UK Trip report- The Lady Teal on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal

The Meals

Meals on the boat were top notch. Dinners were 4 course meals, with starter, main, dessert and cheese board. There were pre-dinner drinks and wine was served at lunch and dinner. Gina made all the food from scratch and was/is an excellent cook. Lunch was usually a salad with lite fare, followed by homemade cake and afternoon drink.

Breakfast was cook to order, with some specials for each day. Nobody went hungry and mid-morning after we worked the locks, we were offered home-made biscuits (cookies) and tea, hot cocoa or coffee and all served to us on the roof deck while we sat in our deck chairs as the boat slowly motored along the canal. This was repeated again mid-afternoon.

My wife made a joke about drinking coffee first thing in the morning, and said she hoped that her husband (me) after 39 years would finally bring her coffee in bed. Nick volunteered to bring us coffee to our rooms every morning at 7:30 am, after he had gotten up and set up the breakfast table and chairs in the lounge.

Gina and Nick did not eat meals with us, as they were the cook and waiter, bus boy and dishwasher, but joined us for the cheese board at the end of the day and joined in the wonderful conversations we had each night. We did not know this beforehand, but Nick and Gina have been on several TV shows in the UK about canal boat living and travel.

Slow- travel

Some much is said on this forum about the need for slow-travel. Well, this was the epitome of slow travel. The top speed limit on the canals is 4 mph and the Lady Teal’s speed was 2 mph. You can walk faster on the tow path than the boat travels, and we did just that, as we (three of the passengers and Nick) were dropped off about 300 feet from a lock and we walked over with our windlasses (cranks) and got the first lock ready to open for the boat to enter. Nothing was done hurriedly and everything was done with teamwork.

Nick was surprised and happy when I told him I was going to help on every lock and swinging bridge. I told him that was the experience I wanted to get out of this tour and by the end of the tour I wanted to know how to operate the locks. He told me that sometimes guests didn’t want to do any physical labor and remained on the boat. In those cases, he had to do everything on the locks while Gina piloted the boat. Sometimes there would be volunteers or gatekeepers to help at each lock, but that couldn’t be depended upon.

Meeting the locals

The other benefit to the slow travel on a small boat is that we got to know the other passengers. We heard about their lives in Durham and Leeds and after the one couple felt comfortable with us, revealed that they weren’t married but had been together for 10 years.

Our nightly conversations at dinners were delightful. The one conversation I remember is when the 82 year old said that you could buy a Senior Rail card for half price (£17.50) with Tesco (a large grocery store chain) points and that surprised the British couple.

Celebrations

My wife and I also celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary during the trip. We had won a bottle of Prosecco at a trivia night in Manchester, so we brought it along and Gina stored in their refrigerator. We shared the cold bubbly with all.

There was also a Brazil night, and Nick decorated the dining lounge with festive carnival décor and the food was a 9 course fare of Brazilian food. Gina is a gourmet cook and the food was delicious and wonderful.

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On our last night, Nick brought out a trivia game for all of us to play as a team. I don’t know if this was on the usual schedule or whether he knew that we loved trivia nights and pub quizzes. But he had a 100 questions that as a group we needed to answer and that for each correct answer he would donate 10p to a local charity. The Brits could answer all the british related and British sports questions. My wife answered all the History and Literature questions. I got all the geography questions and we finished with a final score of 95 correct questions. That was a lot of fun!

The Journey- Panoramic Dales

Our canal journey was from Reedley marina, heading north upstream to the summit transiting seven locks and then downstream with another 15 locks and three swinging bridges to Skipton. The canal meanders through the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and if you like Yorkshire Dales scenery, you can’t get better than this. On our trip, we traversed eight small aqueducts or under bridges and one long tunnel. (The Foulridge tunnel.)

Day 7

We headed out of the marina. Nick filled the water tanks and we headed north. Today, we transited seven locks up to the summit. Nick told me about the smartphone application, Canals.UK, where I could follow the boat ‘s progress along the route and I could see what was coming up ahead of us. On the app, all the bridges and locks were marked on the map.

Five deck chairs were set up on the roof of the canal boat. Nick said not move them as they were positioned so that he still had a clear view ahead of him from the back of the boat where the tiller was. We sat up here for most of the day. It was cold in the morning hours, so my wife wrapped herself in a blanket and I’m glad I brought my down jacket and knit cap.

My lock experience

We approached the Barrowford flight of 7 locks. I told Nick that I was ready to help. He handed one of the windlasses (cranks). The returning passenger, the 82 year old woman, who already knew what to do, grabbed another windlass and Nick had the third.

Gina piloted the boat, as the three of us, stepped off the boat unto the tow path and walked to the first lock. Here, Nick gave me a quick history of the chevron (miter) locks designed by Leonardo Da Vinci and gave me the quick version of the mechanics of operating the locks.

Both sets of locks were closed when we approached. Since we were going upstream, we used the windlass on a rack and pinion gear to open the lower gate paddles to let any water out in the lock, so that the water level in the lock became level with boat water level downstream.

NIck showed me how to do this safely and avoid getting injured should the gears decide to kick back uncontrollably. He showed me how to pop off the windlass from the square spindle.

Another person, in this case, the 82 year old passenger, went over the narrow walkway bridge on the downslope side of the lock and did the same cranking and we waited until the water was level on both sides of the gate.

If the water level was even one inch higher than the other side, the gates wouldn’t open easily as the water pressure of one inch height is enough to prevent even a strong man from moving the gate.

When Nick gave the word, we turned around and put our butts against the thick wood balance beams on a pivot and pushed to open the lower gate.

I think that’s the first time my butt muscles have been used this way.

Gina piloted the boat into the lock and we shut the gates behind her, again using our butts and legs to push the gate closed from the other side of thick wood beam.

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The Lady Teal was built to fit exactly in the lock and there was no room to spare. There was about one foot between the stern of the boat to the gate and one foot clearance from the bow of the boat to the upper gate.

We used our windlasses to close the paddles on the lower gates. So now, the water couldn’t escape. We moved to the center and there was another gear box that controlled a ground paddle covering an underwater tunnel sluice. We opened it with our windlass to allow water to enter from beneath the boat.

From there we went to the upstream gate and opened the paddle sluices on those gates to let water from upstream fill the lock, but Nick said we had to be careful, because the force of the water flowing from the upstream gates could cause the bow of the ship to tip underwater, if the water went directly on the boat.

We waited for the water level to rise and thus the boat to rise with it, to the level of the upstream water and then used the windlass and closed those gates. We waited around for the water level to equalize before we put our butts against the balance beam and used our legs to push the beams and opened the upper gates.

Most of the time I could butt-push the beam by myself, but other times I needed an extra person to help push. I will admit, that spry 82 year old woman was opening and closing the gates by herself, albeit slowly, and was making me jealous.

Gina piloted the boat out of the lock into the canal and we closed the upper gate and put everything back as we found it for the next boater.

As the next lock was about 300 feet away, we walked along the towpath to the next set of locks and repeated the process.

I’m not going to sugar coat it. It took some physical effort to push those heavy gates open. And most of that effort was in my legs as my butt pushed the balance beam open or closed. My arms were also aching from the physical effort of cranking the gear box gates either open or closed. It’s not a power lift exertion, but it does require some upper body strength.

If I were thinking about self-hiring a narrowboat, I’d think long and hard about whether I had the physical stamina to do this. The mechanics and order of operation can be easily learned and there are videos on how to operate the locks. But IMHO, It really takes a minimum of two persons to navigate the locks- one to pilot and one to do all the gate work. But the main criteria is whether I had the physical ability to open and close the gates.
By the third lock, I was exhausted and ready for a break, but we had 4 more to go.

by the fifth lock, I had the procedure memorized, other than trying to remember which way to crank the windlass either clockwise or counterclockwise to open or close the sluice gates.

While we waited for the water to fill the lock, one of us, in this case, the spry 82 year old passenger, would quickly walk to the next lock upstream and prepare the next set of locks for Lady Teal’s entry.

I worked all seven locks that first day and the experience will be one of the highlights of our trip.
My wife stayed on board the boat on the roof deck and she videoed me with her iPhone pushing and cranking to post later on Facebook. She quoted our GenZ children- “video, or it didn’t happen.”

I got back on the boat and sat on the roof deck. I was tired. Gina brought out cookies and coffee and I cooled down from the exertion until I was cold again and put on my knit cap and down jacket. The hot coffee hit the spot as did the cookies.

After transiting those locks, we had reached the summit at 427 feet above sea level. It was level boating for an hour or two, with the boat transiting over short stone aqueduct. Nick pointed it out to us or we would have missed it.

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The Lady Teal motored on for a while and then stopped along side the canal and moored. Nick hammered stakes into the grassy bank and tied his lines to it.

Since it took both Gina and Nick to serve the meals, the boat was always stopped and moored along the canal for all meals.

Lunch, as I described earlier, was always delicious and filling. There were lots of walkers, hikers, runners and dog walkers along the tow paths and many stopped and talked to Nick about the weather and the boat. I think the boat itself is the great advertisement for this tour.

After lunch, we motored on until we came to the Foulridge Tunnel. This tunnel is 1,630 yards of darkness. We had to go below for this part of the journey and all the deck chairs were removed from the top. Nick piloted the Lady Teal through the dark tunnel using head lights on the boat for about 30 minutes until we came out on the other end. We moored for fifteen minutes while Nick put all the deck chairs and small tables back on the roof deck and we resumed our seats on the deck.

We motored under many arched stone bridges, which add to charm of the Yorkshire Dales. You would think that top center of the arch is where the boat should aim and where the water was deepest but that would be wrong. Because of the towpath where the horses would have to travel under the bridge, the center of the canal was offset or skewed off center. There was white paint on the arch left or right of center that showed where the canal was the deepest and that is where the boat had to be centered on. Sometimes the boat was so close to one side, we had to duck forward in our chairs to avoid scraping the underside of the stone bridge.

In some parts of the canal, the overgrown tree branches were hanging over the canal. We had to duck to avoid being hit by the branches. And in one spot, Nick stopped the boat, took out a pruning shear and cut the offending branch off.

Mid-afternoon, we moored in the wild with fields on either side of us. Nick said he used to dock at the stone house with a small docking area just upstream, but the new owners didn’t like the boats stopping there and complained to the National Canal Trust and now mooring there was prohibited. Why would anyone buy a property on the canal that has been used for decades as an overnight dock for canal boats and then complain about it? It’s like buying a house near the airport and then complaining about the airport noise.

We had time before dinner to walk along the canal up to the next set of locks and back. There was another narrowboat moored up ahead and the owner came out and spoke with us. He had the smell of alcohol on his breath and from his conversation, we could tell he was lonely and just wanted someone to talk too. He said when we were ready to transit the next set of locks to toot the boat’s horn twice and he would come and help operate the locks.

Dinner was as excellent as ever.

Day 8

We were awakened to the sound of the engines at 6 am. This was unusual. Something was going on. The boat was tilted to one side. The boat was beached in the mud. Nick was trying to use the side thrusters to move boat away from the bank.

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The cause: The locks downstream were leaking badly, and the water level in this reach had lowered a few inches overnight causing the port side of the boat to swamp on the muddy shoreline.

Nick was busy on his cellphone calling the Canal and Trust help number that he had in his contacts list. A gatekeeper, a young man in his 20’s, came out to the boat to assess the situation. Together, he and Nick came up with a plan to free the boat from the mud.

The young gatekeeper opened the sluice gates of the locks upstream and allowed the water to flow downstream. The downstream flowing water soon filled the section the Lady Teal was in and the boat rose up from the muddy bank. Nick used his side thrusters to move the boat to the center of the canal and he moored it here while we had breakfast.

Then an older gatekeeper, clearly experienced and the expert regarding the canal and the locks came around to assist, but saw that the younger man had done exactly what he would have done. He praised the younger man in front of us, and I still remember the smile on that young man’s face.

