Jump to content

Ashton and huddersfield Canals


beardshave

Featured Posts

For a change rather than cruising on our own boats throught the eternal delights of Milton Keynes (yet again) we've hired a boat  for a one way trip from Portland Basin on the Ashton to Sowerby Bridge. Apart from the fact that we're a pretty ancient crew and 97 locks will probably give the local A and E some unwanted business my main concern is where do we stop first night. A pub is essential for the avoidance of mutiny. We hope to leave Portland Basin by 2p.m. What's our best option? Any suggestions greatly appreciated as I can't stand the sight of grown men sobbing uncontrollably.

Mike

Cowroast

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Moor outside Tesco at Stalybridge. Go to Stalybridge Buffet Bar. There are other decent pubs in Stalybridge but the Buffet Bar is King for wet led pubs. Beyond that you are looking at Mossley or Greenfield but they are a few hours cruise away from Portland Basin. Uppermill is a bit of a dessert in my opinion but the Diggle Hotel was OK last time I was in there.

 

Lots of choice once through Stanedge.

 

I see I concur with David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd suggest mooring outside the Phoenix City restaurant in Stalybridge, there are rings there and it's safer/less noisy than opposite Tesco with much less goose sh*t, as well as being nearer to the Buffet Bar.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/search/pubs+restaurants/@53.4834711,-2.0616215,17.58z

 

Phoenix City is a bit warehouse-y, the food is fine but nothing special.

 

The Bridge Beers micropub is also close by and very good, but opening hours are also restricted, IIRC it closes at 8pm.

 

You might find some other useful information here...

 

 

Edited by IanD
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another pub I liked was the Railway Inn at Greenfield. Has a good selection of decent beer and cider. 
 

Greenfield isn’t great for mooring though. Hard to get into the side. You might manage by Tesco but that can be a pain. 
Uppermill, not much further up is a very pretty spot and, if you fancy a walk, you can walk the 20 or 30 min back down to the Railway. 
(And if you’re missing the Buffet Bar you can nip back on the train from there.)


The Huddersfield Canal has lots to explore. Enjoy and let us know how you get on. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, beardshave said:

For a change rather than cruising on our own boats throught the eternal delights of Milton Keynes (yet again) we've hired a boat  for a one way trip from Portland Basin on the Ashton to Sowerby Bridge. Apart from the fact that we're a pretty ancient crew and 97 locks will probably give the local A and E some unwanted business my main concern is where do we stop first night. A pub is essential for the avoidance of mutiny. We hope to leave Portland Basin by 2p.m. What's our best option? Any suggestions greatly appreciated as I can't stand the sight of grown men sobbing uncontrollably.

Mike

Cowroast

We did exactly your trip on a Shire Cruisers hire boat a few years back, which I guess is what you're doing too...

 

IIRC first few stops were Stalybridge/Dobcross(Navigation)/Marsden(Riverhead Brewery Tap)/Slaithwaite(Commercial), then not sure...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't forget that you have to time your passage of Standedge (open Mon/Wed/Fri), so leaving Portland on Saturday afternoon you need to go through on Monday afternoon (entrance 1pm-2.30pm -- see photo...) to get to Sowerby Bridge -- Shire will tell you this (and deal with the booking). Dobcross on Sunday night fits well with this.

 

Are you sure about the direction? When we booked Shire weren't sure until close to the time which direction we'd be going in, maybe they know better this year if the boat is 100% booked.

 

standedge.JPG

Edited by IanD
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Cheshire cat said:

There are two decent bars on Huddersfield station plus The Grove is worth searching out although its a mile or so from the junction of the narrow and the Broad.

Also  my favourite,The Rat and Ratchet  five minutes walk from lock 3E on the HNC.Although an Osset Brewery pub,they brew their own ales on the premises.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Also  my favourite,The Rat and Ratchet  five minutes walk from lock 3E on the HNC.Although an Osset Brewery pub,they brew their own ales on the premises.

And assuming the OP moors in Sowerby Bridge for the last night, he should definitely walk up the hill to the Shepherd's Rest for a beer -- lovely pub, great beer... 🙂

 

Not a pub tip, but this has been a great year for blackberries going by our garden, and last time we went through Slaithwaite there was a massive bank of them offside in the narrow section below lock 21 (East Waterside) which can only be picked off a boat -- we got a couple of pounds of them, mmm...

Edited by IanD
Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, IanD said:

And assuming the OP moors in Sowerby Bridge for the last night, he should definitely walk up the hill to the Shepherd's Rest for a beer -- lovely pub, great beer... 🙂

 

Not a pub tip, but this has been a great year for blackberries going by our garden, and last time we went through Slaithwaite there was a massive bank of them offside in the narrow section below lock 21 (East Waterside) which can only be picked off a boat -- we got a couple of pounds of them, mmm...

