Horbury to Castleford.

Tuesday 30th August

All three of us slept well until 7 am. We had a drink and continued down the locks, under the M1 and through Wakefield. Joan has been to Wakefield many times with work and was not really aware of the canal. It bypasses the town about half a mile from the civic centre and cathedral so you don't really feel aware of the town. It is a shame as the waterfront is underused and has some great warehouse buildings. It could be an asset as it is in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, etc.

The lock at Fall Ing was very slow, in particular. The navigation changes to the Aire and Calder. There was a shower and amenities block at Stanley Ferry where we stopped, then we progressed down the river towars Castleford. The locks hereon were automated and slow to fill and empty. Lunch was had below deck before King's Lock. (No breakfast.)

Progressing to Castleford we tied up at the visitors' moorings, but the loos were out of order. It began to ain quite heavily so K had a snooze whilst J read Isiguru's Nocturnes. Around five we decided to go in to the town and have a look at some regeneration schemes that J had in a very marginal way been involved with at work. The main scheme is the new foot bridge over the weir by Allinson's Mill (as in the bread.) The bridge is impressive and well used and gives a great view of the weir below, but the mill is now boarded up. Such a shame for such a potentially fine building. Heading down Sagar St to the main shopping centre, there has been a superficial "tarting up" of the place, but it still remains a run down town, with a poor selection of shops. Litter strewed the streets, butchers swilled out on to the pavement and it was all a bit discount and shabby. There were no obvious eateries apart from takeaways and the few pubs were either shut or not the sort of place we'd frequent.

Back at the boat, we decided to turn up towards Leeds as there is a reknown pub at Allerton Bywater, the Boat. For a canalside pub, there were no moorings and we struggled to moor a few hundred metres onwards. At the Boat Inn the signs were not good. Despite what its sign and its website said, the pub did not do food on Tuesdays! Two other pubs in the town did not do food either, we googled the next pub in the next village upstream to find it had been flattened for houses. Our guidebook is from 2000, and we are fast learning that whilst canals do not change much, the amenities along them such as garages, village shops and pubs are disappearing.

We headed back to Castleford as a better place to moor, and decided to stay at the 48 hour moorings rather than the visitor moorings as there were more boats around and less drunks on benches. J googled restaurants in Castleford and 9 out of 11 that came up were at the Xscape ski complex on the M62, about two miles from the town centre - on the former Glasshoughton colliery. The only place we found was a JD Weatherspoons on Bank Street. A former Post Office, now aptly renamed the Glassblower's, it served a limited menu for veggies, most of which involved veggir Lincolnshire sausages. We both order bangers, mash and mushy peas. This came a little too quickly and was presented with the applomb of a school meal. Still it's food. The place was busy, mainly with groups of middle aged women, who seemed to be enjoying themselves. One could not help think Xscape has affected the offer of restaurants here, as there didn't seem to be any Italian or other independent restaurants in what is quite a large town. Even Bolsover has an Italian.


Tired, we headed back to the boat and to bed (but typically J woke at 1 am, couldn't sleep, and sat on the back of the boat to write this.)

Dewsbury to Horbury

Monday 29th August 2011

Our first holiday away since Peru, after an aborted trip to the Lancaster canal.

We had originally decided to leave on Sunday after the Belgian GP, but we had been to our allotment in the morning and had bag loads of beans and peas to pod and freeze. So went went on Monday around noon. By the time we had loaded the boat it was around three. The weather was threatening and windy, but we set off down the Dewsbury arm and then turned east on to the mainline of the Calder and Hebble. The locks are doubles and some can be quite stiff. Some were damaged and only had one paddle working. There was a little rain. Jenson (our dalmatian) did not know what to do and swapped between being inside and out. We made good progress down to Horbury bridge where we spotted a pub advertising Black Sheep and moored up for the night. Sadly as it was a Bank Holiday the pub was doing a BBQ only and that had all finished so we decided to press on to the next pub stop at Broad Cut Top Lock. This was more promising though the landlady said they did not allow dogs in due to them serving food. It was too chilly and damp to sit outside so, with some trepidation, we left JB on the boat and headed to the bar. The choice of fayre was not wide and we both opted for brocolli and Camenbert quiche with chips. (On the menu it came with a bread roll!) For a Bank Holiday the pub was empty, bar one couple in the corner with a small child. We drank Barnsley Acorn Ale.

When the meal came we both had the same thought: "Is that it?" There was a tiny piece of quiche with maybe six or seven chips and some very damp iceberg lettuce. Meanwhile the landlady's four dogs ran through the dining area! Still hungry we retired to bed for a quiet night, apart from the boat next door which ran its generator until late.