Monday June 24th, Sowerby Bridge - Hebden Bridge

It appears the canal is still blocked between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden by what we understand is a boat that came adrift from its moorings during the floods and ended up spread-eagled across the canal with one end on the towpath. We also believe access is difficult for British Waterways to get access.

Mind you, on the automated alerts we get by e-mail (for problems all over the network), BW do not specify it is boat, just “blockages”, plural.

Battered footbridge over river and debris left by the floods

Anyway, having spent Sunday doing nothing very much (apart from enjoying an excellent roast beef dinner at The Moorings and seeing at first hand the violence of the river in flood) we have turned round today and retraced our steps to Hebden Bridge.

First though we cruised round the corner into Sowerby Bridge Basin (the end of the Calder & Hebble Navigation), winded and tied up at Shire Cruisers base to empty the loo, get rid of the rubbish and fill up with diesel.



Sowerby Bridge Basin

This appears to be the only place close to the Rochdale Canal where you can get fuel and I was distinctly unimpressed by the price. If you are 100% propulsion (and therefore get no relief by having some red diesel) it is £1.58 a litre!!!!!

Even for us with an 80% domestic and 20% propulsion split is was still £1.08 per litre, and with 150 litres going into the tank, it was a total cost of £162! I don’t think I’ve ever paid that much for a boat refill before. Just over a month ago we paid Liverpool Marina 97p a litre. Don’t think we’ll be filling up at Sowerby Bridge again!

Dewatered pound below Tuel Lane Deep Lock

Having turned back into the Rochdale Canal again, we made contact with Billy, the lockkeeper at Tuel Lane who asked us to come up the first lock whilst he sorted out refilling the pound between the second lock and the deep lock.

We teamed up with a pleasant couple on a Norman cruiser who didn’t mind sharing a lock with a steel narrow boat, although their small fibreglass cruiser did look a bit lost beside us!

Billy soon appeared to get the second lock ready, but told us to wait once we were at the upper level while he ran more water down. We had to wait for him to blow three loud blasts on a whistle; the signal that everything was set for us.

We entered the curving tunnel and entered the deep lock, and once the gates were closed behind us felt rather insignificant being so far down in the cavernous depths. Front & back ropes had to be threaded through the plastic coated steel hawsers set into the lock wall at intervals to hold the boats steady.

As we neared the top, Billy told Elaine that the lock holds 190,000 gallons of water between its outer gates, and 140,000 gallons if the intermediate gates are used. Add to that figure the additional amount needed to fill the dewatered pound below, and something in the region of 300,000 gallons of water is needed to see boats into and out of Sowerby Bridge.

Once through the top gates and having waved our farewells and given our thanks to Billy, we had a straightforward and enjoyable cruise back to Hebden Bridge. Here we waved farewell to our fellow travellers who were travelling a little further to a pub at Stubbing Wharf on the outskirts of Hebden Bridge and three locks higher.

We pulled in just a little beyond where we had spent 72 very wet, exciting and nervous hours last week. We may be here for a few days!