Last 24 august

Bingley Locks (again)

We are moored at Bingley in the pound between the 5 and 3 rise locks, with a fantastic view of the 5 rise from our saloon window. We are going to be staying for around 5-6 days until our friends Lyn and Kevin arrive for a few days. I think they will see quite a difference in the boat as they haven’t been aboard since it’s launch 14 months ago. My first narrow boat experience was with Lyn way back in 1980.

I’ve just sorted out all my jam jars and a carafe so I can make some blackberry & plum jam and liqueur. We knocked on the fire station door this morning to see if they would mind if we picked some of their plums, they said yes, as long as we give them a jar of jam and don’t climb the tree.

We had a lovely time when Edmund came to stay while we were moored at Shipley. He had lots to tell us about his emergency ambulance crew training. He did his first ever blue light training drive over Tower Bridge. He brought his training manual with him as the next module was obstetrics. So we happily chatted about normal and breech deliveries, haemorrhages and all the other emergency delights he may stumble across on a daily basis. He chauffeured us over the Pennines to The Overell household for a BBQ for Lance’s first birthday. Lance is such a lovely little crawler, he’s progressing so well after all the worry and concern we had in the last few weeks of Heathers pregnancy because he wasn’t growing.

One of the Bingley lock keepers promised to give us an oak tree sapling. So he cycled to see where we were moored and dropped the pot off while we were out. We looked up some information on oaks and they are around 40 years old before they start to produce acorns. This will mean we’ll be 95 and 98 years old and counting down the years to getting a telegram from the king.

Saltaire on the outskirts of Bingley is a heritage town, similar to Bournville. The mill owner Titus Salt wanted a better environment for his workers as their life expectancy in Bradford was mid 20’s. The mill building is now an art gallery and shops.

We caught the train from Shipley into Leeds on bank holiday Monday for the carnival. It was a lovely hot day and we met up with the people we’d come down the Bingley locks with. It was a short version of the Notting hill Carnival, all Caribbean style mas bands. We were thrilled to chat with our old friends from Rampage Mas Band in Luton, who had taken just a few of their large costumes to the Leeds event. Leeds station was a mud bath and swarming with all the Leeds Music Festival goers as they headed home. We had a stroll around Granary Wharf and helped our Bingley Lock friends by closing the flood lock after they went out onto the River Aire.

We had hoped to moor in Leeds for a good few days, however, there is a 48 hour limit, which is as good as useless really. Plus, the last few locks before you reach Leeds have to be manned by security guards to protect boaters and the volunteer lock keepers from the hoodlums!!! So it was a fairly easy decision not to go further than Apperley Bridge.

We spent a week at Apperley Bridge where we did a good bit of walking, started our first ever home made wine out of blackberries and our step niece Charlotte came for Sunday dinner. After finishing uni she now lives and works in Leeds. 

 

We emailed CRT about a winter mooring near Heather and they confirmed we could stay on the Rufford Arm of the L&L all over winter.

Bingley Five Rise

We’re moored in Shipley today after descending the Bingley locks which consist of the Five Rise (or decent in our case), three and a two staircase. All but the two staircase are manned by CRT staff & volunteers. There were some boats coming up the locks so we had over an hours wait. Another boat joined us for the decent. It was tricky getting both the boats out of the lock as we were both 60 feet long. The other boat lifted their bow fender and we lifted our stern one. Just about all the top gates were very leaky. John had covered the engine & weed hatch covers with tarpaulin but the flow was SO strong his trainers were full of water & trousers soaked. Although we have a bilge pump there was still a good few inches of water that needed bailing & mopping out. This a 7 day mooring which is perfect as Edmund’s coming for a couple of days and to take us to Lance’s 1^st birthday party. I guess the canal will be busy over the bank holiday weekend. We’ll head further towards Leeds on Tuesday.

The scenery up here in Yorkshire & Lancashire is stunning, even when the hill tops are covered in clouds. There are mill buildings some with their tall chimneys scattered everywhere.

