Shipley to Dowley Gap.

Another short day today, but unlike yesterday we made a deliberate attempt to leave late! I had a bit of shopping to do up in Shipley anyway, so it was nearly 11:00 by the time we untied and set off.

A short row of soot-stained cottages alongside the canal stand amid the modern office blocks on the edge of Shipley.
 

Saltaire is just a short distance away, the legacy of industrialist Titus Salt. A mill owner in Bradford initially, he recognised that the poor conditions of his workers’ lives should be improved, and had a new mill and village built out in the country, naming it Saltaire. It wasn’t all philanthropy, happy workers make better workers.

New Mill on the right, now more often known as Salt’s Mill.

Fine campanile tower


A cluster of boats under Saltaire Bridge

There are only short-stay visitor moorings at the mill, although between here and Hirst Mill Lock there are rough moorings on the towpath side. These boats are all trading, a cafe boat, trip boat and a trader selling painted canal ware.

Hirst Mill Lock is deep and usually busy with folk walking and visiting the nearby garden centre. There’s a swing bridge to negotiate just above, too. 

There’s a wooded section now, ending at the aqueduct where the canal crosses the Aire, then the staircase pair of locks at Dowley Gap are reached.

The pound here was down by several inches, and I got a fuzzy shot of a squirrel rooting in the strand.

Dowley Gap Aqueduct


Dowley Gap Locks


Staircase locks always appear very deep, the actual rise here is around 18 feet.

Clough-type paddle gear on the top gates, sadly out of commission.

We usually moor just past the next bridge, and that was the plan today. We were amazed to see so many boats tied up in what is normally a quiet spot! 
We got in just around the corner, though. A bit shallow but that’s common.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading up the 3- and 5-Rise Locks at Bingley.

Locks 3, miles 3

A waste of an early start.

I was up at my normal time today, around 07:00, but what was abnormal was firing up the engine at half-past! Not to go far, though, just a couple of hundred yards back to the water point. The tap here is extremely slow, so I got it started, took Meg for a walk and had breakfast and the tank still wasn’t full! By nine we were ready to go, though.

You can tell the temperature from Mags’ apparel. This was Wednesday afternoon, hot and sunny…


…and this is this morning, overcast, breezy and cool as she negotiates Mitchell Swing Bridge. Still smiling, though.


We had another manual swing bridge to deal with, at the waterworks, before arriving at the bottom of the triple staircase of Field Three locks. The bottom chamber was empty…

… “Oh good”, thought I, “Just the middle and top chambers to fill then we’ll be up like a dose of salts”.
Not…
I walked up to set the upper two chambers, leaving Mags on the lower landing, and found a single-handing wide-beam just coming into the top. Bugger.
Him being wide precluded the option of doing a shuffle part way, so I acted as volunteer lockie and brought him all the way down. Then I had to refill both the middle and upper chambers while Mags was heading in to the bottom.
By the time she was up well over an hour had elapsed, when we should have been up and gone in less than half that time.

Mags in the top chamber of Field Three.

And the sun has come out!

I had to make a visit to the weed hatch above the locks to remove what appeared to be a dog bed from the prop. Mags had picked it up while coming in to the bank to pick me up. Never had one of those before…

Heading towards Shipley we had three more swing bridges to deal with, two manual ones and the recently upgraded Dock Swing Bridge.

Oddies Swing Bridge


Dock Swing Bridge, now mechanised

The old manual mechanism here was a pain, involving using the windlass to wind down the bridge deck wedges and then to wind open the bridge, and that was after fighting with the recalcitrant locks on the road barriers. Now it’s just turn the key and press the button. Ace.  



Looking on old maps there’s no indication of a dock on the canal here, but Dock Lane crosses the canal, and heads to the river just to the north. Baildon Bridge Mills, Lower Holme Mills and a worsted mill all occupied sites on the river, so is it possible that the dock the lane ran to was a river wharf? I’m not sure that the Aire was navigable this far up, though.

Coming into Shipley, Dockfield Mill sits almost opposite the old entrance to the Bradford Canal, on the left just this side of the next bridge.  

There was a gap on the visitor moorings in Shipley, at Salt’s Wharf, so we pulled in there at around noon. We were going to push on to Dowley Gap, but we’ve time on our hands and it’s OK here.


