Viewpoint

I have less time than usual to get out and about taking new photos, but I realised that I could also reprise a few of the earlier posts from my blog.  I used to post photos quite small too, so it will be good to see some at the larger size I now use.  This one shows the famous Bingley Five-Rise Locks from the top of the 'staircase',  looking towards Bingley.  You can see the red-brick shed I had in my photo yesterday (though that was a more recent photo).  Click here to go back to my original post for this picture.

Red brick

I'm afraid my postings are a bit more geographically haphazard than I prefer them to be at the best of times.  As you will recall, these are not quite the best of times.  And I'm sorry I'm not managing to get round to reading and commenting on other blogs very much, as my focus is necessarily elsewhere.  But never mind, that's life, with all its seasons. There will be time again for dallying, one day... 

Talking of seasons, this to me is a very springlike scene.  It only needs a few daffodils strewn over that green bank - I'm surprised no-one has planted any.  It's not in Saltaire, but a bit further up the canal at Bingley - in fact at the foot of the famous Five-Rise Locks.  I am not sure what purpose the little red-brick shed has; perhaps it holds some kind of pumping mechanism related to the locks.  What surprises me most is that the shed is red-brick, which is hardly used at all in this part of Yorkshire.  Nearly everything is stone-built, as are the lock-chambers themselves.  There's plenty of red-brick over in Leeds ten miles away but Pennine Yorkshire is characterised by its stone.

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.

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!

Lock mechanism

This is part of one of the lock gates at the Five Rise Locks in Bingley. It's the mechanism for raising one of the sluices at the bottom of the gate, through which the water passes to fill the lock chamber up (or to empty it into the next chamber down.)

For a simple, animated explanation of how a lock works, click here. It's pretty cute. And there's a slightly more technical but extremely fascinating account of exactly how the Bingley lock keepers work the staircase ("staircases without side ponds") and why the locks at Bingley are not very water-efficient compared with some others - click here.

View from the top

Climb to the top of the Five Rise locks and you are rewarded with a good view back down the Aire valley towards Bingley. The canal follows the line of trees (or vice versa, I suppose!) but then veers to the right in front of the buildings you can see. At one time that was a mill, now converted, as are so many in this area, to apartments and houses, which have a nice outlook over the canal. You can also see the big black chimney of the Damart factory and, just behind that, the rather ugly (to my mind) 1960s concrete building that used to be the HQ of the Bradford & Bingley Building Society - a casualty of the banking crisis. There's a picture on this page - locals have dubbed it 'the Hanging Gardens of Babylon'. Prince Charles once said it was 'the ugliest building in Britain'!

You will note that I took this picture earlier in the spring. Once the trees have leaves you can't see so much.

Bingley Five Rise Locks

As I mentioned a few days ago, the Five-Rise Locks in Bingley is a few miles along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal from Saltaire. This is a hugely popular spot with locals and tourists alike. It's a very pleasant stroll from the centre of Bingley - which is itself quite an attractive little market town. You pass the Damart factory (stock up on your thermal underwear for the winter from the mill shop!) and then climb alongside the three-rise lock. A further short walk brings you to the five-rise. At the top there are always boats moored and there's a nice little café too, where you can sit outside in the sun (perhaps!) and watch the activity.

The locks (and therefore the canal from Gargrave to Leeds) were opened in 1774, with 30,000 people enjoying great celebrations, all the local church bells ringing and a ceremonial firing of guns by the local militia!

It's fascinating to watch how the lock keepers move the boats up and down the stair. Because it involves very intricate series of moves, which have to be done in the right order, lock keepers are employed full-time there and the locks are locked(!) at night. As you can imagine, it takes quite a while - a good half-hour - to move a boat up or down the whole series of five locks. And with the three-rise just a bit further on, boaters are advised to allow plenty of time to negotiate this stretch of the canal. (There's a funny little time-lapse film of a boat going through Bingley's three-rise lock on this link.)