Quiet moorings on the Huddersfield Narrow?

[IanD]

3 minutes ago, jetzi said:

Ooh, there's a guillotine lock at Slaithwaite?? Why didn't you say so, now I have incentive to go down at least the first 21 locks!

I've never been through a guillotine lock gate before, would be nice to have a tiny bit of experience when I finally get to visit the East Anglian Fens!

Yes there is, and it's manual. Daughter's BF had to wind it up and down while I went to the adjacent brewery to pick up some beer, about 150 turns each way IIRC... 😉

[jetzi]

Oh man, you are really selling it to me now! 21 locks down and up doesn't seem that bad for such a prize at the end.

[Hudds Lad]

17 minutes ago, IanD said:

...while I went to the adjacent brewery to pick up some beer

That's quite the hike to Empire Brewing, i suspect you needed a drink afterwards to recover  

[Mac of Cygnet]

There is (or was) an excellent mooring between the guillotine and the next one down, where the Moonraker cafe boat used to be.  Much handier for the Brewery (and the Commercial Inn).  Got to watch water levels there too, though - the cafe boat owner used to moan about this.

BTW, the cafe boat I last saw moored in Lincoln - is it still there?   Still called the Moonraker, which refers to a local tradition in the Slawit and Marsden area.

[jetzi]

What's the university data centre water extraction for? Do they use it to cool their systems or something?

[Hudds Lad]

7 minutes ago, jetzi said:

What's the university data centre water extraction for? Do they use it to cool their systems or something?

In a nutshell, yes.

[Hudds Lad]

37 minutes ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

There is (or was) an excellent mooring between the guillotine and the next one down, where the Moonraker cafe boat used to be.  Much handier for the Brewery (and the Commercial Inn).  Got to watch water levels there too, though - the cafe boat owner used to moan about this.

BTW, the cafe boat I last saw moored in Lincoln - is it still there?   Still called the Moonraker, which refers to a local tradition in the Slawit and Marsden area.

Don't think they're keen on folk stopping there now, unstable bank and all that. Never understood why they didn't put some nice rings there as it's a great spot although can be very busy with vehicle and foot traffic, a bit less car-ish now though since they handed the car park behind Empire Brewing/Gutsibits/Velofondista over to Parking Eye.

[Mad Harold]

2 hours ago, jetzi said:

Ooh, there's a guillotine lock at Slaithwaite?? Why didn't you say so, now I have incentive to go down at least the first 21 locks!

I've never been through a guillotine lock gate before, would be nice to have a tiny bit of experience when I finally get to visit the East Anglian Fens!

Make sure you have your Weetabix,cos it's really hard work!

But Slaithwaite is well worth a visit, besides the pubs,cafes and chippys,there is an Aldi supermarket and also adjacent to the guillotine lock,The Handmade Bakery for very fine traditional breads.

Slaithwaite is also home to the oldest amateur orchestra in the country;The Slaithwaite Philharmonic founded 1891( The Slawit Phil) and also the birthplace of Haydn Wood,composer of lots of orchestral music,but perhaps best remembered for songs popular early n the 20th century.

Roses of Picardy and A Brown Bird Singing are perhaps the best known.Hope you enjoy Slawit,it's one of my fave places to visit,(when CRT put some water in the canal)

Edited September 20, 2021 by Mad Harold

[IanD]

3 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

Make sure you have your Weetabix,cos it's really hard work!

But Slaithwaite is well worth a visit, besides the pubs,cafes and chippys,there is an Aldi supermarket and also adjacent to the guillotine lock,The Handmade Bakery for very fine traditional breads.

Slaithwaite is also home to the oldest amateur orchestra in the country;The Slaithwaite Philharmonic founded 1891( The Slawit Phil) and also the birthplace of Haydn Wood,composer of lots of orchestral music,but perhaps best remembered for songs popular early n the 20th century.

Roses of Picardy and A Brown Bird Singing are perhaps the best known.Hope you enjoy Slawit,it's one of my fave places to visit,(when CRT put some water in the canal)

...and excellent coffee and tea, and the best homemade baked beans I've ever eaten -- great for breakfast on their sourdough toast 😉

 

We moored on the stretch outside but found it difficult to get in close to the bank, maybe the water level was low...

5 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

That's quite the hike to Empire Brewing, i suspect you needed a drink afterwards to recover  

Indeed...

[davidg]

4 hours ago, IanD said:

...and excellent coffee and tea, and the best homemade baked beans I've ever eaten -- great for breakfast on their sourdough toast 😉

 

 

Oh tempora, o mores!

Back in the day when I was growing up haute cuisine in Slaithwaite was a pork pie from Walker Garside's (butchers) and as for the beer, a desert. The Swan at Crimble (Wilson's) was about the best bet in Slaithwaite. The Tetley's in The Railway at Marsden or the Wills' at Cop Hill were worth the schlep but otherwise Bass Charrington pretty much ruled in the Colne Valley.

You'll be telling me the Globe is being turned into yuppie flats next.....oh, hang on.