After a cool but dry day the forecasted rain moved in this evening. It’s certainly turning autumnal now.

Locks 3, miles 4

A couple of short days.

After two heavy days (at least by our standards) we’ve had two gentle ones.  Yesterday we only did one swing bridge and half a mile! But we had to deal with a large Tesco order too…

Mags comes through Owl Swing Bridge


And this is where we finished up, just a little way up the cut, just before Calverley Lodge Swing Bridge.

We spent several nights here at different times earlier in the year while waiting for stoppages to be finished. The way south from Leeds was impassable after the Christmas floods.

Slightly further to go today, and a fill with diesel, but we still had a lie-in, getting away at around a quarter to eleven.

Wooded banks…


…and open spaces as we head towards Apperley Bridge 

We topped up the diesel tank and had a good chat at Apperley Bridge Marina. We got to know the manager here well during our enforced stay in the area.

Leaving the marina with a full tank.


Millman Swing Bridge, my nemesis.

This bridge died on me last January. I’d got the barriers shut across the road, but the bridge wouldn’t swing. Then the barriers wouldn’t release either, so there we were with road and water traffic at a standstill till a CRT chap came and sorted it out. Not an experience I wanted to repeat, and luckily today I didn’t have to!

Just the double staircase Dobsons Locks today, and a chap was emptying the bottom chamber as we approached. He was at the top, filling his water tank, and was setting up the chambers. But it meant that we could do the shuffle between the two, him coming down and us going up. Saves time and water.

Doing the shuffle at Dobsons


We moored above the locks, once again a spot we’re very familiar with.

It’s been lovely weather these last two days, but it looks like we’re due for a change tomorrow. Ah well, it was good while it lasted.

Hi Debbie. Thanks, yes she's so much better now. The lump has almost gone and it's not bothering her at all.
Hi Naughty-Cal. Nowhere recommended, though there are visitor moorings at Kirkstall. Plenty of places you could stop besides, but this end of Leeds doesn't have a good reputation. I thought it was getting better before talking to the lockie at Newlay... Shame, really.

Locks 2, miles 2¾ (both days)

Leaving town and heading for the hills.

We had a quiet night in Granary Wharf, well, quiet-ish, punctuated by the trains coming into Leeds Station not far away. But it was a fine night when Meg and I went out for a pre-bedtime stroll. I took the camera with me…

By nine-fifteen we were reversing out from our pontoon mooring between the Hilton Doubletree and Candle House, and heading to Office Lock. We had a 10 minutes wait before I could set the lock, a CRT chap was raking all the weed away that had collected overnight around the top gates. The canal is very weedy this year.
We cleared the lock at a quarter to ten, so not so bad.

Leaving Office Lock.

The cream stone building on the right was the navigation authority’s local office hence the name of the lock.

Weedy water


Soot-stained stonework and modern apartment blocks

The locks come steadily as the canal climbs up out of Leeds, following the Aire Valley. St Anne’s Ing Lock is a single chamber, but Oddy’s is a 2 rise staircase. There are several staircase locks this side of the summit, the most notable of course at Bingley.

Oddy’s Locks alongside Castleton and Canal Mills.


Spring Garden Lock follows, just a single, this, then there’s a pause of a couple of miles before the next at Kirkstall.

I do like the design of this railway bridge near Armley…

…it’s a lot wider than it looks, too! Lots of rivets!

Built in 1846 it’s a basic truss design, but with the addition of fabricated formers supporting the track bed.

Kirkstall Lock seems to be out in the country but it’s an illusion. The tentacles of Leeds suburbs stretch out further than this but are hidden from the canal.

The remains of Kirkstall Abbey are visible above the trees on the other side of the river valley, another victim of Henry VIII’s campaign to smash Papel power in England.


Two triple staircases come next, Forge Three then Newlay. We met lock-keepers at both, although off-season you’ll be lucky to see one. They’re not complicated anyway.

Mags in Forge Locks


And in Newlay


Carved stonework acts as a channel to carry surplus water down the flight.
The lockie here, Craig, was accompanied by another guy, not in CRT uniform, so I assumed it was a friend keeping him company. Not so. There’s been a fair bit of bother from gangs of local kids here through the summer from a nearby “sink estate”.
They’ve been interfering with the locks and harassing walkers, joggers and cyclists. So CRT have engaged a security company to keep an eye on things. And there was me thinking that things up here were getting better…

Leaving the top of Newlay Three, Craig on the right, the "minder" on the left. He’s got a large dog in the van, too…

The locks done for today, now we’ve three swing bridges, the L&L is known for them.

