Spiders, Blackberries and the Young Visitors – Mirfield to Long Cut to Salterhebble to Mirfield

23 August 2021

One thing we had hoped for when we bought the boat was that the family would be able to share the boat with us. The end of the school summer holidays seemed a good time to initiate Lucy and Dominic into narrowboating.

We coordinated our respective departures from home so that we would arrive in Mirfield about half an hour before the family, to give us time to open up the boat, and unpack our own things, before they arrived.

I got an excited WhatsApp from Lucy: ‘We should be at the boatyard in less than five minutes!’

Derwent Lass had been left immaculately clean and tidy. But I’d failed to spot, in the busyness of unpacking, that DL had been subject to an invasion of small spiders in our absence. It was that time of year.

They were, however, immediately spotted by our visitors, who let out cries of ‘Eurgh!!!’ ‘Aargh!!!’ and ‘Oh my God!!!’, and demanded instant use of the vacuum cleaner to remove the offending arachnids. Naturally, I was the one who had to empty the vacuum cleaner of its contents and relieve their distress. The spiders’ distress, that is.

We had decided it would be safer to head east from Mirfield as we’d done that stretch before and were reasonably confident that we could moor somewhere, and come back the next day with Derwent Lass and crew still in one piece. We set off with happy anticipation after lunch on the boat.

The thickly wooded canal banks belied the fact that we were passing through dense industrial and residential areas.

There were wild flowers and signs of autumn approaching too.

And we had blackberries for breakfast.

We stopped for the night at Long Cut, just past Thornhill Double Locks.

24 August 2021

The pleasant weather continued as we made our way back to Mirfield.

Unfortunately Susie wasn’t very well and it was obvious that she couldn’t really drive home that afternoon as planned. I’d been a bit concerned that the children hadn’t been enjoying the boating very much and was worried they might object to staying another night.

‘How would you feel about staying on Derwent Lass another night and going home tomorrow instead of today?’

‘Great!’

‘Yesss!’

So that was alright then.

There was a catering difficulty. I had provided a casserole for the first night, but the plan for the second night was to simply invent something out of whatever was to hand. Whatever there was, wouldn’t be sufficient for 5 of us. But a short trip to Lidl in Mirfield would surely provide some inspiration.

‘What do you all want for tea?’

Dom had a brilliant idea. ‘Fish and chips!’ Google maps informed us that Jack’s Chippy, a short drive away, was highly recommended. Ian was sent off and came back with large quantities of delicious fish and chips.

25 July 2021

After the family left, we started our trip in the opposite direction, thinking we might get as far as Sowerby Bridge. In fact that turned out to be over-optimistic, but we were happy to take our time and enjoy the surprisingly lovely waterway, most of it hidden from the view of the surrounding houses and industrial estates.

Next to Cooper’s Bridge Lock, two gentlemen were cutting the hedge which separated the lock from the South Pennine Boat Club. During the course of the conversation it transpired that one of them was the Membership Secretary with whom Ian had exchanged emails on the subject of mooring Derwent Lass there. There had been no vacancies at the time, but there were handshakes and pleasantries and a mooring there remains a future possibility.

We moored for the night above Kirklees Top Lock, in pleasant, open countryside. Cooking is always a bit of a challenge on the boat, with limited fridge and cupboard space, and it’s nice when one’s efforts are appreciated. I tried out a recipe recommended by a vegetarian friend, containing lentils, suitably spiced up and enhanced with other rather more interesting ingredients. I sought feedback.

‘What did you think of dinner?’

‘Well, it was edible.’

I do like the boat to feel a bit homely.

26 August 2021

We passed under the M62, the great east-west route linking Hull and Liverpool via Leeds and Manchester.

It was our lucky day. At Brighouse Basin, there were two Canal and River Trust volunteers working the locks for boaters. All we had to do was steer the boat.

There was a good dock at Brighouse and we decided to have coffee and a walk round the town. Ian was in need of a hat and we were directed to Boyes’ Department Store on King St.

