The Rochdale Canal

There's a really pleasant walk along the towpath of the Rochdale Canal through Hebden Bridge. It has lots of interest and history since many of the old mills and warehouses are still standing, most now converted into residential units. I began my walk by passing under the bridge that takes the road down to the railway station. As in many of our Yorkshire valleys, the roads, rail, river and canal jostle together in a narrow corridor. The building on the right just beyond the bridge is the Machpelah Works, built in 1840, a listed building now mostly apartments but once a fustian (cotton cloth) warehouse.

Beyond is a row of cottages, built in the early 19th century. Its traditional windows with the woodwork all painted in different colours really make it stand out as an attractive focal point.

Beyond the cottages and a mill (that's now a really great nursery where my youngest granddaughter used go), there is a small marina with a Visitor Information Centre beside it, forming an attractive open space in the middle of town. Further still and there is a series of locks and an aqueduct that carries the canal over the River Calder.

Then there are more old warehouses and houses related to the canal. The Rochdale Canal was fully opened in 1804, the first completed Trans-Pennine route to Manchester. (The Leeds-Liverpool, a much longer route, didn't fully open until 1816, although the bit through Saltaire from Shipley to Skipton was open by 1774. )

I ended my walk at the picturesque bridge, though you can of course go much further along the towpath - a very attractive walk.

Mono locks

Bright, contrasty sunshine isn't generally the best for photos but it does make for some interesting shadows and details. Here are some that caught my eye around the 5 Rise Locks. 

The top and bottom of it

The Five Rise Locks at Bingley are such a massive structure that you can't really take in the whole thing from any viewpoint. From the top they drop away so steeply that you can't see them. Even from the bottom, you can't really tell that there are five chambers, though they do look quite impressive.  I suppose you'd need a drone to get an aerial viewpoint but I'm never likely to get one of those! The staircase of locks was built in 1774 and has changed little since then, though they obviously have to renew the parts every now and again. The massive oak gates eventually start to rot in the water. 

There are some more photos and information on the Canal Trust's website HERE. 

Fit for a bride

The double locks at Dowley Gap, a couple of miles up the canal from Saltaire, are in my opinion among the prettier ones, largely due to the planting that has at some time been established around them. There is a fairly modern house right next door that I think might belong to the Canal and River Trust (a lock-keeper's house?), so maybe that explains it. Right now there are two shrubs covered in white blossom that cascade either side of the lock gates. In the sunshine, it reminded me of the flower arrangements that you sometimes see at weddings, on either side of the church door or chancel arch. (Remember the wonderful floral displays at Harry and Meghan's wedding in St Georges' Chapel, Windsor?) 

Negotiating the locks

This rather impressive widebeam boat moored just downstream from Field Locks whilst I was there. I had a brief chat (at a suitable distance!) with the boatman, exchanging information about our respective camera clubs. His was Harrogate, though, since he lives on the boat and travels around, he said he didn't get to club nights very often.

At one time Field Locks used to have assisted passage and a lock keeper used to sit in a little hut alongside, certainly in the summer months, waiting for traffic. The hut is still there but now there are smart instructional signs and the boatkeeper I spoke to had to run up and down opening paddles and generally sorting it all out for himself. He seemed to know what he was doing. A three rise lock is quite complicated to negotiate.

Going up, the top two locks have to be full at the start and the bottom one empty. The middle lock then fills the bottom one and the boat moves a step. The top lock then fills the middle one and again the boat can move. Then water from the canal refills the top lock and the boat can pass out from the lock chamber. You can work out the 'going down' sequence for yourself, perhaps!!

Field Locks

In March, before the lockdown was fully imposed, I took a walk along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal from Saltaire in the direction of Leeds. After Hirst Lock in Saltaire it is a walk of three miles or so to the next set of locks, Field Locks. These are an impressive staircase of three locks in an attractive setting, with woodland on either side.

Open day at Dowley Gap locks

Having seen the new lock gates being delivered (see yesterday) I was keen to enjoy the Open Day they had on Sunday at Dowley Gap locks. It was an event designed to educate people about our canal network and to enable the public to view the almost finished repairs. You can see the new top gates in the photo above (pulled back into the walls at either side). You can also see the wooden dam that is holding back the water of the canal beyond and, mounted on a barge, the crane that was used to lift the heavy gates into place. I'd hoped to see that take place during the week but the day arrived stormy, with rain and wind. Since my eyesight isn't fully recovered after surgery, I judged it ill-advised to walk up there. (I'm hoping these photos are not really as blurred as they currently look to me!!)

