Tuesday 1st September, 2015 in Huddersfield.
Tuesday dawned brighter. The sun made a welcome appearance and we walked round the city centre in the sunshine. We are so glad that we took the trouble; Huddersfield really is a handsome city with a friendly feel and it has an absolute wealth of magnificent buildings, the epitome of Northern pride expressed in its architecture. Believe it or not, this splendid building is the railway station!
The statue is of Harold Wilson, who was born in Huddersfield. No matter what one might think of him as a politician, he did found the Open University. He stands in the middle of George Square, which is surrounded by splendid buildings including the George Hotel. We've been to Huddersfield a number of times in the past but always by car, so all we had seen of the city was from the ring roads. We have now explored the city on foot and discovered it to be a delight.
As we walked back through the centre of town we came upon another Costa (what a surprise!), and so stopped for refreshment.
Back at MM, we set off about midday and tied up at the attractive little marina to take on water and do a pump-out.
We had some lunch before starting down the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. The last time we were on a "narrow" canal was on 2nd July in Middlewich, so the small size of the first bridge came as a shock! Would we really get through it?
The modern University buildings towered over us as we cruised towards the first lock, Lock 1E. The canal is lined with a combination of new buildings and former mill buildings, now all imaginatively refurbished by the University.
There are 42 locks in the next eight miles to the summit pound and the Standedge Tunnel; we are booked to go through the Tunnel next Monday. The first lock comes after only a couple of hundred yards and it looked so very narrow!
We didn't get any further! The Huddersfield Narrow Canal has a reputation for water problems and the pound between Lock 1E and Lock 2E was about three feet lower than normal. There was not even enough water to get MM out of the lock, let alone cruise on to the next lock.
It was now nearly tea-time and R called the C&RT. He was advised to take MM into the lock while they got someone out. A chap duly arrived and said that the pound was so low that they would have to flush water through a number of locks above to get enough down to get us through. He arranged for three C&RT people to come down in the morning. In the meantime, he suggested that we back out of the lock and moor up on the lock moorings for the night.
To out surprise, at 7:00pm, another boat appeared behind us, skippered by a young lady who lives aboard with her two daughters. She moored up behind us to await the C&RT in the morning.
Just as M was cooking supper, a boat came down the pound above Lock 1E accompanied by two C&RT chaps. The boat had come down through Lock 2E and got only a few yards along the pound when they ran fast aground. They called C&RT, who flushed some water into the pound to refloat them. Theirs was a short boat that only drew 18in and, even with extra water, they were scraping the bottom. MM draws 23in, so there is no way that we could have got through. Fingers crossed for tomorrow! Watch this space....
Today: Less than 500yards, 0 locks and 2.2 hours!
Trip: 276 miles, 173 locks and 180.0 hours.
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