Today we take Narrowboat Silver Fox deep under the Pennines through Standedge Tunnel. The longest, highest, deepest canal tunnel in the UK situated on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, it links Marsden in West Yorkshire with Diggle in Greater Manchester, Lancashire. Colin explores the dark, mysterious, disused railway tunnels that run alongside the canal tunnel and ventures high up onto the moors to check out a ventilation shaft, hundreds of feet overhead from the canal. With a reputation for damaging boats passing through it, can we make it through without incident?
We leave Shepley Bridge and make a sharp left turn at Cooper Bridge onto the Huddersfield Broad Canal. After an overnight stopover at Aspley Marina, we start our ascent towards Standedge Tunnel at Marsden on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. Passing through some beautiful towns and villages such as Linthwaite and Slaithwaite we encounter empty pounds, closed locks and the weather goes from heatwave to monsoon. Colin stops off at Sparth Reservoir to find out why the locals went to war with British Waterways and goes for a swim in the water.
We leave Castleford crossing the junction to take the Aire and Calder Navigation, towards Stanley Ferry where we cross the historic cast iron aqueduct and remember the 'Great Pumpout Disaster of 2004'. From there we follow the Calder and Hebble Navigation through Wakefield, Horbury Bridge and Dewsbury, calling at Shepley Bridge on our way towards Huddersfield. On the two hottest days of 2019, Colin learns how to use a Calder Spike in the locks and opens up about being socially awkward.
They hold back thousands of gallons of water and control height on the canal network, but how are canal lock gates made? We took a visit to the Canal and River Trust's workshop at Stanley Ferry to find out.
