APE STEAKS

TUESDAY 6TH JULY 2010

First thing in the morning I spoke to the BW Regional Manager who said that the twenty foot deep Tuel Lock would not be reopened until the following week, they were intending to bring their own pumps in, but this would take some time to organise and install. As there were no services before the Tuel lock, he strongly recommended that we back up to the nearby winding hole, turn around and head back to all the facilities of Hebdon.

Before we took his advice I took this picture of the strange wood carving that was just the other side of the wall from our overnight mooring and then we did as recommended and returned to Hebdon Bridge.

It was a beautiful afternoon and the BBQ was lit for a late lunch, John started to cook the massive steaks that he had contributed, but sadly it started to rain, undeterred we squeezed up under the sun umbrella and enjoyed the meal so much so that we all had to have a lie down to help digestion.

LOCKED UP LOCKS

MONDAY 5TH JULY 2010

We woke feeling energetic and decided to walk up to Heptonstall. This is just a mile out of Hebdon Bridge, but seriously uphill, the way up starts on The Buttress which is a cobbled almost vertical path, must have been fun in the wet, wearing clogs. John strode up with Kim not far behind and Duggie was running to and fro between them, but Jacquie and I had to keep stopping.

We all eventually reached this village which time has forgotten, the main road could have been were the old Hovis advert might have been made. A Victorian church stands in the grounds of the ruined 15th-C church and a dungeon and stocks are still to be seen. Sadly the little museum in the school was closed, but one of the oldest Methodist Churches in the world was open; octagonal in shape unchanged inside with its boxed pews upstairs in the gallery as well as downstairs.

Coffee in the local pub and back down we went. It was much easier on the heart and lungs but the downhill slope found different leg muscles and by the time we reached the bottom our legs were quivering.

SKYY was reversed the short distance to the Sanitary Station and we did a manual pump out and filled with water before waving goodbye to Hebdon Bridge. We only got a mile before we were stopped by padlocked lock 7. A notice pinned to the lock said that the locks at Sowerby Bridge were closed because of low water levels. A phone call to Debbie at BW confirmed the situation. The Environment Agency had stopped the pumps that pumps water back into the canal from the River Calder as the flow was below acceptable level.

Duggie and I walked a mile and a half to below lock 5 and were surprised to find the three and a half mile pound to Sowerby appeared to contained more water than many a pound that we had successfully negotiated on the way to the Summit. However we settled down for the evening and were promised an update of the situation in the morning.

HEBDEN BRIDGE

SUNDAY 4TH JULY

Before we left Todmorden we had a wander around the town, the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire, until a reorganisation, passed right under the splendid Town Hall as does the infant River Calder. Statuary at the top of the Town Hall depicts the cotton spinning of Lancashire on the left and agriculture and industry on the Yorkshire side. There is a rich and varied mix of arcitechture in this wealthy town, plus a canal side Lidl store where we were able to refill the barrels with wine and beer.

We were joined by N.B. Convair and her crew as we continued down the ten locks to Hebden Bridge, the locks were evenly spaced out and our surroundings were still rural with the remaining old mill chimney dotting the landscape.

By the time we arrived in Hebden Bridge the shops had closed, but we wandered around the centre and spotted the old pack horse bridge crossing the River Hebden, which not surprisingly has given the town its name. The town is a mixture of old mills, now reincarnated as shops, dedicated to providing the visiting walker with their every need and distinctive weavers cottages, where wool was woven on hand looms. All traces of soot have been scrubbed from the stones and it all looks very smart. The town is also very green; The Alternative Technology Centre is based here by he canal side (www.alternativetechnology.org.uk) and apart from Boots and the Co-op every shop is privately owned.

We retired for the night determined to discover more of this town tomorrow.

THE GREAT WALL OF TOD

SATURDAY 3RD JULY 2010

A meeting was arranged for this evening with friends Geoff and Annie who live at Marsden, which is at the East end of the Standedge Tunnel, on The Hudderfield Narrow Canal. The decision had been taken not to cruise this route as neither Jacquie or I really fancied the three mile plus trip through the tunnel or the 42 locks leading to it, so Geoff and Annie agreed to meet us at Todmordon

We stopped for water after the first two locks and then continued down the remaining 10 locks, under the first skew railway bridge in England, probably the world and past the immense brick wall that stops the railway line from falling into the canal, four million bricks it took to build, but sadly it doesn’t make for a particularly exciting photo
.

Ahead of us was the first guillotine lock that I had encountered, John operated it via our BW key and we passed under it and the road and emerged right into the centre of Todmorden where BW had provided excellent moorings with full facilities. The Golden Lion pub shared the same stretch, but it seemed very quite.

