Dry stone walls and canals

Thursday walk with Pete - 14th March 2019 - Stainton Bridge and Lancaster Canal

We had three blogger's gifts in only three miles today.

Although I have seen the Dry Stone Walling Association training school before I don't think I have photos, so on this bright sunny day I was able to get some decent shots.

We have walked on the canal bank before and over the Stainton Beck aqueduct, but today from the road we came across a notice forbidding access because of repair and restoration work. The aqueduct was damaged by a "seven foot wall of water" by Storm Desmond in 2015 - see a short well written account of all this from the Westmorland Gazette - CLICK HERE

Further on we were able to see the ongoing work and get a zoom shot, but there are much better close up photos on the link shown above.

Just after the aqueduct this section of the Lancaster Canal terminates at Stainton Bridge as a navigable waterway, but note: going back four kilometres the other way the canal is blocked again by the M6 motorway. From Stainton Bridge the Lancaster Canal Trust is involved with restoration, hopefully to the original terminus in Kendal. There is all sorts of information on their website:
https://www.lctrust.co.uk/the-trust

I have gleaned the following to include here.

Canal & River Trust has recently announced that due to the problems encountered by the contractors work on the aqueduct is not expected to be 
completed until October.  Lancaster Canal Trust is disappointed but understand the difficulties of the work and conditions.

and: - read only if you are really interested in the details of restoration.

Meet at STAINTON at 9.30 each day
Dates: For the second time this year, starting this Saturday, 2nd March, a Waterways Recovery Group from the Northwest will be joining us, this time for a week.
Lengths 5 and the newly laid length 6 of the rubber liner has now been joined and sealed and is ready to be‘pulled out’, another layer of geotexile laid over it and finished with blocks. The pumps have been kept running over the previous days so it should be fairly dry.
The contractors Wilson’s have cleared out the accumulated piles of material from just before B172 and finished‘profiling’ the banks the same as with the rest of the FF. They have taken away some 7 lorry loads of material but the very wet mud from the bed, referred to by the technical name ‘sloppy stuff’, which couldn’t be moved by lorry has been pulled up underneath Br 172.
An early task will be to move this material from under the bridge and onto the car park from where it will be picked up by a local contractor and carted away. A 5 ton digger and a dumper have been hired to do this work and to re-instate the ramp down from the car park to the canal bed so that a telehandler can move the final load of blocks, which will be delivered later in the week, down onto the 6th length.
If all goes according to plan (and why shouldn’t it!) it should be possible to clear the final length as far as the access ramp of significant stones and minor profile deficiencies and lay out the last of the liners.
Sealing the lining under Br 173 and along the wash walls with puddling clay is a further task as is back filling the profiled lengths once the liner is up to the correct height along the banks.

Volunteers of all skill levels are welcome. We will provide whatever protective clothing is required for the job in

hand (hard hats, hi-vis jackets and work gloves) if you don't have your own. We advise that you bring warm

clothes, waterproofs, sturdy boots or wellies and a packed lunch with drinks

PLEASE let me know if you can attend - this is important in case details change, a quick email to

chair@lctrust.co.uk is all that’s needed.

Click photo to enlarge

Blackthorn in blossom

Field End Bridge - lots of water coming down

Stainton aqueduct under repair and restoration - see better photos from Westmorland Gazette link above.

The start of restoration west from Stainton Bridge. We walked just a little further than you can see

Looking back down our route from Stainton Bridge and the current terminus of navigation

Sellet Hall bridge - as far as we went, and current limit of restoration

Our route there and back

It would be a massive job to restore navigation here, and also the canal is blocked again by the M6 a bit further south at Tewitfield. If all that was done the Lancaster canal could connect to the national canal network via a short pilot trip from the Ribble Link at Preston to join the canal network at Tarleton. What a boost for Kendal that would be!

"This time next year we could all be..."

If you would like to be a millionaire it’s simple. Just solve one of the current seven most difficult to solve mathematical problems and collect the £1m. prize from the Clay Foundation in the US.

Just call me Archimedes. Like the great man I have all my best ideas soaking in a hot bath and today so it nearly was, except I didn’t come up with a relevant indisputable result, but at least I formed the notion for this post. I was wrestling with the logistics involving train times, buses, cars, and walking distances for the next two sections of our straight line walking route from Blackpool to the east coast with BC. We are now nearly halfway through and facing a transition from private to public transport.