We had a good few days when Louise & Paul came to stay, even though the weather was dreadful. We retraced our steps after dropping them back at their car at Salterforth to spend 8 more days in Skipton. I really hope we can get a similar mooring when we go back to Skipton next month for Yarndale. Our bird feeder was VERY busy and we had to buy more food. We’ve never seen so many sparrows and have never seen jackdaws on it before. The starlings spent all their time bickering with each other and we thought a pigeon wouldn’t be able to take off after scoffing a whole tray of peanuts. 

We had arranged to have Nikita & Magnus sleep over while Heather, Jason & Lance went camping, however, the forecast for heavy rain & gale force winds put the kibosh on that. So we had a massive sleepover with all of them on the boat. It was great, the two big kids on camping mats in the saloon, Lance on the floor at the bottom of our bed where Heather & Jason slept. We taught Heather & Jason how to play cribbage. Sunday was overcast & showery but we managed to stay dry during a visit to Skipton Castle where there was a Norman re-enactment weekend and a walk in Skipton Woods.

 

We’ve had quite a bit of a problem when the computer installed it’s anniversary update late one evening when the battery was low and it shut down before it had completed it's update. It seemed to interfere with John’s new GPS, after resetting the computer and reinstalling the update whilst the engine was running it’s now all sorted. And the lens on the camera’s broken. But we’ve got the little camera and the zoom lens is working OK.

Skipton - a hive of activity.

We were moored in Skipton on the 3 day moorings, which gave enough time to do a bit of sight seeing, go to launderette and stock up with provisions before retracing our steps to meet my sister Louise & Paul later this week.

After we left Blackburn we stayed at a very remote beautiful spot near Clayton le Moor (well we could just see the M65),

the photos just don't do justice to the amazing 360 degree views we had.

On the way there we went though an area at risk of serious chemical spillages. Thank goodness we didn't have to batton down the hatches!!!

We then moored on the offside at the CRT depot at Rose Grove, where I fell in love with the ironwork on the outside of the building.

While we were there we strolled to our nearest pub as all but a Green King eatery were closed down. The Gannow Wharf pub is a 'real' bikers pub. Run by a lad whose got family in Dunstable. It was very basic and reminded us of our beloved 'Two Brewers'. They have a mooring so that's a must in October when we're on our way back.

We had been recommended Burnley Wharf as a good place to moor, sister site to Blackburn. It was like the 'Marie Celeste' we were the only boat there. And it was one of the quietest places in a town we've ever moored. While we were there we decided to swap our 'smartish' new phones for old fashioned phonie phones as we were getting exasperated with them.

We paired with another boat to go up the 7 Barrowford locks heading towards Foulridge Tunnel. However, the boat ahead was a very novice hire boat crew who opened the TOP & BOTTOM paddles to empty the lock. So when the lady from the other boat waiting & I went to see why it was taking them so long we discover the pound above almost empty. So that took a bit of sorting out, she helped them into the lock while I let some water into the pound as their wide beam boat was grounded in the lock. We've been amazed at the number of wide beam hire boats up here.

The Foulridge Tunnel isn't too long, you can see through it and it has a traffic light system for entering. There was some amazing calcification on the walls and ceiling. John took great pleasure in hooting his 'honky' horn in the tunnel, which echoed wonderfully.

We moored at Salterforth right next to 'The Anchor' pub. This pub pre-dates the canal and because the road had to be built up for the canal the pub had to be extended upwards! The current bar was their bedrooms and the now cellar was the bar. At quiet times in the pub the landlady lets customers look at the rooms either side of the current cellar. One room has stalactites the thickness of spaghetti hanging all over the roof as it is now below the water table, quite an amazing sight. In the other room you can see where the fireplace, windows and doors were. They are not sure whether the old cellar has been in-filled or not. 

On Sunday 31^st Heather, Jason and the children came over to celebrate our 34^th wedding anniversary with us. It was a beautiful day and we were able to go for a walk along the canal to Greenberfield Locks. We all needed the loo and luckily we had a waterways key with us so we could used the facilities. In the loo & elsan disposal block there was a swallow's nest. It must've looked pretty funny us all standing in the loo, as people outside wouldn't know we were watching the birds.

