Todmorden

9 Locks, 4 Miles, now moored at Todmorden.

Autumn leaves piling up in the canal.

With an improvement in the weather it was time to get moving again. Due to the scarcity of pump out and water facilities over the next couple of weeks we pulled over to the facilities at Hebden Bridge. Here we had a problem of a boat who had spent the night on the facility moorings. Originally there had been 2 of them but the other boat left at 2am. We could get onto the mooring but only reach the water and not the pump out. A quick bang on the side of the boat got an abrupt reply but when madam boater came to the front doors she was told quite firmly by Dot that she shouldn’t be there, never mind the whinging. She gave some lame excuse about her daughter being in hospital having a baby but we told her the 24 hour moorings were on the other side. Once she had left in her unlicensed boat we were able to complete both tasks.

This guy must love gardening. All terraced with stone walls.

Along the way we passed 4 boats all at different locks but it did make locking a bit easier with most of the locks set in our favour.  We did have a problem with one lock where Dot couldn’t get the gate to move so a little gentle persuasion from the boat soon solved this problem. Being a fine day there were plenty of hikers all along the towpath and most of them giving a cheery “Hello” We thought at one stage that we had found an Indian Reservation complete with Tepee or wigwam. It turned out to be some hippy boaters had formed a community cooperative and were trying to be self sufficient.

These boaters had a hippy community growing their own produce. Campsite came complete with Indian Wigwam.

Travelling through Yorkshire we have been amazed at how many mill’s there used to be. Even small towns and villages all had a mill or mill’s, some of which are still standing or the demolition site is quite obvious. So many are being converted into apartment blocks which is good because they still retain the character.

The Woodhouse mill is now apartments but the chimney still stands tall. Not sure where the boiler house was?

1889 locks, 3788 ½ miles, 70 tunnels, 127 swing bridges and 53 lift bridges since Nov 2006