 

I would endorse all the pubs mentioned in this thread, and have picked brambles (blackberries to sassenachs) more than once just where you say.  Made jam with them too while stuck in a lock on the Diggle flight.

 

Edited to say that of course despite the title of this thread, very little of this trip will be on the Ashton, and much of that under a supermarket.  Much more will be on the Calder & Hebble, for which you will need the handspike provided on the boat.

Edited by Mac of Cygnet
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Cheshire cat said:

There are two decent bars on Huddersfield station

Occupying the original booking offices of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway, which jointly built the station. Crests of both companies can be seen on the facades.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

Think i’m still barred from the Rat & Ratshit due to some shenanigans back in the early 90’s.

Bet it's had seventeen different managers since then, so they won't have a clue who you are... 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

Think i’m still barred from the Rat & Ratshit due to some shenanigans back in the early 90’s.

 

The Parish is worth a look, as is The Sportsman and The Vulcan

I think you will be ok to go back.

There have been at least three changes of management in the last few years.

Present manager is a big bearded irishman, Davy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 14/09/2021 at 18:57, Cheshire cat said:

Moor outside Tesco at Stalybridge. Go to Stalybridge Buffet Bar. There are other decent pubs in Stalybridge but the Buffet Bar is King for wet led pubs. Beyond that you are looking at Mossley or Greenfield but they are a few hours cruise away from Portland Basin. Uppermill is a bit of a dessert in my opinion but the Diggle Hotel was OK last time I was in there.

 

Lots of choice once through Stanedge.

 

I see I concur with David

Nearer than the Buffet, in fact just on the street below lock 6W there are two micro bars, Bridge Beers the owners of which have just opened their own brewery, and the Crafty Pint adjacent to the bridge. Both well worth a visit.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, captain birdseye said:

Nearer than the Buffet, in fact just on the street below lock 6W there are two micro bars, Bridge Beers the owners of which have just opened their own brewery, and the Crafty Pint adjacent to the bridge. Both well worth a visit.

 

 

Already pointed out. Note that Bridge Beers closes at 8pm, or earlier if the barman fancies it...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, beardshave said:

All very welcome though and gratefully received. I  have noted them all but will, of course,wirth the discipline and self conrol for which boaters generally and our mob in particular are reknowned expect to be back on time but in disarray.

Just one warning -- assuming you're planning the trip using canalplan or similar, make sure you leave some spare time/flexibility after Standedge (which you'll have to do on Monday afternoon) when planning stops, don't assume it's all going to go smoothly.

 

The HNC is notorious for things like low pounds which can easily lose you a couple of hours or more, and if this happens towards the end of the week you might struggle to get to Sowerby Bridge on time. We've had delays like this every time we've done the HNC, but have always left enough spare time to make them up.

 

So make sure you plan shorter days towards the end of the week, you can always find a way to spend the spare time if things do go smoothly e.g. by sitting in a pub 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Get signed up for the CRT alerts to keep abreast of things on your route, for example the HNC has been shut between locks 1 and 8 due to low water levels this week, it has just re-opened this morning but the Broad is still closed until they get levels back up.

 

The local team that do repairs are pretty on the ball, any paddle breakages are usually sorted within a day, they’ve even devised a special cradle to hang off the lock side to sort paddles without fully draining everything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Hudds Lad said:

Get signed up for the CRT alerts to keep abreast of things on your route, for example the HNC has been shut between locks 1 and 8 due to low water levels this week, it has just re-opened this morning but the Broad is still closed until they get levels back up.

 

The local team that do repairs are pretty on the ball, any paddle breakages are usually sorted within a day, they’ve even devised a special cradle to hang off the lock side to sort paddles without fully draining everything.

 

In our trips we never had to call CART out, the problems were always fixable by running some water down. The HNC doesn't have much traffic, if you see more than one boat in a day coming the other way that's a traffic jam, which is great in some ways (no queues or congestion!) but means it might be a long time since another boat used the pound/lock in front of you, so it can have dropped a lot or emptied.

 

I assume it's been fixed (I hope so!) but there was one lock in the flight up to the summit on the west side which had very leaky bottom gates, a boat sank there a couple of weeks before we went through when it got stuck on the top sill coming out into a low pound, the leakage emptied the lock behind and it sank. We got stuck in the same lock but luckily had been prewarned by CWDF and managed to reverse back off the sill and wait for the pound above the lock to fill up.

 

 

 

Fantastic canal though, probably my favourite 😉

Edited by IanD
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.