The "Hud(dersfield) Lines"

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The "Hud(dersfield) Lines"

Thursday, 10 June 2010 20:56

I mean, our Huddersfield Narrow Canal story begins here ..

Before you ask - yes, we are going through Standedge Tunnel!

But we have to get there first and today was the beginning of an adventure. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal (HNC) is one of three trans-Pennine Canals. We cruised the other two last year - the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the Rochdale Canal.

Bridge 111, the start of the HNC in Whitelands Basin

The HNC is the shortest route and the canal was begun at the height of "Canal Mania" in the 1790s. It was built in sections so as to generate income, as capital was hard to come by. In fact, the famous tunnel was not opened until 12 years after the start of building and the canal was dogged by bad workmanship and flooding.

The railway eventually took over all the transportation of cargo and by the time the HNC was abandoned in 1944 the only cargoes were coal and iron ore. Four years later, Robert Aikman (Inland Waterways Association co-founder) made the final end to end journey in his boat Ailsa Craig.

Lock 1W - we start the climb!

Fortunately, thanks to the untiring efforts of the Huddersfield Canal Society, it was reopened in May 2001 after extensive restoration. Now the Standedge tunnel is open for narrowboats, we can travel the 20 miles and 74 locks from end to end! The canal is narrow on the west side of Standedge Tunnel and becomes a wide canal at Huddersfield's Aspley Basin for the last few miles.

Lock 1W has hydraulic gear for the paddles and gates and I remember being really confused when confronted by this 8 years ago! The windlass shaft for the gate paddle gear is on the right of the box, requiring a handcuff key to unlock it.

Lock 1W gear boxes (right box is for the gates)

Once up in the lock

, we could see Whitelands Tunnel ahead. It is no longer roofed over and is crossed by three bridges.

The overhanging trees almost meet!

Plantation Lock (2W) and Tame Lock (3W) follow with Wellington Mill looking over Lock 2W.

Looking from Lock 2W towards 3W

Now I will answer the question I posed last blog - why did we wonder if it was a good idea to fill up with diesel? The approach to the River Tame (Stakes) Aqueduct is overhung with willows pushing us slightly right of centre. As a result .......

...we ran aground!

The river is only a narrow iron cast iron trough away, but the aqueduct is very short

River Tame from the aqueduct

We now began the approach to Stalybridge, one of the most heavily restored stretches of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. As such, it deserves a blog of its own and I will put it up asap!