Lock 24E (?), Huddersfield Narrow

[Little Else]

5 hours ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

Sorry to hear that.  It is my usual route to the south (or back), and I was looking forward to my 13th traverse of the HNC last autumn when the Marple locks closure stopped me.  Your misadventure with the Slawit guillotine could have happened in several places (except that that guillotine is the only manual one on the canal system). Has anything else about the HNC put you off?

Where do I start?  I nearly gave up boating yesterday. The only good thing has been the people we have encountered who have all, with the exception of one fisherman, been lovely. One day when I’ve recovered I’ll come back and do it again. On foot without a boat. 

[Mac of Cygnet]

12 hours ago, Little Else said:

Where do I start?  I nearly gave up boating yesterday. The only good thing has been the people we have encountered who have all, with the exception of one fisherman, been lovely. One day when I’ve recovered I’ll come back and do it again. On foot without a boat. 

Well I certainly hope your comments don't put other people off, and I'm sorry you had a bad experience but without details I can hardly reassure them.

(I feel the same way about Manchester, BTW   )

[Victor Vectis]

I have to take my hat off to my good lady wife for showing commendable restraint in post 26.

Her cry of anger on reaching the outskirts of Huddersfield to find the locks on the locks had changed from handcuff key locks to BW key locks was loud indeed.

My comment in post 20 was because:

Lack of water on the way up from Staylbridge. We came across 'Spey' (of all boats!) near Mossley, stuck in a bridge 'ole heading down. Gawd alone knows how they managed.

Nowhere to moor. We tied up below Roches Lock but with the arse end of the boat far out from the towpath.

Inability to get into the side to drop off/collect crew at lock landings.

Hydraulic paddle gear and those pisspotical handcuff key screw in/out locks.

Having said that Uppermill was lovely, Slaithwaite was too (apart from being stuck in the lock!) and the trip through the tunnel was great.

The water situation above Roaches Lock was better and there was plenty on the way down on the Yorkshire side but the boats we met at Uppermill, heading west, said they had struggled on the way up. In fairness to the HNC they and us were the first boats up following the stoppages, I think.

Yes, the canal above Uppermill in lovely but the question to be asked is, is it worth the effort of getting there?

[Ian Mac]

I remember that journey well. The lack of water was due to Yorkshire water, who have a statutory duty to provide water to the Huddersfield VNC, turning their feed off. After several days of being shouted at, they eventually turned it back on. It was starting to recover on the Sunday. On the Saturday, we really struggled getting from lock 8 to 9 on a bad scour, where a feed comes in, and then in bridges in lower Mossley, and then again at Division bridge. Coming back we only got stuck in two bridges in Lower Mossley. Not bad for a boat which draws 3ft4"
We of course got stuck in lock 21W which is the second of the truly narrow locks (we get through 19W)  The journey was a bit of a struggle due to the lack of water, but I really do like doing the HVNC,  Once you leave the bridge behind it is a very senic canal, just a shame we can't get all the way across, yet!
We spent the Sunday night in the middle of Staleybridge opposite Tescos, good beers in the Buffet on the station. Also a handy Spoons for breakfast
The Huddersfield Very Narrow Canal was a cheap canal to build except for the tunnel! So the offside water wall is 6" deep and the towpath wall which is built on top of the puddle is only 1ft9" high except at wharfs.The puddle normally goes to the back of the towpath were it surfaces.

So it is no surprise that most people can not moor at the side on this canal.  This is the same with many cheap canal, the Macc is another good example of such a cheap canal, made worse by the fact that they dropped the level of the summit by 3" when they removed the stop lock gates in Marple, during its period of railway ownership.