I walked the HUDDERSFIELD CANAL to the GATES of HELL

Canals, long boring stagnant waterways that cost a fortune, took a century to construct and then were virtually obsolete with the coming of trains.

So this video is m my journey along the Huddersfield canal (well part of it), to learn how things things work and what nightmare lays at the end…

#huddersfield #yorkshire #englishhistory

fine morning here in hutsfield today I’m going to go for a walk from here to a place called Marsden we’ got a maren in Logan and the reason for this walk is mainly because a I just wanted to get out and go for a nice long walk and secondly follow part of the old huttersfield narrow Canal which leads from here down to Maren and then beyond to [Music] Manchester just walking along meron street now and there’s these two large towers that one there and that one there what these are are old ventilation shafts for the railway which literally runs right underneath here for when trains were steam so you know smoke coming out it had to get out from somewhere and this area here is called Springwood this part of huttersfield is Springwood which is interesting because there’s also a Springwood in Logan so I’ve got Springwood and mden got to go to Water Street which conveniently is right in front of me just got to get across meron Road at the end of this journey is a place that to me is the stuff of nightmares going to see the gates of hell this sign here is no tipping um don’t dump rubbish here it’s written in English and Arabic wow great view from up here wow wow we now where the sign is up there where it says no tipping no rubbish at all just over the wall on this very steep slope there’s rubbish everywhere all right this is the mansion the road it’s the raway bridge leading to hutsfield train station I still can’t get over how close people live to the road these are all people’s houses here and you step out from the front door and you’re virtually on the road W that’s the river col are just one of the little realities of England a lot of narrow roads and you don’t always get a foot path although what it did do is bring me out onto my first look and yours of the hutsfield canal and there it is secondhand cars including a Rolls-Royce that doesn’t seem to be for sale £ 2,195 for that car what’s wrong with it oh it’s a Mitsubishi I got to get down there but there is a public footpath here it’s also nice to be away from Manchester Road because it’s noisy onto the toe path unfortunately someone has graffitied the information sign you can see it there so it’s not really a lot of use to me because I can’t read what it’s saying and there’s a map on there which is now ineligible ineligible illegible so here we are walking along the tow path this is as the name suggests a place where the canal barges Laden with cargo would be dragged along towed by horse or horses I guess really big ones and they would just drag the barge along here now of course it’s not a very time efficient way to move cargo around the country but then you got to think what was the alternative before these were put in and it was to try and drag the cargo over muddy sometimes almost impossible or impossible roads sharp bends and and uh steep inclines over Hills and so from the late 18th century onwards canals started to be put in so okay it’s not a fast means of Transport but it did get you across the country faster than dragging all your goods in a wagon but there were problems with with something like this because the land is not always flat everywhere you go so what if you want to get over a small hill it’s easier to build locks and this is one of them right here the barges would come along here enter the lock and then the water level would either be raised or lowered to get the barge over the geographical impediment over that side over there the water is higher so the theat would come in here and then the water level would raise and put it up for the right level over that way and they could continue [Music] on and that giant building there behind me an Old Mill that’s the bretania mill from 1861 the whole thing now looks completely abandoned that is a huge construction when a place ceases to be industrial what do you do with it and in the case of a place like hutsfield massive massive buildings industrial the same in Bradford uh Sheffield leads I think sometimes people don’t know really what to do with it do you turn it into Apartments is there a demand for apartments here do you pull it down don’t know I don’t know what they’re going to do with those those big old buildings so you got the canal here on the other side of that embankment is the river col I can hear that flowing whereas the canal is pretty well silent so I hear nobody asking why are there no barges on the canals today well there are barges on the canal but these are people who have either bought them or rented them and you can take a holiday a a canal barge holiday but what killed off the um transport trade on the canals and the answer to that is simple and it’s one word trains because why drags something for days or even weeks on here when you can