Standedge to Uppermill

Monday 14 July 2014 – Standedge Tunnel,

Uppermill, Huddersfield Narrow Canal

Where to start – boaters will know all this but for my reader here is a quote from the Nicholson Canal Guide:

“All the superlatives marshalled within the confines of one extremely long tunnel: highest, longest and deepest in Britain and largely hewn out of solid rock.”

There are four tunnels joining Marsden and Diggle the canal tunnel came first (1811), then a single track for the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway (1845), the H&MR was taken over by the London & North Western Railway who had another single track (1847), then in 1894 a double track tunnel was built.  The canal was used to remove the spoil for each of the other tunnels as there are ‘access points’ which could, I suppose, be used for an emergency exit if authorised.

Now to today, up to three boats travel from East to West in the morning and from West to east in the afternoon on three days a week.  [If you have been paying attention you will know that today there are four of us – the Shire boat is a special as the Ashton Canal is closed between Locks 1 to 18 due to damage at lock 10].  I had arranged with Austin and Liz Siviter (owners of a Braidbar boat) to join me for the trip through and they duly arrived just before 08:00 when the tunnel staff arrive.  The first task is to remove chimney, satellite dish and other high bits off the roof then the staff measure the boat against their scale (a large aluminium ‘T’ square) to ensure the boats would fit.  Both boats were OK with the proviso that we remove the navigation lights.  Boats are sent through at 45 minute intervals with the first (Georgian Star) at 08:30.  Priscilla was next with a load of pics taken of Graham in his HiVis, Lifejacket and Hard Hat.  At 10:00 it was my turn with the safety gear, then my chaperone quietly tells me to go ahead at whatever speed I feel comfortable with bearing in mind that if you race you bang the walls, if you go too slowly you bang the walls, if you go at the correct speed . . . you bang the walls!

From the East the initial entry is very low and requires that you are crouched down.  Parts of the tunnel are brick lined which means that the tunnel light (set to shine on the roof ahead of the boat) shows the view I’m used to in tunnels like Braunston, Crick. Harecastle and Stoke Bruerne, this then suddenly disappears when in a rough part where the roof vanishes into a cavern.  There are also parts where the tunnel opens out into cave like dimensions and there are zigs and zags as the tunnel changes direction.  After what seems like hours the chaperone tells you to stop just here, gets off and phones back to tell control where we are.  This happens at three locations in the tunnel.

Eventually a tiny little green spot appears but you cannot relax or speed up as although this is the West end of the tunnel it is still a long way off and there are more bends to go.  Finally the end is there and it is time to give back the safety gear and say farewell to the chaperone (who now has to do the journey back with one of the boats going the other way).

G&B had time to stop for a cuppa before I finished and we then started down the next ten locks to get to Saddleworth our planned stop.  A quick look round the town for somewhere to eat produce the knowledge that Mondays are not the time to visit as the pubs don’t do food on Monday, some of the restaurants are closed and there was one fish shop and a ‘Chinese Eatery’, we finally settled on a charming Italian ‘café’ called Java.  Then it was back to the boat for a rest.

The sun was out while we were at Marsden, but since the tunnel it has been light showers.