The Journey

Róisín Dubh [Ir., dark little rose]. Personification of Ireland which may date from a 17th-century poem of that title attributed to Owen Roe MacWard. James Clarence Mangan's translation as ‘Dark Rosaleen’ (1847) is more widely known than the Irish original.
A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (2004) James MacKillop

In the Autumn of 2011 my son Daniel and his partner Stephanie bought a second hand wide beam barge named Róisín Dubh (pron. "Rosheen Dove"; Irish for Black Rose) in Hebden Bridge with the intention of moving it to Silsden and living aboard it.


There was only one slight problem. Getting it to Silsden. Silsden is about 14 miles from Hebden Bridge as the crow flies. Sadly barges don’t fly and therefore it was necessary to move it through the canal system. There was a second and much more ticklish problem.Its engine (unbeknown to us at the time of departure) was knackered. It is a three cylinder air cooled Lister.

The first stage of the journey (Hebden Bridge to Sowerby Bridge along the Rochdale Canal) starting on 13 September was a bit of a nightmare not helped by the fact that the British Isles were being affected by the tail end of Hurricane Katia!  Steph and Dan eventually had no choice but to park the boat in Brighouse (and later Sowerby Bridge) while repairs to the engine were arranged.

The journey re-commenced on 27 October  from Shire Cruisers at Sowerby Bridge.  To get it to Silsden took two and a half weeks and involved 12 actual cruising days.  Because I’m retired I was lucky enough to be aboard on 11 of those 12 days.  And yes,  proud I am of all of those!  We simply would not have been able to achieve this feat if it werent for the kind assistance provided by Gordon, Henry, Ian, Liz, Martin, Phil, Sharon and Steve!  Even prouder we are of all of them!!  (Yes Big Lebowski fans – that is a reference to another bunch of high achievers!)

 We were extremely relieved to set off again on the 27^th as a constant worry was the knowledge that British Waterways had scheduled a Winter stoppage (for major repairs) for 7^th November at Oddy’s Locks in the middle of Leeds.

 These were the stages of the journey:

1.  27^th October:  Sowerby Bridge (Shire Cruisers) to Elland (Barge & Barrel Pub)           

            Steph,  Ian,  Sharon,  Chris

2. 28^th October:  Elland (Barge & Barrel) to Mirfield (by Lidl store).  Car left in car park of Mirfield Stn.  

             Steph,  Steve,  Liz,  Chris

3. 29^th October:  Mirfield to Broad Cut near Wakefield

    Dan,  Steph,  Chris

4. 30^th October:  Wakefield (Broad Cut) to Foxholes Lane (Kings Rd,  Altofts) near Castleford     

         Dan,  Steph,  Chris

5. 31^st October:  Foxholes Lane nr Castleford (Altofts) to Thwaite Mill,  Stourton

           Steve, Phil,  Chris

6. 2^nd November  Thwaite Mill to Kirkstall Brewery Bridge No 222

      Steve,  Liz,  Phil,  Chris (Danny,  Steph and Chris stayed overnight)

7. 3^rd November:   Kirkstall Brewery Bridge to Rodley

            Steve,  Phil,  Gordon,  Chris 

8. 6^th November:   Rodley to Field Lock (Esholt)

            Chris & Steph (Dan poorly since Friday) 

9. 7^th November:  Field Lock to Ashley Mills, Saltaire

            Steph,  Chris,  Phil 

10. 8^th November:  Saltaire to just before Bingley 3 Rise

            Chris,  Henry & Steph

11. 9^th November:  Through Bingley 3 & 5 Rises

            Chris,  Martin & Gordon 

12. 12^th November:  Bingley to Silsden (well, Kildwick to be precise)

            Dan , Steph  & Martin

I put the journey into the CanalPlanAC web site journey planner and this is what it came up with:

“Total distance is 62 miles, 7½ furlongs and 66 locks. This is made up of 31 miles, 3¼ furlongs of broad canals; 31 miles, 4¼ furlongs of small rivers;

There are at least 26 moveable bridges of which 4 are usually left open and 4 small aqueducts or underbridges.

This will take 41 hours, 35 minutes which is 6 days, 5 hours and 35 minutes at 6 hours per day. For calculation purposes this is taken as 7 days. “

This amounts to two thirds of the journey from Leeds to Wigan on the Leeds Liverpool canal.

Home at Last!!



Some right interesting info concerning the Calder and Hebble Navigation

(lifted from Wikipedia)

This a Broad (i.e. with 14-foot-wide (4.3 m) locks and bridgeholes) inland waterway in West Yorkshire, England, which has remained navigable since it was opened.

 By the beginning of the 18th century, the Aire and Calder Navigation had made the River Calder navigable as far upstream as Wakefield. The aim of the Calder and Hebble Navigation was to extend navigation west (upstream) from Wakefield to Sowerby Bridge near Halifax.

