On Monday (21/06/2021) morning, the longest day Summer Solstice, we were picked up by Hilary’s sister Mandy in her trusty Skoda Yeti and whisked up north to Sowerby Bridge. The town is part of the Sowerby Bridge ward of the Metropolitan borough of Calderdale, part of the Metropolitan county of West Yorkshire. Sowerby Bridge is situated about 3 miles (4.8 km) from Halifax town centre, and the home of Shire Cruisers (https://www.shirecruisers.co.uk).
We had Suffolk (sleeps 4) and Hereford (sleeps 6) on hire for a week to celebrate Martin’s 60th birthday with his three sisters in an effort to recreate their boating youth.
The South Pennine Ring crosses the rugged Pennines back and forth, taking in the Calder & Hebble Navigation from Sowerby Bridge, the Huddersfield Broad and Narrow Canals and the Ashton Canal before returning via the Rochdale Canal. Martin was advised to at least 2 weeks - due to the number of locks, but he was confident that we could do it in a week with 40 lock/miles per day.
The Canal & River Trust say that the breathtaking scenery on the journey is made even more remarkable as until recently much of the route was derelict. From Sowerby Bridge Basin the Calder & Hebble Navigation heads eastwards. Various improvements have given it the appearance more of a canal than a river but it is prone to changes in water levels so check our stoppages pages before you set off. Flood defences along the route minimise this by preventing high water levels entering the artificial channels. Short branches and old basins make for interesting diversions.
See https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/boating/planning-your-boat-trip/cruising-rings/south-pennine-ring for full details.
We loaded our stuff on board and set off at 14:00 on the Calder & Hebble Navigations passing through three locks that required hand spikes to open them. We were given our handover instructions and then staff met us at the first lock after half an hour to assess our competence.
The Calder and Hebble Navigation is almost unique in that it requires a special handspike to operate the paddle gear on some of its locks. (A similar handspike is used on the Driffield Navigation.)
Some of the original paddle gear has been replaced with more standard gear but there are still several locks that cannot be operated without a hand-spike. Hand-spikes can be bought at boatyards in the area or you can make your own from a piece of 4" x 2" or 3" x 2" hardwood about 3' long, tapered to about 2¼" x 1¾". Hard wood is needed as soft wood will quickly become chewed up. This is used as a lever to open the lock paddles.
Pubs passed by in our wake as our schedule didn’t allow us to tarry. We moored up at Deighton overlooking sports fields after lock 5 on the Huddersfield Canal.
After deciding that the weather was not good enough for a barbecue we settled down for chilli con carne on board our respective boats.
On Tuesday we moved on to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.
We trundled passed an awesome climbing wall (picture courtesy of the Huddersfield Examiner). Higher than both the Tower of London and the Angel of the North, the towering ROKTFACE wall next to ROKT climbing centre is in Brighouse, West Yorkshire.
https://www.roktface.co.uk.
We also passed the Holocaust Centre and Huddersfield Business School before entering the countryside which was littered with old factories and mills.
Industrial heritage abounded but we had time to skip into a Coop at one lock and get some Cornish rock salt as there was no salt or pepper on the boat.
We chugged past the Empire Brewing which boasts that beers are a beautiful thing and we’re very proud of ours here at Empire Brewing. An established micro-brewery situated amongst the rolling Yorkshire hills of Slaithwaite, we’ve been producing fine artisan ales for over a decade.
From a humble garage-based micro-brewery to the slick operation you see today at our boiler house by the canal, our beers – and the way we do things – have come a long way. But our values remain exactly the same: to produce creative and dynamic artisan brewing you’ll love. Welcome to the land of hops and barley. Sadly we had no time to sample their wares.
Some of the locks had guillotine gates instead of conventional lock gates.
We finally moored up at Marsden, poised to tackle Standedge Tunnel in the morning.
We walked into town in the shadow of the Pennines.
We found the Riverhead Brewery Tap for a drink, but they could only offer crisps or pork pies for our evening repast. The crew of the Hereford hit the junk food takeaway but we made do with what was on offer in the pub.
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