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Huddersfield Broad and Narrow, A&C Nav & Leeds &Liverpool Canal


husky

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Help required please.

 

Going to travel on the Huddersfield Narrow and Broad (and the tunnel of course) then on through Aire and Calder Navigation and on to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. From there, the intention is to then go onto Leigh and onto the Bridgewater Canal - ending up at Anderton (Northwich). We have about 3mths to do this trip. Have looked at the website of the Huddersfield Canals and all the regs. etc., but would greatly appreciate anyone who has done this trip, or part thereof, who could give advice of any kind, especially with regards to safe mooring spots. Any help would be wonderful. Thank you, Jennifer nb Mactra's Filia

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That is the route I am starting next Friday from Barrow upon Soar, and same time scale. Only advice I can add is that you will need to contact CART for advance booking of Standedge tunnel.

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Some great spots on this route

 

Particular favourites are:

 

Uppermill

Marsden

Linthwaite (for the superb Sair Inn)

Cooper Bridge (nice pause as you leave the Broad and onto the C&H

Most of the stretch from Kirklees Lock to Sowerby Bridge is nice - with a very handy Sainsburys next to the canal in Brighouse if you fancy a diversion

Stanley Ferry - good mooring, pub not brilliant.

Broad Cut between the Upper and Lower Locks

Castleford is handy for Aldi etc

Woodlesford is nice with Bird Hides

Leeds - Granary basin great

I would start early from Leeds and make your next mooring Rodley where there is a fab Indian takeaway

From here to Barrowford is perfectly good to moor.

Good pubs at Bradley (Slaters Arms), Skipton (loads) and Barnoldswick

 

Have fun

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Our boat was vandalised badly just above Poolstock Top Lock in Wigan, so that's a mooring spot to avoid! If you do find yourself needing to moor overnight after coming down the Wigan Flight (and it is a long, tiring job), I believe there are safer moorings opposite the CaRT office in Wigan.

 

Not strictly on the route described, but I'd recommend a detour up the Selby. It's a lovely, secluded canal. If you happen to find it vacant, there's a nice quiet one-boat mooring at Gateforth Landing.

 

Following your route from the A&C, on to the L&L and then the Bridgewater, some good mooring spots (off the top of my head) are:

 

Woodlesford

 

Saltaire - either at Ashley Wharf (just before the village itself, in Shipley) or on the stretch between the visitor moorings and Hirst Lock, near the ice cream boat. (The VMs themselves are limited to 4 hours, I think.)

 

Kildwick - the canal runs right through this lovely Dales village. I believe there are mooring rings opposite the churchyard.

 

Skipton - lots of mooring rings right in the centre here, always plenty of boats about for security.

 

Gargrave - nice enough visitor moorings here.

 

Church - there's a nice one-boat mooring with rings just by a picnic area here, a few hundred yards short of the L&L halfway marker.

 

Worsley - the area by the Delph is lovely.

 

Sale - quite an attractive modern waterfront area here.

 

With three months to enjoy it all, I'm sure you'll love it! There are many lovely stretches on that route; I think we've done all of it (at one time or another) except the Huddersfield Narrow.

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,I just love the Huddersfield canals, WE are going East to West in a hire boat at the end of June. Mooring at Huddersfield , Slaithwaite, Diggle , Marsden and uppermill are all OK. One tip is the bridge in Slaithwaite is one of the lowest I know on the system so clear everything off your roof. (It is on quite a short pound so the level is a bit variable)

We are on Shire Cruisers NB Rutland 19th to 29th June .. I'll give you a wave if i see you! Have a great trip!

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Thanks RichardH and magictime, not my thread but useful information for me :) and Richard I will most likely take a detour to Brighouse, that is where my boat was built and the boat still has Brighouse sign written on it

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I'll look out for you Nick, I could well be at the lower west end of the Huddersfield at the end of your holiday. I hired from Shire Cruisers some time ago and did east to west. The last night of our holiday the chap that ran the museum (great bloke) at Portland basin let us stay overnight on secure moorings infront of the warehouse/museum.

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If you moor at Brighouse use the mooring rings and tie off on the boat, not the bollards! Set adrift. No probs when tied to rings tho.

 

Marsden lovely place to wander around and have ice cream.

 

Val

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If you moor at Brighouse use the mooring rings and tie off on the boat, not the bollards! Set adrift. No probs when tied to rings tho.

 

Marsden lovely place to wander around and have ice cream.

 

Val

 

If the OP moors at Brighouse he will have taken a wrong turning at Cooper Bridge!

 

As to the low bridge at Slaithwaite, it is the only one on the system (including the notorious ones on the Middle Level) which I have been unable to get under. However, the pound can be easily lowered using the lock only a hundred metres away.

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If the OP moors at Brighouse he will have taken a wrong turning at Cooper Bridge!

 

As to the low bridge at Slaithwaite, it is the only one on the system (including the notorious ones on the Middle Level) which I have been unable to get under. However, the pound can be easily lowered using the lock only a hundred metres away.

:) It was me that said I may make a detour to Brighouse not the OP.

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Thank you to everyone who has replied to my post and given us such valuable information. We will be using it all. Feel more confident now. Really looking forward to it and especially the scenery. We are from Tasmania and especially looking forward to seeing the scenery of Yorkshire. P&J nb. Mactra's Filia

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...one more tip: about eight (lock-free) miles on from Anderton, between bridges 176 and 177, there's a very nice out-of-the-way offside mooring, with space for about three boats, with barbecue facilities and picnic tables. There's then a winding hole about a mile on from that, so it'd be an easy out-and-back cruise from Anderton.

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Help required please.