The photo below shows the old gates loaded onto the barge. I think the new gates were made at the Stanley Ferry workshops near Wakefield so maybe the old wood will be taken back there. I was looking back in my files and I realised the other two sets of gates at Dowley Gap were replaced in 2013, at the same time as they drained and repaired the aqueduct. That was a much bigger job and I documented it HERE. I was told that a set of lock gates lasts about 25 years before they need to be replaced, so it must be an endless programme of repair work for the Canal and River Trust. There are apparently 1569 locks in England and Wales, so that's a lot of gates!

There were many Canal and River Trust volunteers giving up their Sunday to show people round and chat. They do such good work.

They also had a few activities for children. I watched as they built a model of the nearby aqueduct, carefully balancing stones over a mould to form the arches. The actual Dowley Gap aqueduct has seven arches. The model had three. They were also teaching children to carve stone. Actually, I'd have liked a go but it was rather busy around the table.

(Rather amused to see the two women in my picture above, apparently posing for a photo! In fact they were pictured on a large information hoarding so it wasn't me they were smiling at but another photographer in a previous incarnation!)

Summer Sunday stroll 5

Bingley Five Rise Locks

[The end point of my walk from Saltaire to Bingley along the towpath of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal - although I did walk all the way back home again.] 

And so, we arrive at the famous Five Rise Locks just in time to see a wide beam boat being lifted in stages up the staircase. Two traditional narrowboats can fit in a lock side by side, but the wide beam boats take up a lot more room. Some of the longest boats don't fit either. Lock sizes are not standardised across the waterways network. The locks on the Leeds-Liverpool canal are about 19m long and some locks in the Yorkshire network are even shorter than that. 

Some of my readers may recall the time (seven years ago, yikes!) when I went walking in these locks, when they were drained for restoration of the lock gates (see HERE). The chamber walls look so high when you're at the bottom.

Looking back towards Bingley, the locks drop away so steeply that you can't really see them all. 

The Five Rise Locks are permanently staffed by a lock-keeper, often with several volunteers assisting too. It's such a complicated obstacle to navigate and things can go badly wrong if you don't know what you're doing. There's a lovely tribute to Barry Whitelock (HERE), the country's longest serving lock-keeper, who worked here in Bingley from the age of 19 until he retired in 2017. I don't know who has taken over from him, but there must be some satisfaction in carrying out such an historic role.

When the locks are not busy (rare in summer), the lock-keeper hangs out in his office at the top of the locks. I expect there's a kettle in there but, if not, he can always nip over to the café across the road.

The Five Rise Locks café is a very popular spot with walkers and cyclists. There's usually plenty to watch, if you choose a table on the canal side. Next to it is a service facility for boaters, with toilets, showers and sewage disposal. This stretch of the canal from the locks towards Crossflatts also operates as a marina, with some permanent mooring for boats.

Summer Sunday stroll 4

Bingley to the Five Rise Locks

[Continuing my walk from Saltaire to Bingley along the towpath of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal] 

In the centre of Bingley, the canal towpath feels rather separate from the town. There are a few places where you can move between the two but, because the canal was moved sideways when the relief road was built, there are high walls between the canal, the roads and the railway. There are swans gliding along by the reed beds and the canal feels like an oasis of peace amid the bustle. 

A little further along, commerce intrudes as you pass the old mill that is home to Damart, maker of thermal underwear and now a large catalogue and mail order business. The canal is wider here - another winding hole and mooring spot before the long haul of the Three and Five Rise Locks. 

Snuggled against the wall of the mill, the canal is again lifted, 30ft (9m) this time, by the Three Rise Locks. This is a popular spot with fishermen. The fish must like to congregate in the pool at the base of the locks. 

Beyond the Three Rise, the towpath enters another leafy stretch, sweeping round a couple of bends, hugging the hillside, and offering lovely glimpses of wide-ranging views up the Aire valley. 

Then finally, you round a bend and see the full glory of the astonishing Five Rise Locks, one of the wonders of our waterways: the steepest staircase on the longest canal in the UK.  Built in 1774, they carry the canal another 60ft (18 m) higher, with five lock chambers to navigate. Because of their complexity and the amount of traffic they carry, a full time lock-keeper is employed here, who with the help of volunteers ensures the safety of both boaters and the gongoozling public. (A gongoozler is an affectionate term for people who enjoy watching the activity of boats and people along our canals. Me, I suppose!)

Gargrave walk 3

There is another series of locks on this part of the canal along with some canal basins which allow boats to turn and moor. It's called Bank Newton. At one time there was a canal carpenter's yard and workshops here. The old buildings have been converted into residential property, rather nice.

Just beyond Bank Newton, our path diverged from the canal for a while. The canal takes a series of bends following the contours of the land and our footpath took a more direct route. We passed a grand Georgian farmhouse, known as Newton Grange, which was built in 1800 for Richard Greenwood, 'a gentleman'. It now operates as a wedding venue, with surrounding buildings (some older than the main house) converted into luxurious holiday lets. 

