Another day set fair and our decent into Huddersfield. We set off wit the same routine as the day before with Chris going ahead to set the lock, Helen steering and me sorting the locks out with the boat. This pound is a little more open that it would have been as two off the mills have been replaced by lower rise housing.
This mill by Lock 8E is Union Mill, built in 1861, and belonged to the Crowther Empire that were the largest employer in the Colne valley and one of the largest in Europe too. In 1931 they helped to set a record for making a suit from shearing to wearing. With the help of Burton's the Tailors they set a record of 2 hours 10 minutes. There were plans a few years ago to demolish the mill and replace by housing. The mill on the opposite side of the lock, Burdett Mill, despite being one of the oldest in the valley (1838) has been well converted to apartments.
Autumn colour showing the newly painted side of the boat, and not the mucky paint work!
A Miles stone near Lock 5E. It is one mile to Huddersfield. The canal was taken over by the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway Company in 1845. The company became the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. The year of 1848 is probably more of a railway significance.
Lock 5E is a spot where the canal crosses over the River Colne and the railway also passes over on the Lockwood Viaduct. This was built by Sir John Hawkshaw and was completed in 1848! The milestone was next to the new railway, if a little below it!
An old photo of the entire railway viaduct. Sir John Hawkshaw went on to become an eminent engineer as a consultant for the Suez Canal and on the commission for the building of the Suez Canal and for part of the London Underground Circle Line. I think the canal and river run past the building in the middle of the picture on the right hand edge, but I may be wrong.
We had heard that C&RT had had to lock lock 3E as somebody was maliciously opening the paddles and draining pounds. He seems to do this at night and as the pound above this lock is the longest between Marsden and Huddersfield it takes ages to get the levels right again. They have CCTV pictures of him and his dog and he has done the same on several locks. They have locked 3E to try to stop it. Further up the canal 'natives' told me that they had heard that it was East Europeans that were doing it and then scooping up the stranded fish. It just goes to show what sort of stories get put about. We had given them an hours notice as requested and when we spoke to them they said that they would check to see that water levels were okay. They phoned back and confirmed that they were all okay. However when I got to the lock there were chains and locks on both paddles. We called again and they arrived in about 20 mins to unlock them and relock them after we had passed through.
Chris waiting in the narrows before the lock as it was quite drafty today and so was easier to stay put. The church is St. Thomas's and was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott who among other Gothic Revival buildings designed St. Pancras Station.
This part of the canal had been lost to construction over the route so to re-open the canal they had to tunnel under the factories and roads. After the open views at Huddersfield College at Lock 3E the canal burrows down and is lost to the sun. There is no tow path so you have to hope aboard or take the long walk round. Lock 2E is isolated between the two tunnels so must be accessed by boat. When we emerged from Lock 2E we could see that the pound was very low but we kept going on tick over through what had been a tunnel but had been opened out but with beams to keep the sides of the cut and fill trench from closing.
The opened up cut and fill tunnel that ran between Huddersfield University buildings that looked like old mills.
I hoped off the boat as we went through a bridge hole, just in case, and only a little further on the boat came to a halt. I walked on to the nearby Lock 1E to see if the paddles were open and found them chained and locked. We called again to let them know we needed some water running down. After about 30 mins I walked back to 3E and on the way back bumped into C&RT bloke leaving 2E running some water down. I told him the paddles on the last lock were locked and he didn't have a key or the combination for the other lock. Fortunately the girl in the office knew the combination so we were able to make do with one paddle. He didn't know that 1E had been locked so I think a little more communications between shift workers etc wouldn't go amiss. I would have thought that a little coordination with the tunnel bookings and passages with the locks that require opening wouldn't go a miss as then they could have some idea that they should be in the area rather than miles away.
Aground and waiting for water just before the last lock on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.
Once through we were soon past the University and met another boat going up that hadn't known about the locked gates. We stopped at Aspley Basin for water and to dump the rubbish that we had collected on the way down and then found a mooring opposite Sainsbury's. Chris's train left about 1700 so we wandered up to the impressive station to see him off and then stopped for a pint at the station bar before wending our way back to the boat. It was a great help having a third pair of hands as we were on a bit of a deadline. Next time we pass this way we will take much longer to cover the ground and see much more of the Tame and Colne Valley. Thanks again Chris.
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