put the stuff on a train and have it there in 5 [Music] hours he’s either left them behind or he’s going for a swim or drowned is’s a birge a canal barge so some people live on them they give up life on the land and live on a a barge so another lock because the land is getting higher as I go along this one says 2 mi 2020 I don’t know 2 mil from what to what dominis it’s just Roby pry cat actually making very good time on this walk I thought it would be much much longer to get to where I’m going I’ve only been walking for about an hour and already nearing the village of lynth the Manchester Road is up that way getting up to Higher Ground again and another lock just down there so what we’ve got here is the river col just down that way there’s a there’s a wear over there and it flows under the canal here’s the canal and there’s the river flowing off into the distance Victorian engineering good Heavens good night and coming to another lock so we’re getting higher still they’re doing some Mowing and edging along the now here and I got to say the smell of a lawn mower takes me right back to Australia ah it’s like music to my ears who would have thought I would have missed the sound and smell of a lawn mower wow all the Moss that clings to these dry stone walls look at that like a like a little miniature rainforest just behind me up there it looks like a cliff face but that was actually um blown out chiseled out to help create the canal and it further evidence of just what a Monumental engineering feat this was it’s not a matter of just digging a long ditch across the countryside you got to blast through all that rock up there one of the things I forgot to mention on this walk is that and one of the reasons for this walk is is that I wanted to see some more land never seen the Moors before but near um Marsden apparently there’s some Moors so this will be a first for me seeing that kind of environment and Landscape oh we’re coming up to some barges I’ve now arrived in the village of lyth so I’m going to leave the canal for a little bit and just go and have a look uh at the Village see what’s going on by the way th as in Lin thit th is Old Norse it’s found its way into Middle English and means essentially Paddock or field or clearing okay Leng weight it’s the Eternal question facing Walkers and that is not am I going to get blisters not where can I find something to eat but it’s more a case of where’s the bathroom that’s the uh Roy Oak just behind me there it says they open at 10:00 it’s after 11: but no one’s there so there’s an another place not too far from here let’s see if they’re open well it looks like all the pubs in ly’s waer closed Royal Oak was closed and the other one I can’t remember the name of it was up a hill they don’t open till 5:00 p.m. that doesn’t do me any good it’s qu 11: so leaving Manchester Road mainly because it’s noisy and come down here and hope I’ll try and re join the canal just entering slwe back on the canal the locals down there pronounce it slow it and with the failure at um what was it length weight to find something to eat in a men’s room I’m going to try this town this looks like a lovely little town it feels more concentrated and uh focused there’s a few PS here but I don’t know if are open there’s one back there but someone knocked on the door to get in so they may not open till 1200 there’s one here called the shoulder of mutton see if they’re open if you come to England don’t expect pubs to actually be open at lunchtime right well while I wait for a pub any Pub to open I’m going to take a look at the church up here gravestone already there’s a pub just across the road called The Silent woman I know it was closed for quite a long time I heard it was being redone hopefully reopens I’m just going to go this way looks pretty dead as well this is harder than I thought three pubs and none of them are open England what’s the matter with you proactively right well I’ve had something to eat got a susage r down the road and a beer at the commercial and resume the journey they seem to allow vaping in there and back down to joining the canal so between here at slwe there’s not much else until you get to Marsden that’s the final leg it’s fairly long one so I’m going to try and make up time because I wasted time in length weight trying to find something to eat and a bathroom before I leave SLA white I have to mention something here’s a here’s a barge here it’s it looks like it’s being worked on there’s a sign there that says Moon rer apparently someone who’s from slawe is known as a Moonraker and that name came about because one night a couple hundred or more years ago there was a lot of smuggling in this area and on this night some fellows were trying to fish out some Brandy that had been concealed in the canal the exis man had found them and said what are you guys doing and the excuse they gave him was that they were trying to rake the moon out of the canal so they became known as Moon rakers here and it’s starting to rain now not much just a few drops lovely though I don’t mind if it’s raining a little bit I don’t mind if it’s cold