cupboards needed topping up, I had my roof aerial cables to re-route. In between Meg and I had some good mooches around Skipton and the area.
One trip took us up the Springs Branch to Skipton Woods…

Walking along the branch, looking back to the junction with the L&L main line.
Airton is one of the Skipton Boats hire fleet. There is a length of long-term moorings along here as well, but they have to reverse in or out, there being no winding-hole.

Mill Bridge

Cobbles

It gets a bit overgrown above Mill Bridge
That’s the corn mill on the right. It was water powered, using water from Eller Beck which runs alongside (and supplies) the Springs Branch.
The short canal was built in 1797 by the owner of Skipton Castle, the Earl of Thanet. He needed a way to get stone from his quarries up on Park Hill, so had the channel cut, to just beyond the rear walls of the castle. Limestone was brought by tramway to meet the boats.

At the end of the branch.
Skipton Castle is to the right, to the left can be seen the supporting brickwork for the chutes down which the boats were loaded.
The loading system was revised due to damage to the boats from the height through which the stone was dropped. A lower terrace, 10 feet or so above the water, was constructed, and the boats loaded from here instead.

Having seen the back, Meg and I went to have a look at the front…

The impressive gatehouse

And the front walls of the castle.
I only got the one picture before I was shooed out by a warden. I hadn’t paid, you see…

Skipton Castle is one of the best preserved Medieval castles in the country. Built around the early 14th century, it replaced an earlier timber motte-and-bailey Norman fortress. Following “slighting”, partial dismantlement during the Civil War, it was rebuilt by Lady Anne Clifford in the mid 17th century.

It was market day in the town as we walked back to the boat









We were moored above the Eller Beck aqueduct, alongside the tall chimney that used to serve the boiler house of Victoria Mill.






Looking down on Eller Beck, the mill, now flats, to the left.
It’s the best town mooring; you get a bit of sun between the buildings and the “spot in the sky” is over the beck. TV on the aerial is dire…

We decided to shove on a bit today. There’s no posted time limit on this bit, but I suspect it’s 72 hours. We’ve been here four days. But we’re not the longest stayers…

Just 50 yards up we had to deal with Brewery Swing Bridge. It’s busy with traffic morning and evening, using it as a short cut, but fairly quiet mid-morning. We filled with water and were just tidying up when a boat appeared and his crew opened Gawflat Bridge and waved us through too.

Gawflat Bridge

This bridge connects to Aireville Park, where Meg and I have had several ball-chucking sessions while we’ve been here.

Past typical Victorian worker's back-to-backs…

…and another disused mill chimney

We weren’t intending to go far, just somewhere past Niffany Swing Bridge. We’re in no rush, our route back to the Midlands will be closed from early November till the end of the month. There’s no way we’ll get past the scheduled stoppage before then, so we’re taking our time.

I like this…

We tried in several spots to get in to the bank, but the Leeds and Liverpool along here isn’t very co-operative in that respect. We did eventually moor just before Thorleby Swing Bridge.
Meg’s pleased. Lots of grass.

Since mid-afternoon there’s been a steady stream of hire boats going past, both from Skipton and Silsden. I guess they’ll be Friday pick-ups. It’ll be busy in Gargrave tonight.

Locks 0, miles 2¼

Brrr – first frost of the Autumn!

Out temperature sensor on the roof recorded 0.3°C in the early hours. Easily low enough for a ground frost. But we had a beautiful start to the morning.





By the time we were prepared to move off, the blue skies had started to cloud over, the wind had picked up and it was quite chilly. I really will have to think about swapping my shorts for long trousers soon!

We had to cruise through Silsden before getting out into the countryside again.
The town’s origins are in agriculture, but with the coming of the canal industry started to appear.
None of the mills and warehouses still perform their original function, now housing light industry, offices or apartments.


The wharf is home to Silsden Boats’ hire fleet.



We were looking at passing 10 swing bridges today between Silsden and Skipton, the first just on the edge of the town. We were lucky, meeting a boat coming the other way who already had it open and was waving us through.

Result!

The next two were even easier, chained back in the open position.

Lanehouse Swing Bridge, the second of the open ones.

Looking up the Aire valley

The river is a little smaller this far up compared to down in Leeds!

Bridges came and went, some mechanised, some semi-mechanised but most manually operated.

Warehouse Swing Bridge at Kildwick

The busy A629 Keighley to Skipton turnpike runs alongside the canal most of the way to Skipton, the canal only moving away to perform a loop towards the village of Low Bradley. It was still following the contour, but it brought industry here too.

Low Bradley Mill, built as a spinning mill but now redeveloped into apartments

Just before the village, at Hamblethorpe Swing Bridge, is a memorial to seven Polish aircrew who died when their Wellington bomber crashed near here in 1943.






The accident occurred when the aircraft, on a routine training flight and returning to base in Cumbria, suffered a catastrophic airframe failure. There was nothing the crew could do. The oldest was 31, an instructor, the youngest just 21.







After the mechanised Bradley Swing Bridge the canal links up with the road again, passing through a pretty wooded section before reaching Skipton.

Into Skipton 

Craven Hall, alongside Pinder Bridge, is typical of the Victorian buildings in the town, built when prosperity from the wool trade was at it’s height.

We topped off the water ands emptied the loos at the sanitary station, then passed the end of the Springs Branch, mooring up around the corner.

Springs Branch on the right.
The branch was built to collect limestone from the quarry up on the hill beyond the castle. It’s only navigable by small craft.

We’ll probably stay put tomorrow.

Locks 0, miles 7½

No locks, but the bridges make up for it…

We moved on a bit today. We didn’t need to; the moorings at Riddlesden are seven day but we were getting itchy feet again. We’re in no rush so didn’t go far, anyway we needed to be tied up by midday for the F1 qualifying. It’s the Russian Grand Prix tomorrow.

