In days gone by

Hirst Woods and the area round Hirst Wood Lock has been a pleasant destination for an outing for generations of Saltaire residents.  This old picture shows Hirst Farm (demolished in the mid 20th century and nowadays a car-park!)   Originally built in the 18th century, in the 1881 census it is described as occupied by a tenant farmer, John Jowett, who farmed 22 acres.  It was sold off by the Lord of the Manor of Shipley in 1911.  It was later occupied by the Whincup family and then by Frank Bagshaw who expanded the farm into a tourist attraction serving refreshments, delicious ice cream and pony rides for the children.  It's a pity it's not there now, as I'm sure it would still be popular.

Hirst Lock in 1878

The original of this painting by A Wilson, dated 1878, belongs to Bradford Museums and Art Galleries and it is reproduced on the information board at Hirst Wood Lock.  It shows quite a pastoral scene, with Hirst Wood Farm, outbuildings and cottages (now all demolished) on the left and a house on the right (which still exists).  Further down the lane to the right stands Hirst Mill, a water mill powered by the River Aire, which was originally used for grinding oats, later became a fulling mill connected with the woollen industry and was then converted to make paper.  It is now transformed into apartments.

Interestingly the painting shows a house on the hill in the distance that I think is Milner Field, the mansion built for Titus Salt Junior, which had a fascinating and macabre history - see here and here for earlier posts about that.

And here is the same lock today...

A tight squeeze

Here's the narrowboat that yesterday's young lady was waiting for.  Once a boat has negotiated the single lock chamber at Hirst Wood (and as you can see it's quite a tight squeeze), it enters a little canal basin.  It then has to pass through the swing bridge, which pivots sideways to allow boats to proceed up the canal.  Unlike some of the locks, Hirst Wood is not 'manned' so boat owners have to do all the running about and winding sluice gates for themselves. It's quite hard work.  But it makes interesting entertainment for passers-by strolling along the towpath.

Below is the same boat going through the swing bridge, which then has to be closed again behind it to allow traffic and pedestrians to cross the canal.

Then and now

Hirst Wood is about a quarter mile outside Saltaire along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.  The old photo above shows a lock-keeper standing by the swing-bridge at Hirst Wood, with a cottage behind him.  The cottage is a bit of a mystery and it's unclear whether it belonged to Hirst Wood Farm or to Hirst Mill, or whether it was the lock-keeper's cottage.  We know it existed at the time the first Ordnance Survey map was drawn in 1847 and had been demolished by 1934.   The canal itself dates back to 1777.  I took the colour photo at more or less the same spot to show how it all looks now.  You can see the same bit of stone wall on the far bank, in both photos.

Where Hirst Wood Farm used to stand, there is now a car-park (on the right) but the canal and swing bridge are much the same.  In the distance you can see a building that is now Hughes Bakery, which makes walking in the area a pleasure, owing to the fragrance of fresh-baked bread wafting around! The young lady standing by the bridge was waiting for a narrowboat to pass through the lock.  She had the job of opening the bridge to let the boat proceed up the canal.

Look back here, here and here for other notes and photos on this little area.

Hirst Wood Regeneration Group

Adjacent to Saltaire on its western flank there is a small estate called Hirst Wood, after the area of woodland of the same name about a quarter mile along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.  It is fair to say that compared to the surrounding areas it has for years been a little pocket of relative deprivation, hidden and largely forgotten.  (At one time my church used to run a youth club on the estate, which I like to think bore useful fruit.)

In 2000 a group was formed: the Hirst Wood Regeneration Group, dedicated to improving facilities in the area and 'restoring a sense of pride' in the community.  They have been very active and pretty successful in lobbying the local council and in fund-raising.  The estate now has a very nice children's playground and sports field for local youngsters. A more recent project involved 'The Triangle' - a small area adjacent to the lock on the canal at Hirst Wood, which was originally just an unattractive piece of bare earth.  It has now been landscaped, turfed and planted and some seats added.  It still looks quite 'new' but will soon mature to provide a pleasant area to sit and watch the activity around the lock and swing bridge.  Well done and thank you to HWRG!

Summer tree

There begins to be the hint of autumn around ... chilly temperatures in the mornings, an abundance of berries - rowan, elderberry, blackberry and of course those magnifient conkers (horse chestnuts)  - and hints of red and gold visible on a few trees.  I want to hang on to summer for a bit longer!  A walk in my local woods shows that green still dominates.  I love the way the sunlight filters through the leafy canopy.  Hirst Woods is a patch of semi-ancient woodland and has a good mixture of trees including oak, beech, sycamore and birch.

Hirst Farm

As I said in yesterday's post, there was at one time a lock keeper's cottage and a farm at Hirst Lock, just outside Saltaire. The buildings have disappeared but I have this old photo (courtesy of Dorothy Burrows) which shows the farm as it used to be. Apparently in the early part of the 20th century Hirst Farm was a popular weekend destination for families, offering horse rides, home-made ice cream and a café.

The River Aire and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal at this spot run alongside each other and there has been a mill here since the 1700s, using the river to turn its water wheel to power the machinery. The mill was originally a corn mill but later made paper. It was rebuilt in the 19th century and has now been converted into flats (see this link for a photo). There are other cottages and houses in the hamlet, built in the 1860s, which still stand, though they too have had various conversions and additions.

Hirst Wood Lock

There are eleven locks and an aqueduct on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal between Shipley and Skipton. The nearest to Saltaire is Hirst Lock - an uncomplicated single rise lock situated about half a mile out of Saltaire. It raises the canal 10 feet 2 inches (over 3 m) to a height of 216 feet (about 66 m) above sea level. It's a really pleasant walk along the towpath on a summer evening, and there's generally plenty to look at (and photograph).

Some of the more complicated 'stair' locks - the two-rise at Dowley Gap and the three and five-rise locks in Bingley - have lock keepers on duty in the summer months, to assist holiday-makers who have hired narrowboats and who may not be entirely familiar with the complex sequence of moves required to fill and empty the locks. But it seems that Hirst Lock is deemed easy enough, even for novice boaters. There is, however, a notice reminding people how not to waste water.

In times past, there was apparently a two-storey lock keeper's cottage here at Hirst Lock, alongside Hirst Farm, but both these buildings were demolished in the first half of the twentieth century.

Bluebells

You can see the faintest tinge of blue on this photograph of Hirst Woods, Saltaire, taken from the side of the Leeds-Liverpool canal. We are right in the middle of bluebell time here, and I think the haze of bluebells in a spring woodland is one of the prettiest sights there is. But you have to know where to go for the best pictures and you have to find a day with the right lighting - too sunny and it doesn't work, too dull and it doesn't really work either. The bluebells in Hirst Woods don't form a really thick carpet - Middleton Woods in Ilkley is generally a better bet for photos, but I haven't had chance to venture over there yet this year. Nevertheless, Hirst Woods, just on the edge of Saltaire, is my local patch of ancient woodland and I am fond of it. For a photo of the woods at the other end of the year, click this link.