The first attempt to obtain an Act of Parliament was made in 1740, as a result of a petition by the people of Halifax, Ripponden and Elland. John Eyes of Liverpool surveyed the route, and presented a scheme for a navigation which would use the River Calder from Wakefield to its junction with the River Hebble, follow the Hebble to Salterhebble bridge, and then follow the Halifax Brook to reach Halifax. It included the construction of 24 locks, 21 on the Calder and three on the Hebble, and nearly 10 miles (16 km) of cuts, including one of 2 miles (3.2 km) at Horbury. The bill was defeated, due to opposition from local landowners who feared that it would cause flooding, from millers, who thought that navigation would disrupt their water supply, and from the promoters of several Turnpike Bills, who were intending to build roads which would follow a similar route.

The second attempt followed a meeting of the Union Club in Halifax on 2 September 1756, which considered how to improve the import of wool and corn to the town. They invited the civil engineer John Smeaton to make a new survey, which he did in late 1757, and produced a scheme which involved dredging shoals, making 5.7 miles (9.2 km) of cuts, the building of 26 locks, to overcome the rise of 178 feet (54 m) between Wakefield and the Halifax Brook, and the construction of a reservoir at Salterhebble bridge. A committee raising subscriptions for the project in Rochdale insisted that the plans should be amended to include an extension to Sowerby Bridge, despite opposition from the Halifax committee. An Act was obtained on 9 June 1758, for this extended route, and created Commissioners, who must own an estate valued at more than £100, or have a personal fortune of more than £3,000. Any nine of the Commissioners could make decisions.

The Navigation starts in Wakefield, where there is an end-on junction with the Aire and Calder Navigation and runs upstream through Mirfield, after which there is a junction with the Huddersfield Broad Canal, to arrive at Sowerby Bridge, where there is another end-on junction, this time with the Rochdale Canal. Other towns on the navigation are Horbury, Dewsbury, Brighouse, and Elland. The former branch to Halifax is no longer navigable, except for a stub now known as the Salterhebble Arm.

The navigation is used almost entirely by leisure boaters, to whom it represents both an attractive cruising ground in it own right, and also a vital four-way link.

•      The Rochdale Canal leads to Rochdale and Manchester

•      The Huddersfield Broad and Huddersfield Narrow canals lead to Uppermill and Ashton-under-Lyne, and on towards the Midlands and Wales

•      The Aire and Calder Navigation carries boats to Leeds, and (via the Leeds and Liverpool Canal), to Lancashire

•      East to Selby and York, Goole and the Humber, Keadby and the River Trent, and Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster

The importance of the Calder and Hebble as a through route makes one notorious feature of the canal very significant: its short locks. The canal is a "wide" navigation, meaning that its locks are wide enough for 14-foot (4.3 m) wide-beamed boats, but its shortest locks are amongst the shortest on the connected network of English and Welsh inland waterways, with only the Ripon Canal having locks of a similarly restricted length.

 The canal was built to accept 57-by-14-foot (17 by 4.3 m) Yorkshire Keels coming up the Aire and Calder Navigation. The locks on the Aire and Calder and the lower Calder and Hebble (below Broad Cut Locks at Calder Grove) have since been lengthened, and can accommodate boats which are 120 ft by 17.5 ft (36.6m x 5.3m), but the shortest locks on the upper Calder and Hebble force boats longer than about 57 ft (17 m) to lie diagonally in the locks.

This is only possible for narrowboats, so 57 ft (17 m) is the maximum length for a wide-beamed barge on the C&H. Even for a narrowboat (less than 7-foot (2.1 m) beam) the maximum possible length is about 60 ft (18 m) (which is 12 ft (3.7 m) shorter than a full-length English narrowboat). Narrowboats approaching 60 ft (18 m) can only be squeezed through the shorter locks, even when lying diagonally, by expedients such as removing fenders, having shore parties pole the boat into position, and going down locks backwards. In particular, an inexperienced crew of any boat longer than about 57 ft (17 m) might find it impossible to negotiate the middle lock of the "Salterhebble Three", which is the shortest of all.

The C&H Navigation, and the Salterhebble locks in particular, thus define the maximum length of a go-anywhere English narrowboat.

 (Note that other factors can restrict the places to which a boat can reach: for instance, boats with a high cabin top, or with insufficient tumblehome may not be able to fit into Standedge Tunnel at the summit of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal).

It was the disparity in boat sizes between the Calder and Hebble and the Rochdale canal which made Sowerby Bridge (at the junction of the two canals) so important: long boats coming over from Lancashire had to have their cargoes unloaded, stored, and transferred to shorter boats at Sowerby Bridge Wharf.

Another quirk of the Calder and Hebble locks is the handspike, a length of 2-by-4-inch (50 by 100 mm) timber shaped at one end to provide a comfortable two-handed grip. Calder and Hebble boaters have to carry these in addition to the more usual windlass, in order to lever open the simple lock gear which lifts the lock paddles to allow a full lock to empty or an empty one to fill.