We ended their visit with some drinks in the pub garden while Nikita & Magnus played on the climbing frame, Lance enjoyed crawling on the grass.

We've seen a bit of awful boat handling these last few weeks. While at Salterforth we saw a hire boat hit the bridge at a fair rate of knots and took a huge chuck of brick work off. Then another time, along with 4 other boats we were moored with were all hit really hard by a wide beam hire boat. We've never seen so many wide beam hire boats before.

Our next mooring was amazing on the moors, such a shame the weather was not so good, which gave me time to complete some craft projects. I'd started a rag rug 4-5 years ago, so I shredded my dad's old scarves to add into the rug in true canal folk style. One of his scarves is 62 years old which was given to him for his 21^st birthday by his big sister, my Aunty Betty.

 I also finished spinning some sock yarn that my friend Maggie had asked me to test spin & knit 2-3 years ago. The canal at this spot meanders hugely meaning we were 2.5 miles and 1.5 miles each way from a road. John emptied out his solar dye jars. The yarn in the onion skins is an apricot colour and the weld a yellow.

 My little sister from Scotland was visiting Heather and they all wanted to pop to visit, which would've been difficult in the wilderness. As we were preparing to leave I could hear an odd 'fwap fwap' sound, it was Mr Farmer muck spreading just down the hill!!!

We moored at Gargrave with just enough time to give a sat-nav reference to Samantha and Heather before they started their journey.

We were lucky to meet up with a hire boat of lads to descend the locks and go through all the swing bridges on our way to Skipton. Our welcome to Skipton at just after midday was a group of young teenagers on the canal off side, all very drunk trying to pick up their semi-conscious friend. I retrieved their cider bottles out of the cut in afternoon. We've never been to Skipton before and it's a lovely market town.

Blackburn Canal Festival

 

We booked last minute to go to the Blackburn Canal Festival and what an excellent weekend it was too. We offered to help before and after the festival, which pleased the organisers.

We arrived Wednesday and had to pull the boat into the bank as the prop was clogged with weed, John got a black sack full off. The water is beautifully clear with huge fish and tons and tons of weed.

Eanam Wharf has been regenerated over the last few years and is a vibrant area including a Caribbean restaurant with a pub, dance school and offices. As it's the 200^th anniversary of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal the dance school did a show of 200 years of dance and performance. The performances were along the tow path, on the foot bridge and on the other side of the canal. There was a music stage which had a very varied programme culminating in an excellent Ska band on Sunday afternoon. In addition the wide beam boat in front of us had impromptu performers on, our boat hook was used to run the electricity wire from the wharf cottage's tree to the amplifier.

Heather, Jason and the children joined us on Saturday afternoon.

We treated ourselves to a little traditionally painted water-can for the roof.

The arts initiative 'Super Slow Way' that is organising a varied programme of events along the canal for the bicentenary had made huge origami swans that were tethered just behind our boat. Plus the kids could make small swans and launch them down a mini waterfall.

I thought it was about time I dusted off my new Ashford Joy spinning wheel as I've not used it since we've been aboard. As Eanam Wharf was used to load & unload cotton I thought I'd better

spin some, so I did a wool/cotton blend on my hand carders. As Saturday was warm we got some solar dying started too, one with the onion skins we've saved since we moved aboard the other weld that Yvonne had given me. Sadly the sun wasn't out for long but the yarn's looking pretty good in the jars. The jars on the roof and me spinning were quite a talking point.

Blackburn is a mini Luton, in a valley with hills on a couple of sides, shopping centre called 'The Mall' and is the most multi-cultural place we've visited so far on our travels. However, Luton's grade one listed St. Mary's church knocks spots off the rather plain Blackburn Cathedral.

Since our last blog we stayed at Chorley for three nights and Riley Green for five nights before heading to Blackburn. On our way to Blackburn we were a bit delayed at the Blackburn locks as there was a dry pound near the top. We were at the water point for a couple of hours while the CRT chap ran more water through.

We'll be heading eastwards now to get to Skipton for Yarndale in September.