Friday 1st April
Another windy, chilly day and we have been lucky to get to Pollington without too much trouble. The wind has got up significantly since we have been here though, so it’s a good job we decided to stay here.
We are now on the Aire and Calder navigation having completed the 5.5 miles of the New Junction Canal which joins the Keadby and Stainforth Canal to the Aire and Calder. All together we have come 8 miles, 3 locks (including a staircase of 2 at Bramwith and Sykehouse lock) and 2 swing and 4 lift bridges.
Bramwith Lock has unusual winding gear with chains attatched to the gates which you wind to open and shut them (see photos) and is in fact a staircase of 2, the first chamber wider and longer than the other.
Sykehouse lock is also unusual in that it is very long and has a swing bridge right in the middle of it! Unfortunately Barbara and I were so busy trying to work out how to operate it (3 operating pedestals, one at each end, a set of manual road barriers and the manual swing bridge) that I didn’t get any photos!
There was a sign up saying to minimise the amount of disruption to the traffic wanting to use the bridge so, as the lock was really long, what we did to start with was open the bridge get Ken and Barry to drive to the end of the lock then close the swing bridge in case any traffic came. However the bottom sluices and gates would not work with the swing bridge closed so we reopened it. The rest of the lock operation was fairly plain sailing (ha ha) and no traffic was waiting to use the bridge when we eventually finished!
The wind had started to become stronger but we continued to the junction with the Aire and Calder. B and B were in front and turned left onto the Aire and Calder first. Then Barbara phoned and told us to stay where we were as there were 2 huge barges coming to towards the junction. We stopped and sure enough there they were thundering past the end of the canal we were on. Good job we hadn’t pulled out or we would have been right in their path as they came past!
We soon reached Pollington as the wind threatened to get up to gale force again so we moored below the lock just in time. These are nice moorings with picnic benches and a wide grassy area. We decided George needed a walk (he hadn’t been for a decent one lately) so we took him into the village, obviously to go to one of the 2 pubs. This plan was somewhat thwarted by the fact that the first one had been turned into an Indian restaurant and the other one didn’t open until 5-30pm. George was not best pleased to have had this long trek with no reward at the end of it!
We may venture out again later because the second pub is actually quite near the moorings, as we discovered on the way back but I don’t expect George will want to come this time, bless!
Not sure what we’re doing tomorrow it depends on the wind I think.