it is what it [Music] is and another lock so now the river Kong is down that side and the canal is here so they’ve swapped over what’s really amazing about this section here is they had to actually build this huge um stone wall right here to hold back the canal what’s this zapat Brewery Tap Room specialty coffee beer garden and dogs welcome if I wasn’t in a bit of a hurry I’d stop by there and uh and Sample their um their produce actually looks really nice the uh and this small bit of rain I don’t need the rain coat but the sky and just the overall atmosphere feels very heavy and very close like there’s going to be a lot more rain but I’m enjoying the walk so far I’ve walked 16 km and just up ahead of me I can see some more land wow you want to be up there in the middle of winter would you just left the canal for a few minutes just for a change of scenery I’m coming into Marsden and it’s just take a look at the at the little [Music] town and all these cozy little houses and the lights are on and everyone’s safe and warm and of course there’s me walking around in the rain and the cold but I didn’t come all this way just to sit inside I came here to walk just got my rain cat on my mom bought me this Lich gate that’s what this is entrance to a church entrance to a church yard I’m a bit ahead of schedule again I’ve made up time on that stretch from slwe to um Baron so I might spend a couple of minutes having a look at this Cemetery that was lovely let’s go and uh back onto the onto the toath for the final leg oh here’s a map I can actually read so I’m here and the stand Edge tunnel that’s what I’m looking for uh there there’s no scale is there a map not to scale this is definitely a non-tourist part of England but it should be more touristy I think not touristy but it should be more known to people around the world because this canal system is is fascinating and so walkable meet people on the way you can stop off at the villages on your journey and get something to eat get a beer [Applause] getting pretty close now I’ve made it this is my destination stand Edge tunnel this place just ahead of me is one of the most terrifying things I can imagine the canal tunnel runs for about 5 km directly under The High Ground there and the only way in the past that they could Propel the barges through there was for guys to lay on their backs or on their sides and use their legs to push against the walls in the ceiling of the tunnel to move the um the budge through it [Music] this is the longest highest and deepest Canal tunnel in the United Kingdom can you imagine having an emergency in there halfway through getting into some sort of difficulty and it’s very narrow in there it’s not some big cavernous thing it’s very very low down and you’ve just got to go through it you can’t stop and come back that to me is the terrifying Gates of Hell the tunnel is 645 ft above sea level the tunnel is 636 ft below the summit of the penines that’s the high hills little mountain range that runs down the spine of England the tunnel was built between 1794 and 1811 for the Huddersfield narrow canal and the building here beside the canal it’s a cafe but in the past this was the lock Keepers Cottage I can honestly say I would never ever want to go through that tunnel the train line there’s a couple of train lines just near it that parallel the canal and I’ve been through that but you’re on a train and you just shoot straight past in there you see every detail of the hand cut rock and the dynamite they used in there as well to blast their way through that couldn’t think of anything worse and there is an air shaft up there somewhere again for the steam from the steam trains all the smoke and that to be funneled through up there just like at the beginning of the journey in huttersfield those round Towers they were also airshafts to get the Steam and smoke out from the steam trains hey doggy SM at the camera he’s he’s got he’s under his he’s under his umbrella now there we go train but where the mound is cross and about 100 y back from that is the square air shaft okay because I heard about that cross that’s a a WG grave isn’t it it’s got renewed cuz it was in poor condition so it’s had a metal back to it that is up there that’s up there yeah ideal that’s okay I don’t have to do that I came to see the gates down there and I’ve done that the a shft oh I supposed to better go and find a train now sheep I had a great earing for the video I was going to walk further along the Manchester Road and look at the Moors out there the the beautiful Moors very high ground here unfortunately the rain has really set in and the the scenery has kind of gone a bit Misty now and I can’t see the MOs thanks very much for watching the video I hope you liked it I had a great walk today it was about 18 km and loved every minute of it really nice people on the way some beautiful scenery some incredible engineering what a great day I am soaking wet but it doesn’t matter awesome day thanks for watching the video if you liked it please consider hitting that like and the Subscribe button I’ll see you again soon [Music] okay