First L&L swing bridge, at Rose Mill


I remembered that the next, Moss Swing Bridge, is very heavy. It hasn’t improved in the intervening period… The next, in Rodley, is however opened by just a gentle push.

We pulled in on the 7 day moorings next to the main road bridge the other side of Rodley.

Not the best spot for a peaceful night, but ideal for our Tesco delivery due first thing in the morning.

After a heavy day today we’ll just do a short one tomorrow. Up to Apperley Bridge for diesel, I reckon.

Locks 12, miles 6½

Meg gets the all clear and we head up to town.

Meg’s follow-up appointment with the vet was Friday evening, and they were pleased with progress so signed her off, with instructions to keep her nether regions clean and another 2 weeks of antibiotics to administer. Not a problem at all. Thanks for the messages, everyone.

We could have left Castleford yesterday, but I was waiting for a package to arrive at the local Argos which didn’t arrive until noon. By this time the predicted heavy showers had arrived, and stayed with us all afternoon and evening. So we chose to stay put and get an early start today.

A fine sunset on Thursday evening
 

Heading off to Castleford Lock at 08:17!


Yesterday’s rain pushed the river up a foot, and I was concerned that they might have closed the flood lock. But the level had dropped by six inches this morning and the lock was still open both ends. It wouldn’t have been a problem had it been shut, we’d just have had an extra one to do today.

Through Castleford Flood Lock


After spending several days relying on solar power and tick-over charging the batteries were sucking up the amps providing by the two alternators as I wound up the revs out on the river! 90.8 amps!




There’s not much to see along here, trees on the banks obscure any views. There used to industry along here, all long gone now, of course. Several collieries used the river as a means of transportation for coal, on both sides of the river. Opencast mining also took place on the north side of the river, delivered to loading staithes by wagon. At this time, up to the mid 20th century, the navigation ran in Methley Cut, with Kippax Lock to the east and Lemon Royd Lock to the west. Subsidence from this activity caused the channel to be re-routed into the natural-looking river route we use today.

1950s route, with Methley Cut, Kippax Lock and the old location of Lemon Royd Lock

Current route. Parts of the old Methley Cut can still be discerned.
The new position of Lemonroyd Lock is just off picture.
Maps from http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15&lat=53.7456&lon=-1.4038&layers=10&b=1 . Use slider at bottom left to change transparency of overlay.

The removal of Kippax Lock explains the depth of Lemonroyd Lock. It has to cope with the change in river height for both that and the old Lemon Royd Lock.

Lemonroyd Lock, 14½ feet deep


All the locks today were on self-service, and all were tackled on our own!

We got caught in a heavy shower while the lock was emptying, Mags was all right though, she was inside…

Above the lock is a disused oil terminal and a short arm leading to the site of Fleet Lock, dropping down onto the river. From Lemonroyd to the flood lock at Knostrop the navigation is entirely artificial with the river running to the north and east.

Tanks and wharf at Fleet Oil Terminal


Woodlesford and Fishpond Locks were passed, the navigation now passing under the M1 and entering the southern fringes of Leeds.

Giraffe in the garden at Fishpond Lock


Concrete bowstring bridge, one of a pair crossing the canal and then the river. The M1 crossing can be seen beyond.


Flood allevaition work is still going on at Knostrop




Cormorant-shaped bookends…


The service pontoon has been repaired after the floods…

Last December…


We went up Leeds Lock, below the Royal Armouries Museum (well worth a visit) and carried on through the city.

Leeds Lock, Knights Way Footbridge and the Royal Armouries on the right

We didn’t intend to moor in Clarence Dock, fortunate really as there was no room on the visitor moorings.

Elegant Crown Point Bridge


ASDA headquarters


It started to rain again (you can see the spots on the lens on the above picture) so that was the last picture. But around the corner is River Lock, and out came the windlass. From now on all the locks are manually operated.
There was plenty of space on the moorings at Granary Wharf, we finished up near where we spent several days during the floods last December.

A long day coming up for tomorrow; up the locks out of Leeds.

Locks 6, miles 10½