To spike or not to spike?

Thursday, 24 June 2010 19:47

We tackle the locks on the Calder and Hebble Navigation

Nine "ordinary " locks, three flood locks and one flood gate - hmm not a bad tally! The trouble is that the "ordinary" locks were "extraordinary" and some took some doing! You will see as I take you on our journey!

Cooper Bridge Lock was a short walk from our mooring in the flood lock and John set off to "set" the lock. On arrival I found him using the Calder and Hebble "handspike" to open the ground paddles.

Cooper Bridge Lock

Our spike is just a lump of wood - the appropriate sized one! If you want to know all about these unusual lock "keys" have a look at these instructions - clickety click

The locks took us down onto the River Calder sections of the Navigation and the flood locks have large weirs and sharp turns into them

Turning into Battyeford Flood Lock

We continued through Battyeford Flood Lock onto the canalised section where South Pennine Boat Club have their moorings above Battyeford Lock.

Battyeford Lock took us down onto the river again. The narrowboat (a charity trip boat from Shepley Bridge) waiting below was rather too eager to enter the lock so had reverse to let us out! His crew who worked the lock for us did not communicate our presence to him - duh!

Exiting Battyeford Lock

To our left was the river leading to the weir. The river took us to Ledgard Bridge Flood Lock. Last September we cruised up this section in practically flood conditions so it was lovely to enjoy the river in a benign state!

River to the left below Battyeford and Ledgard Bridge weir and Flood Lock

There is a useful Lidl at the visitor moorings beyond the Flood Lock and Mirfield Marine has lots of on-line moorings opposite. Mirfield rail station is here too, so it can be a good place to stop (we did last year).

We stopped for water and elsan at Shepley Bridge wharf. This was built in 1776 as Mirfield's first boat-builders yard. Goods such as coal from the mines and wool from the mills were transported to Hull and then as far as the Baltic. Goods were imported to Mirfield - including dairy products, sugar, wine and tobacco. 

We were overtaken by a 52 foot narrowboat. John had a look at the lock to see if we could fit in too, but as most of the locks are still just over 58 - 60 feet he decided that there really was not enough room.

Narrowboat ahead leaving the lock

Whilst waiting for the lock there is plenty to read on an excellent long storyboard about Mirfield and the Calder and Hebble. There are even interactive sculptures to play with! I turned the rollers to read Wakefield and the boats to face the right direction and took the photo!

Interactive sculpture

Here I took a couple of photos of the handspike gear; the left one is the gate paddle gear and the right one the ground paddle gear. To remind you of how the handspike fiits in look here - clickety click

The internet is a little slow tonight so I shall leave you here in suspense as we had more fun to come .....