Edited September 20, 2021 by davidg

[Alway Swilby]

On 20/09/2021 at 10:28, jetzi said:

What's the university data centre water extraction for? Do they use it to cool their systems or something?

And don't they put it back in the canal after they've warmed it up a bit? 

[TheBiscuits]

43 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

And don't they put it back in the canal after they've warmed it up a bit? 

 

No, it goes in the river not back into the pound above lock 1E where it is taken from.  Good sense for heat exchangers, not great for navigable depth.

[David Mack]

2 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

No, it goes in the river not back into the pound above lock 1E where it is taken from.  Good sense for heat exchangers, not great for navigable depth.

Can't someone persuade them to swap the inlet and outlet.

[TheBiscuits]

1 minute ago, David Mack said:

Can't someone persuade them to swap the inlet and outlet.

 

Not with what they were charged for the four million litre extraction licence, no.

 

A set of spacers on the paddles back to lock 6E would solve the issue but risks emptying more of the canal.  Remote operated valves that get triggered when the university are taking water would cost a lot but work well.

 

I suspect that sending staff to run water and making boaters book passage is a different department's budget ...

 

 

[jetzi]

It seems malicious not to put the water back if all they are doing is warming it up...

 

[Stroudwater1]

Was it St Helens where exotic fish were flourishing round a warm water discharge? I hear there’s trout in some of the Huddersfield so perhaps further down a speedy hatchery could be developed by CRT? They miss out on so many opportunities 

[cuthound]

2 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:

Was it St Helens where exotic fish were flourishing round a warm water discharge? I hear there’s trout in some of the Huddersfield so perhaps further down a speedy hatchery could be developed by CRT? They miss out on so many opportunities 

 

I lived near St Helens when I was young and a goldfish would have been considered exotic! 🤣

[Alway Swilby]

This afternoon whilst waiting for CRT to come and open lock 1E I got chatting to some university building maintenance chaps who were having a break on the towpath. We got talking about this water extraction business and he said that it had been planned but that it had never worked properly due to lack of water in the canal so they don't do it anymore.

[MtB]

8 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

This afternoon whilst waiting for CRT to come and open lock 1E I got chatting to some university building maintenance chaps who were having a break on the towpath. We got talking about this water extraction business and he said that it had been planned but that it had never worked properly due to lack of water in the canal so they don't do it anymore.

 

"Abstraction" is the technical term IIRC. 

 

It always pished me orf when Thames conservancy moaned about low water levels back in the late 70s, whilst granting licences to abstract hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of water to riverside farmers for their crops. 

[George and Dragon]

15 hours ago, MtB said:

 

"Abstraction" is the technical term IIRC. 

 

It always pished me orf when Thames conservancy moaned about low water levels back in the late 70s, whilst granting licences to abstract hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of water to riverside farmers for their crops. 

At least water onto crops is likely to find its way back into the river after a fairly short period of time. Water taken from a canal and returned to the river is a bit like a hole in the canal bank.

[David Mack]

6 hours ago, George and Dragon said:

At least water onto crops is likely to find its way back into the river after a fairly short period of time.

In conditions dry enough for crops to need irrigating I think a fair proportion of the water either evaporates directly or is lost as transpiration from the crop leaves. So it doesn't come back to the river until it has completed the water cycle.

[Alway Swilby]

9 hours ago, George and Dragon said:

At least water onto crops is likely to find its way back into the river after a fairly short period of time. Water taken from a canal and returned to the river is a bit like a hole in the canal bank.

The building maintenance chappies said that they don't do this because there is never enough water in the canal. They have given up on the idea.

[Hudds Lad]

11 hours ago, Alway Swilby said:

The building maintenance chappies said that they don't do this because there is never enough water in the canal. They have given up on the idea.

Plus the only crops within 2 miles of the university are illegal cannabis grows  

[jetzi]

Speaking of maintenance and a shallow canal, there's now an apparently stoppage on the HNC between locks 8W and 21W due to a major leak just below Roaches lock (15W). https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/20822-lock-8w-to-lock-21w-huddersfield-narrow-canal - anyone in the area got any idea how serious this is? Is the canal totally dry?

 

According to their updates, they started repairs today and will give us an update on Tuesday 19th October.

 

One thing that I must give cart credit for is their updates with the stoppages, so with baited breath I wait for Tuesday's update..

[Mac of Cygnet]

14 hours ago, jetzi said:

Speaking of maintenance and a shallow canal, there's now an apparently stoppage on the HNC between locks 8W and 21W due to a major leak just below Roaches lock (15W). https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/20822-lock-8w-to-lock-21w-huddersfield-narrow-canal - anyone in the area got any idea how serious this is? Is the canal totally dry?

 

According to their updates, they started repairs today and will give us an update on Tuesday 19th October.

 

One thing that I must give cart credit for is their updates with the stoppages, so with baited breath I wait for Tuesday's update..

 

Are you hoping to catch some fish, then?  

 

Sorry.