And we are off.

What a difference a day makes. It has been a beautiful day to day but it sounds as though we are going to pay for it tomorrow. By the time we had got sorted and filled the water tank and dumped the rubbish it was 1100. We left the marina with no trouble but soon realised that the stern fender had sagged and was catching on the rudder. We went nice and slowly down the shallow and rubbish strewn Dewsbury Arm until we got to the bottom of Thornhill Double Locks. We pulled over and I quickly fixed the fender. We were off again in 10 minutes. As we were coming down the Arm we saw our first ducklings, although these were baby moorhens but I don't know what you call them other than chicks. We also saw our first heron so all in all an eventful trip of one mile. We even avoided the shopping trolley!

Thornhill Double Locks with the Dewsbury Arm off under the bridge on the right.

We were soon at Mill Bank Lock passing through quite country that seemed to have been collieries in the dim and dark past. The top gates were open so we were straight in. We took our time as it was our first and we are quite long for these Calder and Hebble locks. Mind you at this end there doesn't seem to be much problem at all.

First lock of the season, Mill Bank Lock, Cader and Hebble Canal

We were soon off and approaching the Figure of Three Locks. There are several ideas about why they have this name. There were three locks as the top lock penned out into the River Calder it's self. It is also said that they are named after a zig zag in the river's course.

The remains of the old lock that ran down to the River Calder.

A beautiful day in the pound between the two Figure of Three Locks.

After the two locks at Figure of Three we were soon at Horbury Bridge and decided to moor up before the bridge in the sunshine and away from the road. After lunch Helen felt the call of the wild and set to replacing plants in our tubs as they had got a bit straggly and wind blown. Apparently Horbury Bridge is where the Reverend S. Baring-Gould wrote the very popular hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers'.

Helen renewing the colour in our tubs. A few more days like this and they will be looking brilliant.

A good rousing tune not really matched by the town it's self, although there are three pubs in a very small area.

The first bridge here was a wooden one in the early 1400's. The current one dates from 1930. It was written and first performed by children here as it was a children's marching song. We can see the floodlights that lit the engineering works of Charles Roberts and Co where 110,000 railway wagons were built between 1901 and 1956. They were one of the first companies to employ women to make shell cases in WWI and in WWII they built 1300 Churchill tanks, half a million naval shells and 1.5 million trench mortar bombs. Later they built the Bombadier Voyager trains but unfortunately they closed in 2005.

Just by the bridge at Horbury is another lock down into the Calder. The wide beam is in the old lock. The basin looks like it was a transhipment place with the extra berths to the right. The local cottage has the number GNR 2 so maybe it was for the railways. Just outside the lock on the river now is a kind of weir but couldn't tell if it was below the entrance to the lock.

We went for a walk to find some cooking marg. as Helen is going to bake tomorrow as it doesn't look like we are going anywhere as it is due to rain and the flood gates are still closed on the Calder and Hebble.

Several people have asked me if I could place a map on the blog so they new where we were on the system so if you look right down at the end of the blog there is a line Location; with the place in words. If you click on that you should get our location on Google maps. I hope it is working.