Monday 31 October 2016

Mellow meanderings: the canal in autumn 

Pastures grazed by beef and dairy herds and sheep border the stretch between Kildwick and Woodside.  
Tranquility reigns supreme, providing you can blot out the drone of traffic on the by-pass a few fields away. 
 The approach to Woodside swing bridge, which has been resurfaced this year.

 Woodside moorings are a popular parking place.
A distant view of the Nab.
Allotments abound as the canal nears the township; on the opposite side are the Sykes Lane smallholdings.
For Sale signs are evident along the Millfields frontages. Just beyond them are two major and at the moment noisy canalside housing developments. 
Skipton Properties is developing the Harwal Works site between Elliott Street and the canal. The old Walter Crane weaving mill (above) is being converted. The development comprises 12 apartments and 12 houses.
Nearly 50 upmarket houses are to be built on the former Tunnicliffe timber yard off Sykes Lane. The site, which has been unused for many years, is being developed by Harron Homes.
The view from the Keighley Road bridge of the Harwal Works housing development, which neighbours the historic wharf where Silsden Boats is based.
Attractively laid out and lovingly cultivated gardens are an eye-catching feature of canalside homes next to and along Waterside. 
A distinctive development which over the years has architecturally fitted in.
Gardeners' World, also known as Waterside.
A Waterside garden decked out to welcome the barge Kennet on its recent passage from Leeds to Liverpool to mark the 200th anniversary of the completion of the canal.

The Brunthwaite swing bridge with the historic Upper Holden farming settlement beyond.
At Lower Holden, also part of ancient Holden Park, the Canal and River Trust has posted this notice, advising that happiness may rise to explosive levels.
Lodge Hill on the right is a scenic mooring beneath rocks and trees of the kind where in harder but simpler times children would build dens and play games of "cowboys and indians" or Treasure Island.
 
Part of the perfectly contoured Lodge Hill. 
Booth's swing bridge, No. 195, gives access to Riddlesden Golf Club, which has closed but still includes an attractive public right of way to Spring Crag and Alder Carr woods. The bridge takes its name from the Booth family which farmed this area for the best part of 200 years from 1729.