One of the Seven Last Great Problems is the classic Travelling Salesman calculation trying to work out the shortest route between a number of towns he must visit known as the P versus NP problem. If there are only four towns there are only six options - easy to see which is best by simple maths. If you scale up to ten towns the exponential number now becomes  3,628,800 (ten factorial). 

Here is an extract from The Millennium Problems by Keith Devlin. Keith has made a brave attempt to describe the problems for the layman producing a book I found absorbing. That is saying a lot for me as one who failed O Level maths.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Keith goes on to explain the colossal increase in available routes by just adding one or two more cities - when you get to 25 you will have: 15,511,210,043,330,985,984,000,000 options to evaluate. Eventually the problem goes beyond present day computing ability. Even for ten cities Keith says if you took a minute to work out the mileage for all 3,628,800 possibilities it would take you just over twenty years! There is much more on this problem in the book, but you may be heartened by the following from Keith:  "P versus NP puzzle is the most likely to be solved by an unknown amateur. Not only is it relatively easy to understand what the problem says, it is possible  that all it will take  to solve it is one good new idea."

Ok, I was only concerned with three destinations for this section of our route, and not particularly with shortest distances, but I enjoyed the catalyst to go back to a book that gave me pleasure a couple of years ago.

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My title comes from Only Fools and Horses, and again I found myself pursuing further knowledge by identifying the source which I was not aware of, although my son W was familiar with it.  From Vaudeville in the US  the full line is:

"Only fools and horses work for a living"

Paradise Lane again

Thursday walk with Pete - 7th March 2019 - Paradise Lane circular

We walked most of this route on 22nd June last year. For such an insignificant venue it promoted a disproportionate amount of discussion:  nineteen interesting and varied comments. I don't often refer readers back to previous posts but reckon this one is worth another glance:

Paradise Lane - June 2018

At my age I am ambitious to mop as many new sights and unvisited curiosities as possible. Although previous outings have been rewarding I feel I am wasting valuable time by revisiting. I remember being criticised somewhere for this stance and wonder if I am in some minority, or if I am suffering from some kind of blind spot?

There were discoveries last time that I will not repeat. Pete is laid-back about covering old ground again saying it is more about getting together, having some exercise and a natter, and a pot of tea at Café Ambio afterwards. I wholeheartedly agree, but when I walk alone, which I strongly favour, that is not the case.  By saying that I don't mean that I am demeaning walking with friends - it is just a different kind of enjoyment. Pete also points out that if you walk a route in reverse you benefit from the new views, often quite surprisingly.

Some old tractors were largely hidden on a track amongst ramshackle wooden sheds. I photographed three having no  recollection from the last visit, and then found I had photographed one of them last time.

A massive tree had fallen across the road recently requiring what I suspect must have been monumental effort to clear. The newly exposed cross cutting of the trunk had a warm glowing colour unusual in nature and the tree rings were exposed in fine detail. It was sad to see that such a giant had fallen, but for some perhaps atavistic reason I found the sight fascinating and interesting.

After Paradise Lane we crossed to use the footpath alongside this busy road. On one's own territory significant sights are taken for granted. I have driven and walked past Billerudkorsnas paper mill hundreds of times over the years. They claim to be a world leading manufacturer of specialised papers for medical, foodstuffs and many other applications. There has been a paper mill there from 1788 at one time converted to a flour mill then back again to paper. The old corn mill is worth a visit (for free), but the modern paper production plant has now been taken over by Swedish owners. We walked alongside what I presume is a water filtration process with channels of gushing water, today a sort of pale turquoise colour. The works are situated on the River Bela snd I guess that is their water source.

We continued along Hangbridge Lane to emerge on the B6384 at Hang Bridge, a fine 1890s double arch spanning our second meeting of the River Bela, now in a more countrified setting. I note Ordnance Survey use one word for the lane and two for the bridge. A short stretch on this busier road took us back to the car.

This and below - the two that got away last time.

I seem to be finding tractors for Alan's identification that are more and more obscured by rubbish and the like, and only at a zoomable distance - I must have had the shakes here for these blurry images

Water filtration at the paper mill alongside the A6 walked and driven past many times before without bothering to comment.

