WIDE WATER, BIG LOCKS AND BROKEN BRIDGES

 

Sunset on the river

Before we left Leeds we stopped and had a chat with Pete and Dawn. It turned out overnight some low life had nicked their bike off the front of their boat. What is the world coming to?

They were heading back to their moorings at Rotherham, so we wished them well and hoped to see them soon. However Alison and Nick off NB Panacea, who they had been travelling with were heading on to the Trent for the first time, so we said we would catch up with them nearer to Keadby and the Trent if they wanted any tips.

At the first lock of the day a small yogurt pot was coming up so I went to help, the guy on the boat had no experience, and was being helped by the crew of a widebeam which was coming up after. I recognised the yogurt pot as one reported stolen a week earlier, but was happy to hear it had now been reunited with its owner. All well that ends well in some cases.

At the river lock 2 lockees helped us down and onto the river, and then I was on my own. It seemed strange at the first river lock to jump ship without my trusty windlass. These big (and they are big) river locks are all electric, and just require a BW key to operate them. So much easier for me.

Once through we were on the Aire and Calder Navigation. 4 more of the huge locks and we stopped above Lemonroyd lock for the night.

I love being on the river for a change, and we managed to spot a pair of Kingfishers zooming past the boat, we also saw a Red deer, it ran through a field, and then performed what looked like a vertical take off to clear a high wall into the next field, were it disappeared into the undergrowth. Buzzards have soared above us, and Terns dive behind the boat fishing for their dinner. Snowy white Little Egrets and Herons have lined the river bank as we have cruised by.

At Castleford junction we turned left and headed for Ferrybridge, its once famous power station just a pile of rubble now. We found decent moorings at Ferrybridge and decided to stay for the night, and there was a pub (of course), The Golden Lion. So what better way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon than sat outside with a good pint of Cruzcampo over-looking the river.

Although we don’t usually do long days, the weather was so nice next day we decided just to keep going and had lunch on the move. We did around 14miles and 3 locks. Turning right at Southfield Junctions we joined the New Junction Canal. This is 5½ miles long and very straight, with a number of lift and swing bridges, but only 1 lock. The bridges are all electric apart from one, which is right in the middle Sykehouse lock and had to be opened manually before using the lock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Junction_Canal

I had been in touch with Alison, and suggested meeting up at The New Inn at Stainsforth the next day. She was happy with this suggestion, so after a quiet night we headed for the pub.

https://www.newinnstainforth.co.uk/

At Bramwith Junction we turned off the New Junction canal and onto the South Yorkshire Navigation. Bramwith lock was a bit of a shock, although it is still a large river lock its manual, so my trusty windlass had its first outing for a while. The swing bridge which followed also had us scratching our heads, as it appeared to be closed and there were a number of men working on it. We were really pleased to find out it was only closed to traffic, and not boats (the pub was about 2miles beyond it). A very helpful man from CRT operated it for us, and we were soon on our way.

There are great moorings right outside the pub, which were empty, so we were soon moored up. It has happy memories for us, as Bubbles, our ginger tom cat who died in 2019, made a lot of friends here roaming round the beer garden being a right tart, as was his way.

Alison and Nick turned up after lunch and we agreed to have a pint together later. But the pull of the pub on a hot afternoon was too much, and we were soon sat in the beer garden enjoying a cold beer and the sunshine.

We decided to travel together, so next day we headed for Thorne, only a short hop of about 3miles, they needed diesel and there are 2 boatyards there. At the first, Stanilands, there was no one there to serve them, so onto Thorne Marina and success, and we moored on the pontoons overnight. We headed to the Canal Tavern for a pint, and it was great to see that it was very busy. No darks on for the Captain so he made do with Bierra Moretti, he is becoming a right lager lout like me.

https://www.facebook.com/stanilands/?locale=en_GB

https://www.thorneboatservices.co.uk/index.html

7 miles to Keadby and 7 moveable bridges. The first Princess bridge can be a bit of a pain to operate but behaved itself on this occasion. It was the next bridge, Wykewell lift bridge that proved our undoing. I jumped off and let 4 boats through, but when it came to lower the bridge, nothing, not a dicky bird, it was going nowhere. The fault light was on so the only option was to ring CRT and hope someone came out quickly, as we couldn’t leave it as my key was still in the control panel and we were having to explain to drivers that the bridge was stuck.

A Lift Bridge

Alison and Nick kept going not realising we had a problem. After my phone call with CRT, were they said they would be as quick as possible, I messaged Alison and explained the situation and they agreed to wait at the next bridge for us.

We only had to wait about 20mins and Paul from CRT arrived, it turned out that the lift mechanism was low on oil and he had oil, unfortunately it didn’t solve the problem completely and the bridge still refused to lower. Eventually he had to lower it manually, then the barriers wouldn’t open, so these had to be done by hand to. Once everything was back in place the control panel released my key and we could get back on our way. Paul was great and did a fantastic job.

Our eventual destination Keadby also had a problem with a bridge, the Vazon sliding railway bridge, which is an amazing bit of kit had a fault, and as the railway it carried was a main line and well used, they were only opening it for boats at 10pm at night.

http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/sheffield/sy9.htm

We arrived in plenty of time and brested up on the bridge landing to wait, we were informed by the gate keeper it would be dead on 10pm that the bridge was opened. Not a problem and we were both ready to go in plenty of time, but it turned out this was a big fib (and told to make sure everyone was ready). About 10.20pm the bridge opened and we made our way through in the pitch dark, which was fun. A very helpful boater guided us to the available mooring spaces, and we were soon settled for the night and prepared for our adventures on the mighty Trent the next day.

Waiting for the bridge

47 miles, 15 locks, about 17 bridges, 5 canals and 1 river.