Thursday 30th October.

We reluctantly dragged ourselves out of bed as today was going to be the last day of our cruise, well almost. It was still and quite warm when we set off and stayed that way all day too. We were soon at Shepley Bridge and with a couple of boats to go down ahead of us  we dropped the rubbish off at the services and helped them down.

I thought I would try my hand using the 'hand spike'. We have a pick axe handle which does the job. However we didn't find any locks on the Calder and Hebble section we completed on this trip that you needed one for as there seemed to be at least one of the paddles that had more conventional paddle gear. Indeed several of the hand spike mechanisms didn't seem to the functioning.

Beautiful brick and stone work with nice sweeping curves to the Shepley Bridge Lock from the river. 

The time on the river is very short after Shepley Bridge as you just go across the head of a loop and through Greenwood Flood lock that was open for us today.

The Greenwood Cut and lock seem very remote and rural. We didn't need to worry about the warnings of flood conditions today.

Once we descended again from Greenwood lock into the River Calder we were really going slowly so as to make the most of our last day and the glorious cruising weather.

An old riverside crane is left among much more modern factory buildings giving clues to the importance of the river traffic in times past. The floating barrier prevent you going any further down river towards the weir and  you have to pass through the Thornhill Flood lock

Once on the Thornhill Cut it again seems rural but I think that this is because the mines and industry have all gone and all that remains are the railway lines and bridges, some of which are actually still used by trains and not cyclists!

Thornhill Double Locks bring a bit of canal interest to a long cutting through the area. The two locks are set on a bend with an oval shaped pound between. At the foot of the lock is where the Dewsbury Arm leaves the Calder and Hebble Canal. This is us  just vacating the lock with help from the lads we met the other day who are on their way back from Wakefield and going to take over the lock from us. On the left is the by-wash of the lock and as the turn into the arm is so tight for a 60 ft boat I had to get my stern right in there. As there was plenty of rubbish and wood there I thought it more prudent to get Helen to pull the bow round for us. There still isn't much room though.

The canal is very shallow although we weren't churning up the mud very much. The reads are encroaching too but I think that it is because there isn't much traffic up and down this arm. Having said that we did see a community boat winding at the end the next day.

This cast iron road bridge beam is dated 1878. With the horse tunnel and stone buildings it makes  quite a picturesque sight.

This is painted on a building wall but I don't know how long it has been there. You maybe wondering what shoddy and mungo was and it is all to do with the woolen industry. All the long fibres from a fleece were used in expensive cloth but the short clipping and waste from the weaving process were saved. From about 1813 this was mixed with old closed that were recycled. The old clothes were collected by rag and bone men and even imported from abroad. All the seems etc were removed and the other bits were shredded and added with a bit of new wool. This enabled a cheap cloth to be manufactured. If the shredding of the rags was even finer it was called mungo. All the bits that were used, or were left over from the making of the cloth were rotted down and sold as fertiliser to farmers and even exported to Kent for the hop farms. A lot of this cheap cloth was made into army uniforms. Hence the word shoddy came to mean some thing that is of poor quality or badly made.

We soon arrived at the basin end. The office was closed as we knew it may be but there was nobody about to tell us where to go. We therefore picked a berth and were just about to reverse down the arm a small way to the pontoon when Amy and Joe arrived in the car. They hopped aboard and we were soon tied up. We had a bight of lunch and then I was off home with them to pick the car up. I was back just after 1700 and it takes about 90 minutes to make the journey. There are a few folk that seem to live aboard their boats which is good as there is always somebody around. At the end of the basin is a coffee shop/restaurant with a pub, The Leggers above. We went for a couple of pints and pie and peas in the evening and folk seemed friendly and the place would be very cosy on a winters evening I'm thinking, especially as it is in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide.