Page published 17 May 2023
Day 7 - Friday 18 July 2003
To learn a little more about this cruise read the Background page. or simply go to the Day One report and my start from Lancaster at the beginning of my cruise with the Tuesday Night Club.
Skipton
This was to be my last day aboard Earnest. My original plan was to return to Lancaster by train to pick up my car and go home. However, I didn't want to leave when I was so close to seeing the Bingley Five Rise so, rather than going straight home from Lancaster, the new plan was to rejoin Earnest as soon as I could and be aboard through the Five Rise and only leave for home after that.
I woke on Friday morning to realise that I had no photos of the crew so, as the various members arose, I took some hurried shots. They're hardly the best portraits in the world but they are all I've got.
Neil had his breakfast before 07:20 and had moved on to dismantling his camera in an effort to ensure it was fully dried out before daring to use it again.
My picture of Neil shows him at work drying out the camera that got a soaking the day before. By the time he was back home and updating his web site he was able to report:
Within three days the camera had been dried out enough to work perfectly, apart from whenever the batteries are changed, a slight whack is needed to get it to come on.
He added that the lens/CCD assembly was untouched, apart from some initial fogging and the CF card was also OK.
Ship's parrot "Scsi" being encouraged to pose for the camera by Molly.
Martin Clark
Molly Mockford
Trevor Burridge
Almost unmentioned in this tale of my time aboard Earnest is the ship's parrot, "Scsi". In the Background page I did make reference to the technology available in 2003, and computing geeks of a certain age may recall a set of standards named "Small Computer Systems Interface", usually pronounced "Scuzzy", that had become popular at the time, and was the inspiration for the bird's name.
Research on Thursday evening had established that even with my damaged leg the railway station at Skipton was wouldn't take more than fifteen minutes to reach from the boat. With my final photograph of Trevor taken at 08:15 I collected all my baggage and made my way to the station.
Neil reckon's Earnest left Skipton at 08:40. By that time I had reached the station, bought my ticket, made my way to the platform and taken my first photo. I had just over thirty minutes before my train arrived.
The two carriage multiple unit was quite empty with just one other passenger in my coach. I suppose I'd missed any "rush hour" traffic. The journey was uneventful and having arrived in Lancaster I made my way, slowly, to the car park. In spite of having been there for the best part of the week, I recall no dramas and I paid for my stay and began my drive to return to the boat.
I guess I was optimistic in hoping to catch Earnest half way between Skipton and Bingley. There are no locks to slow you down.
Skipton Station, looking towards Keighley.
08:57 and my train to Lancaster arrives.
Three minutes into the journey and, not very successfully, I feel I ought to have some record of the scenery we're passing through.
I learned later the Neil had got the Brompton out and, initially, Trevor rode ahead to open any swing bridge then, at Kildwick, Neil took over. Small wonder then that, in spite of an exchange of phone calls, I failed to find Earnest, probably at Silsden, and had to travel on to Bingley, where I found them waiting at the top of the Five-Rise.
Bingley
Barry Whitelock, probably the most famous lock keeper on the system at the time, was in attendance at the Five-Rise, and before I arrived it had been arranged for Earnest to start down in around half an hour's time. Neil used that time to fill the water tank and I arrived while that was still taking place, finding some of the crew eating lunch or purchasing cakes from the Stables Café. In describing the descent Neil simply says:
Neil steered, Barry directed and we were soon at the bottom (13:40).
It's 12:46 and the first picture I took after arriving at Bingley. The crew appears to be missing but the water tank is being filled.
Twenty five minutes later and we are still waiting for Barry to open the pedestrian swing bridge that blocks our access to the top chamber.
It's 13:22 and I'm on the swing bridge. Trevor appears to be extracting the hose from the water tank. We're almost ready to descend the Five-Rise.
A minute later and I peer down at the canal beyond the Five-Rise.
I recall that I had read in article about Barry Whitelock, probably in the year before this trip, in one of the canal magazines, almost certainly "Canal Boat". Back then it and "Waterways World" were the two major magazines covering the canals. A third "Canal and Riverboat" tried to cover a slightly wider market, but generally did not seem to do so well. Since then, numerous canal news web sites appear have launched and giveaway newspapers have appeared at many boatyard shops.
I began to lose touch with the canal scene around this time. I bought my SeaHawk the following year and began writing for "Norfolk Afloat" magazine in 2004. It had started publication a couple of months before this trip and later morphed into "Anglia Afloat". (I'm slowly adding my the submissions for the articles I wrote to this site. Search for either version of the magazine name.) The result of all this is that I missed news of Barry's MBE, which he was awarded in 2007, and how, in 2019, McCarthy Stone, the builders specialising in retirement homes, had named one of their developments in Bingley "Whitelock Grange" in honour of him.
Five minutes after taking the photo peering down the flight we are in the top lock and begin our descent. Chamber by chamber I swap from being on and off the boat as I try to get shots from as many different angles as possible. You'll notice that in the top lock we appear to be at angle angle across the lock with our bow dragged towards the left side. It seems we managed to stay on the right had side thereafter.
By 13:28 we're in the top lock. Our bow appears to be caught to the left side of the lock, perhaps by the flow towards the paddle on that side.
Martin, Molly and Trevor all helped to get Earnest through the flight. Here we see Trevor is on the paddle gear in the top chamber taking instructions from Barry.
Swinging the camera round we see Barry opening the paddle that sees us on our way down the flight.
Less than three minutes later the lower gates swing open and we exit the first chamber.
We enter the second chamber at 13:34.
Molly closes the second chamber gate behind us.
I confess that as I started to write this page, I really struggled to work out where each picture was taken. The photograph's EXIF data told me the times, so I knew the order they were taken in but, at first glance, one chamber looks much like another.
It didn't help that I was convinced myself that the orange netting that you see in the photo taken at 13:23 was at the lock where we see Trevor with his hand on the handle of his windlass. However, the final shot showing the stone hut at the bottom of the flight, fixed that location and then it was easy enough to work back and realise that there must have been more of the orange netting beside the top chamber.It seems I acted as nothing more than a spectator during the descent of the Five-Rise. That is, perhaps, to be expected as I wouldn't have been able to open or close the unusually heavy gates although I may have been able to operate a paddle. (If you want to know why that was the case you haven't read about my attack of idiocy the previous day.)
It seems I stayed on board for the first two chambers and left Earnest as we reached the middle chamber. Trevor, Martin and Molly appeared to be a well drilled team by that point and there's no evidence I even took a windlass ashore with me.
Three minutes later Chamber Three is empty and the gate is swung open.
We proceed into chamber Three
Barry is ready at the paddle in Chamber Three. We see crew member Martin walking past Barry.
Waiting for Earnest to emerge from the fourth chamber.
It's 13:44 and Earnest arrives the bottom chamber.
Plaque still to be found on the wall of the cottage at the end of Beck Lane.
For some reason, I didn't take a photo of Earnest emerging from the last chamber of the Five-Rise and I don't remember if I even waited for it to happen. It was likely to be a four hour journey home and that was without taking any breaks.
Of course, these were the days before SatNavs and it had been more luck that judgement when it came to finding a place to park near the Five- Rise. By good fortune I fell upon Beck Lane, a short cul-de-sac that ends at the swing bridge by the top lock.
Walking the few yards up the lane to my car I passed a brass plate set in the wall of the cottage overlooking the bridge. I couldn't resist taking a picture as I felt it would make a nice tail piece to the page on my web site. At the time that would have been waterwaysguides.co.uk.
I dropped maintaining the waterways guides site the year after this trip as my focus changed to my local waterways, the Norfolk Broads, and the SeaHawk that I bought on Easter Day 2004.