Huddersfield Narrow

Today's the day ........................... to rise up

There's a good reason why the Huddersfield Narrow Canal is so called - for most of its length, it only just wide enough to accommodate a single narrowboat.

This could potentially lead to all sorts of trouble - but in actual fact, because there were very few other boats around, we seemed to have it mainly to ourselves. The first part of the journey is a slow climb up to Standedge and Saddleworth Moor inch by inch, by way of the narrow locks - all 32 of them.

It's simple really, you enter the lock at its lowest level and shut the lock gates. You fill the lock with water by opening the upstream paddles, open the gates and sail on.

Take it from me - it involves lots of hard manual labour. By the end of the day, you will be exhausted - but strangely proud that you have managed to get the boat where you have .......................