It's a pretty area, with hedgerows full of flowers like this wild rose below

and some curious sheep...

Three Rise Locks

Bingley is rightly famous for its Five Rise Locks on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. A little nearer to the town centre, there are also these Three Rise Locks, just beside the Damart mill. Like the Five Rise, they opened in 1774 and were a major feat of engineering at the time. Both the Rises are 'staircase locks', which means the upper gate of each chamber forms the lower gate of the next chamber up.

The metal bridge rising up on the left of the photo is the Three Rise Bridge, a pedestrian walkway over the relatively recent Bingley bypass road (which, ironically, goes right through the centre of the town, as opposed to bypassing it!). The bridge replaces a much older thoroughfare that went under the railway line, through a dark tunnel, and was known for some reason as Treacle Cock Alley. I do think they ought to have named the bridge 'Treacle Cock Bridge' - much more fun.

Summer evening

Plenty of colour to be found on a summer evening along the canal.  This is just above Bingley's Five Rise Locks, where there is a little café for visitors, with a terrace where you can sit and enjoy doing nothing for a while.

Spot the difference

It's quite a while since I visited Bingley's famous Five Rise Locks, though I've featured them before on my blog, not least when they were being renovated (see here).  There is a bit of a 'spot the difference' going on if you look at one of my earliest photos of this same view, which I've added below. There are two significant differences: one is that the ugly, 'brutalist' modern building in the centre of Bingley that was originally the HQ of the Bradford and Bingley Building Society has been torn down. You can see it in the earlier photo, right behind that tall black chimney. The second difference is that some of the lock gates have been renewed. I think the older painted gates looked rather smarter but perhaps they decided a new paint job was a bridge too far, given the cost and difficulty of renewing the gates themselves.

The lock-keeper's office

This is the top lock gate of Bingley Five Rise locks. Just across on the opposite side is the little office from which the lock-keeper controls the flow of water in the canal, 10 million gallons a day. It's a very complex job which requires a great deal of care, as the system is inherently wasteful of water anyway so they don't want to waste even more. The present lock-keeper, Barry Whitelock, is the longest serving lock-keeper in the country. From the age of eight, he used to watch the previous lock-keeper at work every weekend. He took over the job aged 19, in 1978. I should imagine he knows everything there is to know about locks and the canal. What a pity we can't yet download the contents of someone's brain for posterity!

Staircase

I've blogged about Bingley's historic Five Rise Locks several times in the past - see here and here. It remains a favourite spot for a stroll in the sunshine in any season, though there is of course much more activity to see, both on the water and on the towpath, during the summer months.

Dowley Gap locks

Half a mile or so further along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal from the last lock at Hirst Wood (see yesterday), after crossing the aqueduct over the River Aire, I reached this two-rise lock at Dowley Gap just as a narrowboat was leaving the lock. I always enjoy seeing the different boats. In summer many are hire boats (crewed with varying degrees of skill by holidaymakers!) but this one appeared to be privately owned.

Ducks on ice

More snow pictures - a bit belated as it has all thawed here now (though we might get more... it's certainly cold enough). The canal, with its water being relatively shallow and static, quickly ices over when it is cold. However, up by Hirst Lock where the side channel pours in, the movement of the water creates a small ice-free pool. It's here that the mallards congregate. I am always amused to see them slipping and sliding on the ice; they actually seem to enjoy it, looking like novice skaters on a rink.

C is for captured

Caught, captured, contained, colourful, charming - all the C words seem appropriate to this image framed within the 'C' of the pretty bridge at Dowley Gap, number 206 on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. I don't remember seeing narrowboats moored here before, between the bridge and the locks, but one of them looked well-wrapped up, as though prepared perhaps to sit out the coming winter here.

Textures

Final photo in the series from Bingley Five Rise Locks when they were emptied for repair work. Another close study: stone, wood, metal, moss and weed - all provide interesting textures.  Don't be fooled by the scale though... these are huge structures!  The portion of the gate showing in the top photo is about ten feet (3m) high and the whole gate is something like 23 feet (7m) tall.  The men in the photo below were both around 6 feet tall and only just reach the third horizontal beam.

Detail of the lock gates

It was an interesting climb down through Bingley's Five Rise locks.  I was mostly looking out for the best way of capturing the scene as a whole - the height of the walls, the sheer size of the space inside those five lock basins and the steepness of the rise.  In some ways you get more sense of the staircase from further away, down the canal, than you do when close up to it (or in it!)  Along the way though, I also became enthralled by the textures and shapes.  The new wood and metal of the gates was lovely - so solid and beautifully crafted.  The moss and (sea?) weed on the stone walls, usually underwater, also provided some interesting colour and texture.