Once you get to the top of the 5 Rise Locks on the edge of Bingley, you suddenly feel very aware of 'place'. The useful signpost says it's 111 miles (by canal) to the port of Liverpool on the west coast, only 16 or so to Leeds at the eastern end of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. Then you realise that to get from here to the actual east coast (the North Sea coast itself, not the Humber estuary) that's about 80-90 miles from here, so we are, almost but not quite, in the middle of the country. (By boat, you'd travel onwards along the Aire and Calder Navigation from Leeds to reach the North Sea.)
I'd only walked 2 and three quarter miles from Saltaire but I'd to do the same on my return leg, so it's near enough a 6 miles round trip from home.
From the elevated position at the top of the locks, there's a rather good view (below) across the fields and up to the St Ives estate on the hill. It looks very green and rural but that's a bit deceptive. The railway line and two roads are hidden in the valley. There are many more houses and industrial units than those two terraces that you can see. The other buildings to the right are the sprawling site of Bingley Grammar School.
A long way to walk, but an even longer way to dig! The navvies did amazing work for very little pay.
ReplyDeleteThe exciting new inland port of Knostrop on the Aire and Calder below Leeds enabled John Harker's 250 ton tankers to deliver fuel to Leeds from Goole. Steam tugs drawing 40-ton "Tom Puddings" square steel containers linked close together moved much coal along the A&C from Yorkshire pits to Ferrybridge power station.
ReplyDeleteThe hills and valleys certainly change the view, Jenny!
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