[photo Jean Jones]
After we finished the American Great Loop in 2019, as recounted in blogs passim, we realised we weren’t quite finished with boating. We settled back to life in Northumberland, and then along came Covid -19. Ian whiled away many lockdown hours looking at narrowboats for sale on the internet.
We had a good idea of what we wanted, having been members of a narrowboat syndicate for 6 years. But there really wasn’t much on the market. When travel was permitted again, we went to look at a boat on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, near Ormskirk. However, the reality didn’t match the description on the sales website. Much as we’d been fond of Carina, our American boat, this time I was quite sure I didn’t want a scruffy old boat.
Then Ian saw an advert for nbDerwent Lass. She was also on the Leeds-Liverpool, but in Shipley, West Yorkshire. We went down to have a look, without any great expectations. She was built in 2003 so getting on a bit.
She was (almost) immaculate, obviously well-cared for, and spotlessly clean throughout. She was alright, which in Yorkshire means very good indeed. Our offer, subject to a trial run on the water, was accepted and the following week we went down again and took her out with Carol, the previous owner, and her son Martin. The deal was sealed, handover was the following week, and Derwent Lass was ours.
Our only previous experience of the Yorkshire Waterways was some years ago, when we had a share in a syndicate boat and travelled up the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, which involved numerous locks and the 4-mile long Standedge Tunnel. That wasn’t an experience we particularly wanted to repeat, but we decided that the assertion that ‘If it’s not in Yorkshire, it’s not worth visiting’ perhaps suggested that there was in fact plenty to see and do in the county.
So we decided we would spend some time exploring the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, the Aire & Calder Navigation, the Calder & Hebble Navigation, and perhaps even the River Ouse through York and on to Ripon.
Past experience suggests plenty of challenges ahead!
Narrowboating in Yorkshire 