Marsden to Slaithwaite

After a fairly relaxed morning at Tunnel End we made our way to Marsden top lock (Railway Lock No. 42) in good time for our scheduled start of 12:00pm for the passage of the Marsden flight. Nipped into the centre of the village to get some (excellent) pasties for lunch from the Village Bakery (I remembered these were good from last year).

We managed three locks down the Marsden flight before we were instructed to stop above lock 39E because of a problem with lock 35E. So after a lot of hanging around we decided to go on another provisioning foray into the village in case we ended-up in the middle of nowhere by nightfall.


Shuttle Lock No 24E,
Huddersfield Narrow Canal, Slaithwaite



After more waiting, we finally got the all clear to continue at about 4:45pm. Despite problems with water levels in the pounds between the upper locks (which are very close together, we made it to Slaitwaite (just above lock 21E) by 8:00pm. This included doing the guilliotine lock (24E) twice (once for the boat in front of us), which at 120 turns per half-cycle (ie gate up or gate down) means that Viv and I did at least 480 turns of the windlass.

We are completely exhausted after this mad dash down 18 locks in a litle over 3 hours. But our prize is within our sights: - curry and lashings of lager at Slaithwaite's popular Bangladeshi restaurant Monsoon, of which we have a clear view from the last three locks. So, moor-up, quick wash, and off for curry.

Dinner at Monsoon, with Sue from Elland
Beer afterwards at The Commercial.

Other boat(er)s:

• Geraldine & Lynette and Snitch (can't remember the name of their boat)
• Elland: Sue Day (and Bilbo the horse), The Horseboating Society
• Saddleworth Rose: Christine (marmalade) and other
• Two Bob: (can't remember their names)

Huddersfield Narrow Canal: Tunnel End, Marsden - Slaithwaite (above lock 21 E)
3.2 miles, 21 locks


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