We don’t see any locks now till we get to Gargrave, but there are a lot of swing bridges between Riddlesden and there. Eighteen of them in 15 miles… Although two or three are normally left open.

It was a misty morning when I took Meg out, the sun just showing through the haze.



We were just setting off when we were hailed by the chap on the boat behind. He’s singlehanded and wanted to follow us through the mechanised Stockbridge Swing Bridge. It carries a minor but fairly busy road, and it’s very difficult if you’ve no crew. And it takes some time, much to the annoyance of the motorists…
On the other hand, cars passing over Granby Swing Bridge, behind us after we passed it on Thursday, had no impediment. The crew on a Silsden hire boat had tried to open it first thing to continue their holiday and it had stuck in the closed position. They were still waiting for the engineer to arrive when we left 90 minutes later.
So we toddled through Stocksbridge, closely followed by our bridge companion, and then through Leaches. This one only carries a footpath and is of the more common manual operation, chained up with a handcuff lock and opened by hand. Our follower came through then decided to moor up. It seems unlikely, but he was doing less than we were!

Looking south–west over Keighley.

The dip on the horizon is the Worth Valley, the river joining the Aire here. The town was established on the plain where the two rivers come together.

The canal continues on the side of the steep valley for a while, the uphill side heavily wooded and the downhill side giving views over the valley.

Beyond the fixed Lodge Hill Bridge the high ground to the north and east falls away and the canal emerges into more open country.

The valley becomes a lot wider and flatter, sheep country!

Most of the towns and cities on this side of the Pennines secured their fortunes on wool. Skipton, the next major town on the canal, derives it’s name from the Saxon for “Sheep Town”. Conversely, on the Lancashire side, the mills mostly processed cotton, brought in to Liverpool and shipped to the mills by mule and boat, then later by rail.

We pulled in on a length of piling just short of Silsden. We’d tried a few times in the last mile, but the bottom was too near the top, as they say.

Locks 0, miles 3½ 

Up to Riddlesden

Just another short trip yesterday. We’d arranged to meet friends, Plan A was at Skipton, but there was no way we were going to get there, so we decided to have a couple of days at Riddlesden instead.

The weather has changed again, high pressure in charge has brought back the fine dry weather we had earlier last week.

We were lucky with out timing at the first swing bridge; a boat was coming the other way and we were waved through.

Leaving Morton Swing Bridge.

Looking out over the rooftops to Harden Moor

An uneventful hour saw us pulling in on the wharf at Riddlesden.

Autumn colours and swans

Granby Swing Bridge, named for the Marquis of Granby pub alongside

Our friends, Arthur and Wendy, arrived soon after we turned up. They’d parked on the pub car park, so we had to go across for a pint… Supper was easy, there’s a chippy just down the road, and we spent the evening chatting, playing dominos and laughing. A great afternoon and evening. Sadly Wendy was working this afternoon so they had to get away after breakfast but we’ll see them again while we’re up here.

Locks 0, miles 2

Up Bingley… in the rain.

We had some pretty impressive thunderstorms last evening, and the rain continued on and off through the night and into this morning. Coming back from Meg’s walk this morning I spoke to the chap on a narrowboat that had arrived late yesterday, and we agreed to share the Bingley locks. It makes it easier with two boats in these broad locks, and it would have been unfortunate if one had arrived shortly after the other had started up the staircase flights.
So we shared both the Bingley 3-Rise and 5-Rise locks with Martin and Clare on NB … The name escapes me, but it begins with “Moon”  think…

We had about a mile to cruise to the bottom of the 3-rise, leaving the heavily wooded banks of the Aire through Dowley Gap for the heavily developed banks of the Aire around Bingley.

Out of the woods…

…into the mills.

Heading past the Damart factory. The bottom of the 3-rise staircase is just on the corner ahead.
The alignment to the locks is wrong because this is a new section of canal, built when the Bingley by-pass was constructed in 2003.

There are always lock-keepers on these two flights, during the posted opening hours. At other times they’re padlocked to prevent “self-service”. The chap on the 3 turned out to be Richard who we got to know quite well when he was working up at Gargrave a few years ago. There was something different, though. Then he was sporting dreadlocks, now he’s got a close crop.

Mags looking at something in the 3 rise.

Leaving the top, NB Moonshadow (there, I remembered!) following.
That’s Richard on the left.

Only a few hundred yards separate the two staircases, and the bottom lock of the 5 was open ready for us, the crew working here having been warned of our imminent arrival.

The bottom of the Bingley 5-Rise.

I took several pictures while going up, but frankly they all look the same! Dripping, dank walls and a deep cill topped by those tall heavy gates.

Somewhere up the staircase…

It’s a sobering thought that those gates are holding back around 270,000 litres of water…

Well, mainly! 

In the top chamber looking back downhill

There were three crew on these locks so we made the top fairly quickly. I don’t think anyone wanted to hang about in the rain. From entering the bottom of the 3 to leaving the top of the 5 took an hour and 35 minutes.

We pulled across to the service wharf to empty a loo and fill with water, then tried unsuccessfully to pull in on the straight above the lock. There are several boats moored here but they must have been on the deep bit!
We finished up pushing on another half mile, through Micklethwaite Swing Bridge, and moored on piling just beyond.
The day started quite mild, but the wind and rain pulled the temperature down and I was cold and damp by the time we pulled in. Tomato soup and hot, crusty bread in front of a roaring fire soon put the world to rights.

It’s supposed to be a better day tomorrow, we’ll be moving a short distance up to Riddlesden.

Locks 8, miles 2