Boyes (‘for good value’) had everything. Men’s clothing, or possibly ‘apparel’, women’s clothing, children’s clothing, household appliances, competitively priced cleaning materials, kitchenware, decorative items, everything you might need for the garden, all closely arranged on two floors. It wasn’t the sort of department store where you’d go to have a browse around and be tempted by the artistic displays. It was more a case of determinedly hunting out what you needed. But Ian’s hat-hunt was successful. Boyes is still family-run and apparently there are no fewer than 67 branches in Yorkshire and the north-east.

We stopped just below Cromwell Lock, and went for a short walk in the nature reserve, where the navigation runs close to the River Calder.

27 August 2021

We decided that rather than going all the way to Sowerby Bridge, we would take things easy and just get as far as Salterhebble, where we could turn the boat round to get back to Mirfield.

Elland Bridge was almost completely destroyed in the disastrous 2015 floods in the Calder Valley but has been rebuilt to its original form.

At Salterhebble there is a small branch off the main navigation, which originally went all the way to Halifax. The first mile or so has been restored and we moored there for the night. The first task was to take on water.

The Calder & Hebble does present certain physical challenges. Most of the locks are deep and heavy, and Ian had already acquired a superior windlass with longer handles for me, in the hope that I would struggle less when raising the lock paddles. Some of the locks are short, requiring the boat to sit at an angle across the lock, to allow the gates to close. And not least of our worries, having to use the dreaded Calder & Hebble spike on some of the locks.

The spike is a long piece of wood, about 3’6″ long, which you have to insert into a wheel on the ground next to the lock gate. Then you heave on the spike in the hope that the wheel will go round and the paddles open. There is a knack in how you apply the force, which I have yet to fully acquire.

Sometimes a competitive spirit overrides the general friendliness of people on the waterways. At one lock, a fellow boater looked witheringly at my spike.

‘That’ll snap, that will.’

I decided to ignore this observation, but noticed that the gentleman’s spike was not only about 4 inches longer than mine, but was thicker at the operating end and fit more snugly into the space in the mechanism.

‘Looks just like a pick-axe ‘andle.’

‘It is a pick-axe handle. My husband made it from one for me.’

‘Well, it’ll snap. You want one o’ these.’

So far, it hasn’t.

28 August 2021

The weather brightened as we turned the boat round and started the return journey to Mirfield.

The bottom lock at Salterhebble is a rather intimidating Guillotine Lock, installed when the nearby road was widenened in the 1930’s. It’s mechanically operated, using the watermate key, and reassuringly, there’s an emergency stop button.

Middle Aged Men In Lycra, for the uninitiated.

29 August 2021

We had moored for our last night just before Kirklees top lock. Ian decided that he wanted to work the locks, to get more exercise, and that I should get over my nervousness about steering Derwent Lass. So I took the helm.

The top lock presented no problem. But the lower lock was a short one, and I had to position the boat with the bow in one corner, to allow the gate to close. Then, as the bottom paddles opened and the water level fell in the lock, water began to pour in through the top gates which were leaking badly. Water began splashing on the stern and I closed the back doors. But to my horror, I saw water pouring down the stairs into the cabin.

Ian made a rapid descent down the lock ladder and got onto the bow, and used the boat hook to force Derwent Lass out of the corner of the lock, so I could steer her out. Then he had to climb out again, to close the lock gates.

At this point, the navigation joins the river and the strong current carried Derwent Lass right out into the middle of the river. It took some rather desperate reversing and manouvering to get her to the landing stage where Ian was anxiously waiting to get back on.

I went below to inspect the damage. Suprisingly, there was only one small damp patch on the bedroom carpet. The rest of the water had gone into the bilge.

Ian was uncharacteristically upbeat.

‘Well, at least we know the bilge pump works.’

When we got back to Mirfield, Ian told the sorry tale to our neighbour, Colin, who very kindly lent us his wet-and-dry vacuum cleaner to get out the water that the bilge pump hadn’t managed to remove.

But it isn’t just us. In the October issue of Waterways World, one of the main articles is entitled ‘Close call on the Calder & Hebble – Recounting a perilous journey in West Yorkshire’.