Random Writings

This morning I had a very productive thesis-hacking session, in which I chopped and changed various chapters and paragraphs to improve the overall flow. After lunch I headed back down the Aire & Calder navigation towards Castleford. The three locks were simple enough, although Lemonroyd Lock is extremely deep (4m!) and so climbing down the ladder to the boat felt like a very long way. I did briefly pull into Lemonroyd Marina in the hope of gas and diesel, but there were none. Oh well.

At Castleford I moored up next to an oil terminal (nicer than it sounds, actually, this mooring) and adjacent to a small motor-cruiser I’d seen in Leeds at the weekend. The two lads on it were barbecuing merrily – chatting to them, they said they’d come from Ripon. After I’d had my dinner I went for a wander and found Castleford to be a rather unremarkable and slightly depressing little town – with a high density of pawnbrokers and a Heron Foods (like Iceland only even cheaper…)

Someone had made an effort to give the place some sense of history with a selection of signboards pointing out the location of the original Roman fort (now a Wilkinson’s car park) and its bath-house (excavated in 1979 and then covered over again with a turfed area to protect it). Over the river Aire itself they’ve erected a smart new footbridge that stands right in the weir-stream, giving a spectacular view of the rushing water below. Just adjacent to the wier is the mill, a big old building which still grinds its flour using stone millstones. This is where Allinsons (wi’ nowt taken out!) flour comes from, although the mill’s now part of the much bigger ADM Milling group.
Apparently Castleford does still have plenty of industry – despite the big chemical works and the collieries now being history – Burberry’s factory is here and there’s also a Nestle chocolate factory that produces an appetising toasted-biscuit smell that I remember fondly from when I lived in York.

On my return, the lads in the motorcruiser told me that they’d found Castleford very dull after the bright lights of Leeds and were off downriver to try Ferrybridge instead. Apparently the pub they’d been in had been very customer-hostile! I hope they found something better, as unlikely as it seems!

Day 59: 8 miles and 4 locks (it turns out that Canalplan counts flood locks, despite the fact that I’ve yet to actually need to operate one)
Total so far: 592 miles and 502 locks. Thesis 16401 words and 85 pages.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 9:47 pm and is filed under Narrowboat.