We were enjoying an al fresco dinner on the canal side with Geoff and Annie when unfortunately it was cut short when they were called away to collect a sick daughter, but we agreed to meet up again on Wednesday, probably at Cooper Bridge.

It was noticed how quiet the pub was when we turned in earlier than expected, but at one o’clock in the morning we were awakened by lots of shouting and yelling, I was already out of bed and pulling on my shorts when I felt the boat rock as somebody jumped onto the roof,. Fearful for Jacquie’s roof-top flowers, I shot out the rear hatch, letting everybody know that I was prepared to kill if they didn’t get of the boat. They must have thought I sounded as if I meant it, as I by the time I got fully onto the rear deck there was no one on the boat.

John joined me moments later and we stood guard until two o’clock when the pub closed and the noisy revellers tottered off home. This has been our only experience of silliness and is to be expected if you moor close to a pub especially at a weekend.
Our wives welcomed us back to bed and we slept soundly late into Sunday morning.

THE SUMMIT

FRIDAY 2ND JULY 2010

Right on time Ray, in his distinctive blue BW shirt was on top of the lock waving us in to the highest broad-beam lock in England and we paused as we exited the lock for a celebratory photograph.

The crossing of the summit was grand, the sunshine showing off the hills to their absolute best and Ray met us at the East end of the summit to set us of on our down hill path, it should be much easier now as we would be taking a lock full of water with all the way, in fact so much so that it was washing over the top of the lock gates.

We only went down six locks, stopping just before lock 30 to visit the Gordon Rigg garden centre, but as the scenery was so splendid we stayed the rest of the day, sunbathing on some handy stone slabs and lunching with a bottle of fizz in recognition of our safe delivery over the Rochdale Summit.

In the evening we trooped down into the village of Walsden to the famous Grandma Pollard’s fish and chip shop, refreshing ourselves on the way in the snug of a convenient little canal side pub. Without doubt the fish chips and mushy peas, served to us in the open air were the best that any of us could recall eating before. We returned to SKYY with the biggest vanilla slice and custard tart you can imagine, yummie!!

SCRAPPING THE BOTTOM

THURSDAY 1ST JULY 2010

Fortunately the water level had risen and with the advantage of a boat coming the other way. bringing a lock full of water with it, there was just enough to get through the first few locks, but on several occasions John had to reverse and get the bow back into the channel as we steadily made our way up past the old Courtaulds factory.

As SKYY entered lock 41 she did get stuck on the sill, a note on the lock said not to draw off water from the upper pound, but to phone the lock keeper. We waited twenty minutes, but when no reply was received to my phone message, we let just enough water in to scrape over the sill and into the lock with enough water left to climb the remaining three locks.

There are delightful moorings provided just before West Summit Lock 37 and here we would have to stay until Ray the lock Keeper would hopefully set us on our way over the Summit first thing tomorrow morning.

Our surrounding was so tranquil and private that it was decided that all the men would be given a haircut. John was first, Jacquie efficiently handling the electric clippers, I was next and finally a pretend session on Duggie, just to get him used to us using clippers on him.

A walk along the summit was encouraging as there appeared to be plenty of water up here, not to mention the wonderful views. We refreshed ourselves in the Summit pub; people are so friendly and helpful up north, there was half a dozen eggs on one of the tables and Jacquie asked the person who she thought might have owned them where he had got his eggs from, he straight away offered to drive me the half mile or so to the free range egg small holding, I accepted his offer and soon returned with eggs so fresh they were still warm! And he reluctantly accepted a pint as thanks.

It was a relatively early night as we had to be up and ready to go at 8.30 the following morning

FEELING FLAKEY

WEDNESDAY 30th JUNE 2010

Kim and John arrived earlier than expected allowing us time to walk up to Hollingworth Lake. This beautiful lake had been dug as a reservoir for the Rochdale Canal, but like most of the other reservoirs it can no longer be used to supply the summit and is now used only for leisure. After a refreshing drink by the lake, one by one we succumbed to temptation and four 99’s complete with chocolate flake were devoured, thus setting the pattern for giving into temptation for the rest of the week.

I had phoned BW and booked our passage over the summit for Friday morning, another 8.30am start and to take some of the strain of Thursday we pulled the pins at 5pm and were through the first three locks without two much trouble, but we did have to stay in the centre of the canal as the water was quite low.

We stopped before lock 45 and John and I strolled up towards the summit and was dismayed to see the pound beyond 39 to be virtually empty, we could only hope that by the morning some water would have flowed down as the summit was up to level.

On our return we finished this beautiful day with a candlelit dinner besides the lock