Huddersfield - Wakefield

Arriving at Apsley Basin on Thursday, we were at the end of the Huddersfield Narrow, and in the centre of Huddersfield.  Probably not a place you would choose to holiday in, but that's the interesting thing about canals they take you to all sorts of places you would otherwise miss.
So here's some bits of Huddersfield we spotted...

A wharf crane on the banks of the canal alongside the University buildings.

Re-enforcements bracing the canal sides where the canal has been dug down deeper to allow boats through under the modern bridges and under buildings built over the line of the canal during its closed years.

Coming out of 2 of the locks into Huddersfield the cut went straight into a tunnel.  This was the building site above one of the tunnels.

The Boy and the Barrel Pub

A gas lamp in the gardens beside St Peter's Church

Statue of Lord Harold Wilson former Prime Minister in front of the Railway Station.

We left Huddersfield on Friday afternoon, now on the Huddersfield Broad Canal.  Remember we got stuck under a bridge on Wednesday?....

.....well this is the trolley we pulled out. Now we need to dispose of it somewhere where it won't find its way back in the canal!

Leaving the mooring in Huddersfield we had this bridge to operate.  The Locomotive lift bridge. Now it is worked electronically, but it doesn't swing or lift in the usual way, tipping up, 

The whole thing lifts straight up so the boats can go underneath. The locks are wide now but short. Tacet just fitted and sometimes had to be moved across diagonally to fit in and wriggle the bow over to get out. Some pounds were very short of water so progress was slow.

We moored at Cooper's Bridge at the end of the Huddersfield Broad and the start of the Calder and Hebble Navigation.

4 miles, 9 locks, 1 bridge

Saturday morning we started to work the locks down to Wakefield.  Here there are yet another type of paddle to fill and empty the locks.

Ian demonstrating how it should be done.

With a Calder and Hebble spike.  Looking a lot like a pick axe handle!

Not too tricky. To let it down, you just release the ratchet and let it drop.

Then there were these gate paddles, nicely geared they were quite good, except for standing on a rather wobbly board over the lock.

The gate paddle was counterbalanced with these weights.

At the junction of the Dewsbury Arm we wanted to turn left out of the lock and under the bridge, but there just was not enough room to turn the boat that sharply, so we had to turn around a little further on and come back under the bridge.

On the way to Dewsbury. It was quite reedy, only a short way up to the basin.

Where it was a colourful scene with quite a few boats and a fair at the waterside. However we just turned around and carried on.

By one of the bridges it looked as though someone had sprinkled a packet of wild flower seeds, resulting in this stunning display of annuals. Poppies, cornflowers, daisies, chamomile, and corn corn cockle, I think I could see. Very pretty.

And back to foraging again, look what I found today.

 
blackberries and wild plums (bullace).  We had blackberries with sugar and yoghurt at lunchtime and tonight for pudding had

Plums and blackberries in rosemary syrup

 (without the rosemary)

I didn't manage to find any! Still yummy though.

11 miles, 12 locks