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Our journey to Leeds involved 5 sets of staircase locks, plus a few single locks, and of course some swing bridges, at some of the locks we had the help of lockees, which always makes my life so much easier, but when they aren’t there its all down to me.
We left Saltaire and stopped only after a mile or so to do some much needed shopping, it was a busy day for me, as it was also wash day. We got to the first staircase lock and met up with Living the Dream again, they were already in the lock, so we helped them down before following them, but then we stopped, I had had enough, so we had a quiet afternoon catching up with this and that.
Feeling rejuvenated, next day we headed for Rodley, and the only locks of the day. At Apperley Bridge we saw Living the Dream again, but they were moored up just before the locks. There were lockees on but I jumped off to have a word, and we had to wait as they bought a boat up. I was very surprised when one of the lockees removed the pawl to wind the gate paddle up, this is a safety feature which stops the paddle falling if your windlass slips, and stops your windlass flying off and doing you an injury. I pointed this out to him and he just wasn’t bothered, saying he didn’t like the click clicking noise it made, but he also admitted to being hurt when his windlass had slipped one time when the pawl wasn’t on. Very strange.
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| The White thing is the pawl |
It wasn’t long before we were down the locks and on our way to Rodley, the Captain wanted to stop before the second swing bridge, as we needed a pump out the next day at the boatyard there. We pulled in and the Captain took a walk to see if there were mooring near the Tiny Tearoom were we had moored before. I got him through the first bridge and then walked down to help moor, as I got close I could see 2 paddle boarders just in front of the boat, and then they did something very dangerous, which the Captain hates, they split and went different sides of the boat, one went in front of the boat so the Captain couldn’t see them at all. He was having a heated discussion with them as I approached, as now one of them was at the side were we were mooring. A narrowboat doesn’t just stop, and at 16 tons it can do a lot of damage to other vessels and people. It all ended well we moored and they went on their way, moaning about rude boaters.
There are 3 pubs in Rodley but we only tried the nearest, The Railway, and the Captain was happy with a good pint of Old Peculiar.
https://www.facebook.com/therailwayinnrodley/?locale=en_GB
Getting a pump out was fun next day as the boatyard was not really visiting boat friendly, with boats moored at all strange angles and places, but we managed it and off we went to do the 5 miles, 3 staircase and 4 single locks into Granary wharf in Leeds.
At the first staircase we had lockees to help and that was ok. At the next I was all on my own until a very helpful boater turned up coming up the locks, after an initial misunderstanding he was very helpful and we were soon down.
I had a bit of a rest until the next ones so made some lunch, the last of the staircase was the most awkward even thought it was only 2 locks (the other were 3), it took ages to do, and the gates seemed so much heavier than the previous ones, I think I was just tired tbh.
At the last lock before Granary Wharf we spotted Pete and Dawn Bell on Rosie O’Leigh moored with another boat on some new offside mooring. We stopped for a chat and were pleased we did, as he informed us that the pontoons in the wharf were closed off with no explanation why, and we might have difficulty finding moorings there. So we decided to moor behind them for the night and head to the pub. We had not really explored this side of the canal before, so after Googling pubs we decided to try a couple. Firstly the Northern Monk, which has its own brewery on site, the brewery is on the bottom floor with the bar being above it. The girl behind the bar was lovely, and whilst the Captain was thinking asked what I drank, lager of course, and they had their own lager on tap, that did nicely. The Captain plumped for Cuppa, tea, milk, sugar described as a brown ale. It was really nice with a biscuity sweet taste.
Then we tried the Midnight Bell, part of Leeds Brewery, they had their own lager on to so that did for me, and a Midnight Bell dark ale for the Captain, he had a little taste and wasn’t sure so we only had a half, glad we did as in was over £6 for 2 halves. For our last pint we decided to walk round the The Hop, the Ossett brewery this time. The Captain had Voodoo, a chocolate orange stout and I had Madri. It was so nice we had another. Walking back we past the pontoons and think the reason they are closed is something to do with the walkway onto the them, which didn’t look particularly safe.
When we got back to the moorings, Pete and Dawn were sat out with the other boaters, we had a chat but didn’t stay and headed back for a late tea, and a quiet night.
We had decided to spend the next day exploring Leeds and its markets (I love a good market), but the weather was against us and it mizzled most of the day. But I wasn’t to be deterred and we set off after lunch (in the rain) to find Kirkgate market, I enjoyed walking round looking at the diverse array of stalls, but as with many markets quite a few of the stalls were empty. A sign off the time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeds_Kirkgate_Market
Leeds is also the place of Victorian Arcades, which are stunning in their architecture and house some of the more exclusive shop brands.
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| What a Roof |
https://leeds-list.com/lifestyle/leeds-is-famous-for-its-shopping-arcades-and-heres-why/
of course we had to try a pub or 2 and Leeds has some hidden gems down little alleys off the main streets. Starting with The Ship Inn at over 300yrs old it is one of the oldest pubs in Leeds and a great real ale bar.
https://www.facebook.com/TheShipLeedsCity/?locale=en_GB
Then on to the Whitelocks Ale house dating back to 1715, another old pub and again great real ales.
The Captain treated me to tea at Zizzi’s which was lovely, and so plentiful we had enough left over to bring back for tea next day.
That was the end of our time in Leeds, and on the Leeds Liverpool canal. 2 locks next day and we were on the River Aire heading to Keadby and the mighty River Trent.
14 miles, 18 locks, loads of swing bridges, 1 canal and 1 river.
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