River Bela from Hang Bridge

Hang Bridge (courtesy of the Westmorland Gazette)

Tractor update

Monday 4th March 2019

In my post on 22nd February - Derby Arms/Meathop - (Click for link) I omitted to show the machinery being operated by the tractor - two commenters were curious enough to know more so I've been back and here is the result.

OS Grid 38 (northing) SD 305 380 to TA 269 379 - Day 7

Wednesday 27th February 2019 - Near Ponden  (SD 736 378) to Saltaire (Salts Mill)

"...WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS"  ?


We reckon car logistics have been stretched to their limit now. We both managed to arrive at Salts Mill visitor car park by 9:00 am but only because we had set off in good time - heavy traffic at rush hour hampered us again on the drive to our previous finishing point at Oldfield SD 993 377 where we found our minor road closed near Moor Lodge Farm SD 979 379 enforcing another time consuming diversion. We eventually started walking at 10:00 am.

After all that car time we had a few problems with footpath closures and fiddly navigation until we eventually met up with the River Worth at the bottom of Hey Lane - SD 020 376. From there the walk following that river all the way to Mytholm was the highlight so far on the whole walk - idyllic green-turf-paths with the river sparkling and chortling on our right, and bright sunshine, warmth and a balmy ambience redolent of other summer days.

There is very little modern building in these parts, just single cottages, farmhouses, rows of cottages, and seventeenth century mill owners houses all built from comforting yellowish stone glowing in sunshine today. At Mytholm we left the River Worth now on its way to join the River Aire which we would be encountering later further downstream. A steep road climb took us onto the high ridge heading for Harden with that top-of-the-world feeling and views all the way back to our starting point high up the Worth valley - splendid. At the start of that ridge above Mytholm was an unusual expensively stone built mini housing development like some ostentatious commune for the nouveau riche with everything a bit over-the-top especially the fancy, golden gates.

After crossing Keighley Road we spotted Catstones End, an apparently quarried outcrop on the horizon and we pondered about its climbing potential. I found little information from Googling - BC may do better?

From Harden we walked through St Ives estate with broad paths and mature woodland being aware that there is much more to see there:

Bingley St. Ives, or St. Ives Estate is a 550-acre country park and former estate between Bingley and Harden in West Yorkshire, England now owned by Bradford Council. The park has Grade II listing in the English Heritage National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Interest. Wikipedia

Old bridleways lead down to Beckfoot and its attractive pack-horse bridge where we now joined the River Aire following to Cottingley Bridge only about a mile from the house at Cottingley where I lived shortly after being married.

This is probably the last attractive part of the Aire before it runs into more industrial surroundings and eventually giving itself up to the Ouse. We arrived st the Leeds Liverpool Canal and walked on the opposite bank back to Salts Mill as the sun lowered and the light became even more golden. This has been the best day's walking so far for this project.

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Heavy traffic slowed our return to our starting point and by the time I left BC it was dark, and on the narrow country roads there were no road markings, making for stressful driving until I got back to Laneshaw Bridge and civilisation, and it was 7:30 before I arrived home.

Just leaving the car

Perhaps they've gone onto gas?

Typical stone built properties

Bottom of Hey Lane I think - where we joined the R. Worth

The attractive path alongside the R. Worth - looking back.

We wondered why nobody has incorporated this into a quality long distance path.

Now a rare sight - these mill chimneys were prolific even within my memory  If you want to know more Google Fred Dibner - a colourful steeplejack guy who specialised in felling these, often using fire!

Panic to get a zoom shot as this appeared far down in the valley  It's difficult to find the object at that large zoom and I was glad to get this result, albeit somewhat curtailed

Typical stone built housng - climbing out of Mytholm

Cobbled ginnel leading us out onto the tops above Mytholm

Looking back up the Worth valley over Mytholm. Our day's starting point is round the corner, high up on the central distant ridge

The strange nouveau riche commune - note the ostentatious gstes in next photo

On the ridge from Mytholm to Harden. Cattstones was just coming into view on the horizon

  

Catstones

Bingley in the distance

This and below - in St Ives

Ex reservoir building - now a modern architect designed house - SE 101 388

Riverside mill buildings, often converted into housing like this are common but little remains of the water power infrastructure.

Beckfoot Bridge and our meeting with the River Aire

BC gets a photo of the Aire from Cottingley Bridge

Down the Aire not long before it becomes more continuously industrial

Along Leeds snd Liverpool Canal approaching Salts Mill as the sun is lowering

A hundred yards from our parked car