 

Going to travel on the Huddersfield Narrow and Broad (and the tunnel of course) then on through Aire and Calder Navigation and on to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. From there, the intention is to then go onto Leigh and onto the Bridgewater Canal - ending up at Anderton (Northwich). We have about 3mths to do this trip. Have looked at the website of the Huddersfield Canals and all the regs. etc., but would greatly appreciate anyone who has done this trip, or part thereof, who could give advice of any kind, especially with regards to safe mooring spots. Any help would be wonderful. Thank you, Jennifer nb Mactra's Filia

The maximum length boat for the Huddersfield Broad canal is about 58ft (diagonally in locks) !

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There is a mooring on the L&L between bridges 115 and 116 with arguably the best view on the network. Not what you might be expecting between Burnley and Blackburn and its spoilt as a perfect location by some noise from the M65 behind you but the view out across the Ribble valley to the Forest of Bowland is perfect.

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For Standedge Tunnel transit, as was mentioned book well in advance, allow 2 days to get up from Piccadilly Basin in Manchester to the bottom of the Diggle Locks, top up with water there to lower your bow down. The following morning you go up to the Diggle tunnel end. Has your boat been through the tunnel before? We were turned back in 2008 as our cabin profile at front was very upright and were an inch too tall and wide - they measured you with a huge set square affair.

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For Standedge Tunnel transit, as was mentioned book well in advance, allow 2 days to get up from Piccadilly Basin in Manchester to the bottom of the Diggle Locks, top up with water there to lower your bow down. The following morning you go up to the Diggle tunnel end. Has your boat been through the tunnel before? We were turned back in 2008 as our cabin profile at front was very upright and were an inch too tall and wide - they measured you with a huge set square affair.

 

I have never had to book more than a week ahead. You can go up the Diggle flight any time you like, but on non-tunnel passage days be prepared to fill one or two pounds as you go! The is water at the top by the tunnel. Two days from Piccadilly to Dobcross is doable, but that is rushing past the delights of the HNC!

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Huddersfield if you ignore the water problem is a fantastic canal for scenery and places to stop . I will definitely do it again .

Boating in the clouds at 645ft above sea level is brilliant.

Edited by b0atman
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I agree it is a lovely canal and when I went through they towed you through the tunnel. It was funny for us as when we returned after 6 month out and about they said my boat was tooooo big to go through the tunnel they did let me through after phoning up BW

 

Peter

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...one more tip: about eight (lock-free) miles on from Anderton, between bridges 176 and 177, there's a very nice out-of-the-way offside mooring, with space for about three boats, with barbecue facilities and picnic tables. There's then a winding hole about a mile on from that, so it'd be an easy out-and-back cruise from Anderton.

Bramble Cutting

 

Never been able to get on it

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Some great spots on this route

 

Particular favourites are:

 

Uppermill

Marsden

Linthwaite (for the superb Sair Inn)

Cooper Bridge (nice pause as you leave the Broad and onto the C&H

Most of the stretch from Kirklees Lock to Sowerby Bridge is nice - with a very handy Sainsburys next to the canal in Brighouse if you fancy a diversion

Stanley Ferry - good mooring, pub not brilliant.

Broad Cut between the Upper and Lower Locks

Castleford is handy for Aldi etc

Woodlesford is nice with Bird Hides

Leeds - Granary basin great

I would start early from Leeds and make your next mooring Rodley where there is a fab Indian takeaway

From here to Barrowford is perfectly good to moor.

Good pubs at Bradley (Slaters Arms), Skipton (loads) and Barnoldswick

 

Have fun

A definately good piece of advice, the last lock before you get to the swing bridges is a definate place to avoid as there is a large estaste nearby and it is a hang out for the local druggies, even the lock keepers steel cabin there is regularly vandalised.

 

Rick

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some great spots on this route

 

Particular favourites are:

 

Uppermill

Marsden

Linthwaite (for the superb Sair Inn)

Cooper Bridge (nice pause as you leave the Broad and onto the C&H

Most of the stretch from Kirklees Lock to Sowerby Bridge is nice - with a very handy Sainsburys next to the canal in Brighouse if you fancy a diversion

Stanley Ferry - good mooring, pub not brilliant.

Broad Cut between the Upper and Lower Locks

Castleford is handy for Aldi etc

Woodlesford is nice with Bird Hides

Leeds - Granary basin great

I would start early from Leeds and make your next mooring Rodley where there is a fab Indian takeaway

From here to Barrowford is perfectly good to moor.

Good pubs at Bradley (Slaters Arms), Skipton (loads) and Barnoldswick

 

Have fun

Where is the fab Indian takeaway?

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You do mean three weeks not months?

 

I don't know how you could take three months to do this trip unless you planned to stay for long periods in one place or maybe you just like to travel very slowly?

 

As regards the route, don't underestimate the HNC it is a serious undertaking particularly the locks at the summit either side of the tunnel. The problem is the very shallow pounds.

 

To do the HNC safely you need to know the exact draught of your boat and have some means of taking the depth of the water. This is to make sure you can clear the cill on the locks before you exit. Several experienced crews have come to grief on this canal by getting their boat caught on a lock cill.

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Don't let Neil put you off the HNC. Yes, pounds can empty, but they are usually small and can be filled. Only once in 11 transits of the HNC have I been stopped by a low pound (the long pound between 5&6E - it took half a day to fill).

 

The notorious lock (9w) where a boat sank after getting stuck on the cill coming up into a low pound (and the lock emptying behind it) has now got an 'upside down' depth board (ie red at the bottom) at the upper gate with an explanatory notice.

 

The HNC, which used to be the 'Wild West' of the waterways, is now easier to navigate than some other canals. Hope that isn't tempting fate - I intend to go back that way!

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