Leeds Liverpool Canal

After reaching Ripon, the Northern most point on the Yorkshire canals I retraced my route back through York and Selby to join the Aire and Calder navigation to make may way to Leeds and the longest canal in the country - the Leeds and Liverpool.  It's been over 20 years since I visited Leeds and I was pleasantly surprised at the waterside regeneration that has taken place in that time.  Some of the rundown warehousing has been renovated such as the building on the left which dates from the late 1700's while others have been replaced. The lock in the centre is river lock which joins the L&L canal to the river Aire.

2016 is the 200th anniversary of the completion of the L&L and I managed to time my arrival to join the start of the celebrations as the restored vintage boat Kennet, owned by the L&L canal society began an anniversary trip along the full canal length.  Development of the canal began much earlier in the mid 1700's at each end.  The monied merchants from Leeds & Bradford wanted a canal to bring limestone from the Craven dale to their cities and their Liverpool counterparts wanted to bring coal from Wigan into their city. Thus the sections from Leeds to Skipton and Liverpool to Wigan were completed first, beginning around 1766, and then the pennine crossing was completed when the two sections were joined on 22 Oct 1816.  This provided a coast to coast route from Liverpool to Hull via the existing navigable Yorkshire rivers.

After a week or so in Leeds I headed out to explore the canal.  The first few miles pass through some of the less pleasant areas of the city, Armley and Kirkstall  and boaters are advised not to stop overnight due to vandalism and theft.  A shame but sadly such black spots are a reflection of our society.  Thankfully, there is little of interest along this stretch other than Kirkstall Abbey which I chose to forego.   Once beyond Kirkstall the canal leaves the city and begins to meander through greener country with several pleasant little hamlets along the way.  I stopped overnight in Rodley, a pretty canal side town with plenty of green spaces.

Rodley

Beyond Rodley the canal continues its journey through the industrial section of the Aire valley passing through Shipley before reaching the impressive sight of the twin mills at Saltaire.  Sir Titus Salt who, having made his money from family owned mills in Bradford decided he would prefer a more rural location and built not only the two mills but an entire town in which to house his workforce.  The mill on the right is now and NHS facility while the one on the left contains shops and an art gallery specialising in local artist David Hockney - not one of my favourites.  The upper floor has no internal walls and remains the largest room in Europe.

Saltaire

One of the the three floors in Salts Mill in its heyday.

A few miles further and the canal reaches the famous Bingley 5 Rise locks.  There are basically, three lock configurations on the canal system.  The first is just a single lock with a gate at each end.  The second is a lock flight where several locks are built close together with only a short pound between each lock to climb larger hills. The third is a staircase lock which is a lock flight with out spaces between means that the top gate of one lock is the bottom gate of the one above. This allows the canal to be raised over a shorter distance.  Staircase locks must be carefully operated in a strict sequence as the water from each one is emptied into the one below thus to go up the flight the bottom lock must be empty and all the others full. Coming down the top lock must be full and all the others empty.  Thankfully, the locks are manned by a full time lock keeper to help boaters through without making a mess of it.

Bigley 5 rise lock

Once up the 5 rise, and the lesser know 3 rise locks, the canal leaves behind the industrial heritage and meanders through beautiful open countryside with views of the the distance hills as it makes its way to Skipton.

Skipton is a popular tourist location being the "Gateway to the Dales" and the small basin is busy with hire boats and trip boats from Pennine Cruisers.  Timing my arrival at half term increased the visitors but nevertheless I enjoyed my visit and revisited some old haunts as well as finding one I'd missed - Skipton Woods which offered a very peaceful walk through the autumn colours.

Only a short hop up the canal is Gargrave where I stocked up with coal as the temperature was beginning to drop in the evenings.  

Gargrave

I also met up once again with my old friends Mac and Helen Cook who picked me up and drove up to Malham for a days walking and bird spotting.  Unfortunately mist rather limited the bird spotting but didn't dampen a good day out with good friends.  Mac and I were Scout leaders together in my Harrogate days and we've only recently got back together.  It's a measure of a good friend that you can meet up after 20 years and continue as if it had only been 20 days.  And the mist lifted long enough to get a shot of them below Malham Cove.   

I spent the next few days exploring what I consider to be the best part of the L&L and possibly the prettiest stretch of the whole canal system.  The canal climbs through a further 12 locks before reaching the summit level and after passing through Foulridge tunnel begins its descent into Lancashire with good views of Pendle hill before reaching the industrial areas of Burnley where I turned around to make my way back to Skipton where I'd arranged to leave the boat while I visit my brother on the Isle of Man.

On the return trip the weather brightened and I was treated to some stunning scenery and birdlife.  The canal passes through the unusual, possibly unique, double bridge near East Marton. The road dipped to reach the original bridge and so a second arch was built on top to raise the bridge to the road level.

Whilst I enjoy almost every day on the canals (Wigan flight being an exception) every now and then I find a spot where I could happily stay forever if I could.  I have a few favourites but this is currently no 1.  

So after another belated update I'll now take a little shore leave on the Isle of Man before returning to the canals in a couple of weeks.