Previous Year : 2001 The Bona Boater's Trips Following Year : 2003

2002 - The Huddersfield Narrow Canal (East side)

Crew : John & Chris, Ernie & Jennifer, Pete, Dave, Colin, Stan.

Boat : Cornwall

From : Shire Cruisers, Sowerby Bridge.

Route : Sowerby Bridge > Brighouse > Huddersfield > Slaithwaite > Marsden [Stalybridge by train] [w] > Milnsbridge > Huddersfield > Dewsbury [w] > Mirfield > Brighouse > Elland > Sowerby Bridge.

Coverage : 118 Locks and 52 Miles.

Notes : The Huddersfield Narrow Canal (HNC) is unusual in that it's lock numbers are suffixed by the letters E on the east side and W on the west side of the summit pound at Standege Tunnel. On this trip, we would only be doing those on the East side.

For some reason, we have very few photos of this trip. We made it as far as Lock 31E (Pigtail Lock) but could not turn in the pound above as it was too low. We asked BW to run some water down, but were told we would have to wait overnight for the pound to fill - which it didn't. There was also Milnsbridge - the town with no beer, and John leaving his glasses in The Sair Inn. Again, we have very few photos of this trip.

Saturday 18th May

Lunch : Sowerby Bridge. We decided to meet up in a pub down the road from the boatyard called The Bird's Nest which sold Robinwood Beers - remember Robinwood Old Fart ? Having all arrived and been suitably refreshed, we returned to the boatyard, loaded up and set off.

Evening : Brighouse. We moored up in the basin at Brighouse and went to The Richard Oastler, the new Wetherspoon's pub in the old chapel.

Sunday 19th May

Lunch : Huddersfield. We moored behind The University in Huddersfield and walked to the Rat & Ratchett. A young lass selling probably dodgy CDs got thrown out of the pub - at least twice, yet continued to try to come back in. We then continued up the recently re-opened Huddersfield Narrow Canal. It should be renamed 'The Huddersfield Shallow Canal' as many of the pounds were quite low.

The start of The Huddersfield Narrow just above Stanley Dawson Lock 1E

Heavy engineering.

Look at the bracing needed to strengthen the deep cutting

Evening : Slaithwaite. We moored up at Slaithwaite in the evening. We could not find a decent pub, though we did have a decent curry. We then took taxis to The Sair Inn at Linthwaite, for some beer. This is where John left his glasses.

Monday 20th May

Lunch / Afternoon : After leaving Slaithwaite, we had eventually managed to struggle up to Lock 31 (Pigtail Lock) by mid afternoon without a lunchtime pub stop. Many of the pounds were still very low. We had to call BW out as we could not exit one of the locks, though we can't remember which one it was. It appeared that some BW workmen had left some stop-planks in place in front of the top gates, and the boat was too deep-draughted to clear them. With ropes off the rear cleats, and taking a run-up, we eventually managed to drag the boat over the obstruction. The stop planks then floated to the surface, quite badly gouged where the boat had repeatedly hit them. We could not go any further than Lock 31E (Pigtail Lock) as we had not booked a passage through Standege Tunnel, but neither could we wind in the pound above it as it was too low. We tied up stern to the top gate and asked BW to run some water down to refill the pound. They said they would do this but told us that it would probably take all night to refill the pound, so we knew we would be stuck there for the evening. Meanwhile, a couple of us went to investigate The Olive Branch, which was just along a footpath across the fields behind the lock. We found it was closed on Mondays. We returned to the boat where we hung about for a bit before deciding to walk up to Marsden.

Empty pound near Lock 24E

Stuck at Pigtail Lock 31E

We were unable to wind in the low pound above Lock 31E so we moored stern to the gate and walked to Marsden, where we took the train to Stalybridge.

Evening : Stalybridge. Once in Marsdsen, we decided to go to The Stalybridge Station Buffet so we got the train. After an excellent evening in The Station Buffet, we eventually left Stalybridge just in time to get back to Marsden for last orders, where we went in The Springhead Brewery Tap. At closing time, we ordered taxis from there back to The Olive Branch. This confused the taxi drivers a little as they told us that they knew it would be shut. We assured them that that was where we wanted to go... simply because The Olive Branch was the nearest point on the road to where we'd left the boat.

Tuesday 21st May

Morning : Still stuck at Pigtail Lock. In the morning, the pound was still very low, and despite trying, we still could not wind. Eventually, with ropes, poles and some help from some other boaters, we did manage to drag the boat round and were able to set off back down towards Huddersfield.

Lunch : Milnsbridge - The town with no beer. We passed straight through Slaithwaite and stopped at Milnsbridge for lunch. None of the pubs we found had any beer, except for one, miles away from the canal which only had John Smiths - and that doesn't really count anyway. In desperation, Chris resorted to buying 2 x 2 litre bottles of "Ploughman's Mild" from a local supermarket. One of the pubs blamed some Morris Dancers for drinking them out of beer over the weekend. The town's name has now entered the Bona Boater's vocabulary - to "do a Milnsbridge" means to end up somewhere where there's no beer. Also known as "The curse of Milnsbridge".

Evening : Huddersfield. We moored between Aspley Basin and the Locomotive Bridge (17) and went for a curry. Can't recall the name, but it had crayons for waiters to write on the tablecloths. We then went back to The Rat & Ratchett again.

Wednesday 22nd May

Lunch : Don't remember.

Evening : Dewsbury. We took the boat down onto The Savile Town Arm, into the basin and Stan winded it very carefully amidst all the moored boats. We could not find anywhere to moor within the basin so we came out and moored just outside. We visited The Leggers, then went into town. We ate in the West Yorkshire Licensed Refreshment Rooms on Dewsbury Railway Station and spent most of the rest of evening there, returning to The Leggers just in time for last orders.

Thursday 23rd May

Lunch : Mirfield. We moored up in Mirfield and visited the Railway Station to see some trains, only to see absolutely no trains at all. We then visited a pub - no one can definitely remember the name, though Pete W thinks it might have been called The Queen's.. but it did have Taylor's Landlord on.

Evening : Brighouse. We went for a curry then we went to The Richard Oastler, the Wetherspoons pub in the old chapel, where in addition to the usual copious amount of beer, we had jugs of "Slippery Nipple" and "Lust"- much to Ernie's amusement, until he realised it was his round next and we had to persuade him to go to the bar and order it.

Brighouse Basin.

Friday 24th May

Lunch : Elland. We stopped first at The Colliers Arms for a quick pint of Sam Smiths Old Brewery Bitter, then went on a couple of hundred yards to The Barge and Barrel for some Eastwood & Sanders Bargee and Nettle Thrasher. Both of these pubs have their own moorings right outside their back doors, and it would have been rude to have gone past without using them.

Evening : Sowerby Bridge. In the evening we moored on the visitor moorings just short of Sowerby Bridge and went into The Navigation where we ate and drank.

Saturday 25th May

Morning: Curry in The Karachi, shopping in the Al Halal supermarket and home.

Previous Year : 2001 The Bona Boater's Trips Following Year : 2003