Huddersfield Narrow Canal

The little known Huddersfield Narrow Canal starts in Huddersfield and crosses the Pennines to finish in Ashton-under-Lyme.
The longest, deepest,and highest canal tunnel in the country, the Standedge tunnel takes the canal three and a quarter miles under the Pennines from Marsden to Diggle in Oldham.
It took 17 difficult years to build and eventually opened in 1811.

Our walk today took us from Marsden in the other direction to Slaithwaite pronounced
‘ sla-wit’ by the locals. 6 miles round trip, with an extra mile to the tunnel and back to the car.
We had a very enjoyable sandwich and salad lunch, sat outside on a terrace overlooking the river Colne.
Then a look round Slaithwaite before starting back again along the canal.
Noticed some lovely yarn bombing along the canal railings. Also some interesting old mills.
The one which is of special interest to us is
Marling and Evans in Upper Mills. Founded in the 16th century it is one of Huddersfield ‘s oldest active weaving mills.
Renowned for it’s British undyed wool collection. Made from naturally coloured British fleece from Jacob, Shetland and Welsh Black Sheep. No dyes or chemicals are used in the preparation for weaving and only natural soaps used in the finishing process.

A really peaceful walk with the canal on one side and the river on the other. No sound of traffic. Just the birds singing and the water rushing over the rocks in the river, and cascading down the hillside in several waterfalls. Fortunately no flooding anywhere.

There were certainly many more people enjoy the towpath than last time we did this walk over 10 years ago.
Everyone was happy to be out enjoying the countryside after the dreadful weather of the last week. The path was quite muddy in places with lots of puddles. Glad we decided to put our walking boots on.
We were well wrapped up as there was a cold wind when we left home, but ended up taking hats, gloves and scarves off as it was warm walking in the sunshine.

So a very enjoyable day, and a walk we will definitely repeat later in the year. ( even with the awful drive through Huddersfield on the way home)
A bonus was free parking in Marsden’s station car park.

Extra some daffodils we saw along the canal side, for flower Friday.