Saturday Jun 23rd, Hebden Bridge - Sowerby Bridge

What a truly awful couple of days in Hebden Bridge! After a pleasant Wednesday afternoon when we explored the town centre, it started to rain that evening and went on to rain continuously for 48 hours. And when it rained, it poured. Rain of almost like Biblical proportions sheeted down non-stop.

At about 8.00pm last night we heard a klaxon blare out its undulating wail for about 5 minutes. It later transpired it was the town’s flood warning. And it was needed.

By the time of our normal bedtime the canal level had been raised about 4-6 inches and was flooding the towpath. The park situated adjacent to and below the towpath was just one entire sheet of water. Opposite our mooring, beyond the paved area surrounding the old basins, the main road was flooded completely. Needless to say we stayed up much later than normal just to make sure everything was OK.

When Elaine went to get a paper this morning, she found council road sweepers and JCB’s clearing the muck off the roads and the fire brigade in attendance in big numbers. Shops were sweeping out the flood water and debris from their premises and one assistant told her it was the worst flooding she could remember.

Wow!

With just the last lap to do to complete the 32 miles and 92 locks from Manchester, we were understandably pleased to see a dry morning when we awoke. At the first lock – Mayroyd Mill Lock – we got chatting to an elderly couple who lived on their boat just above the lock. They had had to move their car as it was already axle deep, and said that cars in the town centre just had their roofs showing! They also told us that Todmorden had had it much worse than Hebden Bridge so Lord knows what it was like there!

Approaching Fallingroyd Tunnel

We had a pleasant cruise down the remaining 5 miles and 8 locks (7 really, but Tuel Lane is so big that it counts as two, which it once was before roads intervened). Fallingroyd Tunnel is really the only tunnel on the canal and is notable only for having a broad curve throughout its length so you can’t see one end from the other.

Floods near Mytholmroyd (river on extreme left)

Above Brearley Locks the river (running high and very fast) showed the effect of the rain as it had flooded adjacent playing fields to some depth and area. In a nearby field, a solitary bull had to make do with the grass from a small corner as the rest of the field was beneath a fast flowing sheet of water.

Brearley Top Lock - plenty of water!

There was also plenty of water running over the top gates of the locks.
The second of the two Brearley Locks has been renamed Edward Kilner Lock after a former canal company employee.

The scenery is still of the highest quality although is now a bit softer with more trees and houses on the hill tops which have now receded to form a much wider valley for the river, road, canal & railway to thread their way through.

Indeed, on what must surely be the longest pound on the canal at just over 2 miles, it is difficult to realise you have actually entered Sowerby Bridge because the canal is in a well wooded cutting and screened from all development.

There are still some fine old mills along today’s section – some still in use, some derelict. Sadly Walkley’s Clogs factory at Mytholmroyd, formerly a popular tourist attraction, has now closed and the building is empty and up for sale. The small village of Luddenden Foot has some particularly fine examples.

No Mooring - but who for?

Also here is the smallest section of official No Mooring I have ever seen. It is only about 10 feet wide. Who is it meant to apply to I wonder?

Once through the trees and Sowerby Bridge announces itself with some fine views to the south and a particularly fine mill. There is a winding hole and some moorings adjacent to the market and a car park before the massive Tuel Lane lock intervenes.

This can only be operated by the resident lockkeeper who is on permanent duty from Friday to Monday (presumably to cater for the Shire Cruisers in and out days), but can be pre-booked for other days. It is right that only the lockkeeper can work it as not only is it 19’ 8½” deep, but immediately after you plunge beneath a road junction in another curving tunnel before arriving at the last two locks.

One of the major obstacles to restoration of the canal was the blockage at Tuel Lane where the canal had been infilled and blocked by lowered road bridges. The canal ended in a supermarket car park and was separated from the other side by 50 yards of infill.

The only way the canal could be reinstated could be by tunnelling under the revamped road intersection and by combining the rise (or fall) of locks 3 and 4 into one massive lock. It is to the local authority’s credit that this was one of the first major blockages to be cleared and reopened to boats well before the Lottery Funding that enabled other obstacles to be overcome,

One other reason why only the lockkeeper could work the lock is that the length through the tunnel and up to the next lock has to be kept empty, as otherwise the cellars of The Wharf pub flood and cut their electrics. When England played their game against Ukraine last Monday evening, the regulars were not amused when 17 boats went through and they lost their TV coverage!

We had to wait a good 30 minutes for the lockkeeper to set everything before we entered the lock. There is no need for ropes when you are going down as the descent is as smooth as a baby’s bottom. However, thin plastic-coated steel wires are inset into the lock walls at intervals for crews to wrap their ropes round to keep the boat still when ascending.

Intermediate gates are also provided if a shorter boats (or boats) are in the lock so using less water.

Leaving Tuel Lane Lock

Leaving Tuel Lane Lock

It is a real experience being worked through this cavernous lock and then immediately plunging into the curving tunnel. It was also an experience when we ran aground in the centre of the channel between the tunnel’s further portal and the next lock as there was insufficient water for us to get through. The lockie had to go and let more down, before he helped us through the last two locks.

Mooring at Sowerby Bridge

Once through and onto the bottom pound of the canal, we wound our way through the moorings before we found a suitable mooring just shy of the canal’s junction with the Calder & Hebble Navigation.

To the left are the C&H’s basins and warehouses all now splendidly restored and turned to new uses. Shire Cruisers have their busy hire base and boatyard here.

Made it! 92 locks in 32 miles.

To the right is the C&H which combines lengths of canalised river and pure river sections on its way to Wakefield and to a junction with the Aire & Calder Navigation at Castleford. We are just slightly too long for the locks on the C&H which is a pity as we could have travelled just over 8 mils and through 15 locks to Cooper’s Bridge where we could turn onto the Huddersfield Broad Canal (another one with short locks) and so to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal (HNC). Instead we have to retrace our steps all the way back to Ancoats in Manchester, ascend the 18 locks of the Ashton Canal and then enter the HNC from the west. Hey ho!

One thing the lockie at Tuel Lane did tell us was that the Rochdale Canal has been ‘closed’ in West Yorkshire due to the flooding and we are likely to be here until next week. We had intended to stay here in Sowerby Bridge until Monday anyway, but we may have to stay longer.