We motored to the Greenberfield locks. They were three locks that brought us downhill (at least in our direction) from the summit. The man from last night with alcohol on his breath was there to help as was a woman volunteer. They helped us through the locks quickly.

We were now deep into North Yorkshire into the Curly Wurlies, where the canal meanders so extravagantly that the canal takes nearly eight looping miles, doubling through the drumlin fields, while the distance was about 4 miles as the crow flies.

We entered a tree lined stretch of the canal near the village of East Marton. There Bridge number 161 is a double arched bridge carrying the cars across the A59 over the water. You can only see the double arches from the water.

Further down the canal, England’s oldest and toughest national hiking trail, the Pennine Way, drops down from the hills to use the towpath. From our rooftop seats, we waved to dozens of serious hikers with heavy backpacks and hiking poles walking along the tow path.

We approach the Bank Newton locks, a set of six locks, and by now, I’ve got the routine down. The 82 year old woman, the man of the other couple and I are a team and we work like clockwork. My muscles don’t ache as much as the first day. And as the sun was coming out, I wore a hat and sunglasses.

I now understand the rack and pinion gear box. Except now I encounter a new type of gate, the ground paddle. It’s a wooden lever and doesn’t use a windlass. You take the lever and throw move it one side to uncover the gate from the underwater sluice and it takes some effort to throw the lever to one side.

We moor just after the Bank Newton locks on our way to Gargrave and Skipton.

Day 9

We went through the Gargrave locks today- 5 locks that took us to the village of Gargrave, and here we stopped for an hour or two, so that we could wander the village. It’s Sunday, so not much was open, but my wife found the only shop open and bought souvenirs. I walked over to the River Aire and walked across the stepping stones that had been placed there by the Romans.

As we were in the village, the tow paths are full of walkers and many stop to gawk at the boat and us, but several decided they wanted to help open and close this lock and suddenly I’m telling them what to do and how to do it. I take command of the group to push to open the gates. Lots of passersby were taking pictures of the boat going through the lock.

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We passed through this lock and it’s lock free for the next 17 miles all the way to Bingley. We did come across 3 swinging bridges that we had to swing out of the way to allow the boat to go through and then swung it back. We used a handcuff key to unlock the chain holding the bridge in the canal crossing position and then again using our butts, swung it open. But we had trouble with the second one. No matter how hard all 4 of us push, it wouldn’t swing open. It was stuck somewhere.

Nick realized what the problem was and told me to go the end of the bridge walkway and jump up and down. I guess my weight was able to dislodge the bridge from whatever was keeping it from opening and we are able to open the bridge. We waited for Lady Teal to pass through and then closed the bridge back to its crossing position and locked it.

We opened and closed the last two swinging bridges and motored on until we arrived on the outskirts of Skipton. We moored just outside the city center. Nick wasn’t sure that with the canal closed in central Skipton that we would be able to find a mooring spot further down the canal. If there wasn’t a spot, He would have to turn the boat around and come back upstream and then turn the boat around and moor with the canal bank on our starboard side. So he took the first open mooring space he saw.

We have our final dinner and trivia game in the evening and in morning….

Day 10

We had our final breakfast, packed our bags and Nick carried them from the ship to the towpath. we walked to the first paved road about 25 yards away and called for an Uber to take us to the railway station for the next part of our journey to the Lake District.

As parting gifts, Nick had spent all night putting together pictures he took of us during the 4 days and put them a souvenir short journal with color pictures of us on the trip. A very classy move!

The journey on the lady Teal was one of the best and most memorable vacations I have ever done and my wife and I would gladly do it again except that 2027 will be the Lady Teal’s last season as Nick and Gina are retiring. If after reading my trip report, you are inspired to do a canal boat ride, act quickly.

If you hear of another canal boat hotel, perhaps in the south of England, let us know in your comments.

The Lady teal
https://ladyteal.co.uk

Wow! What an adventure! I loved reading this!

Derek - a wonderful trip report and one I was very much looking forward to reading.

You will remember that I commented on a previous thread when you were looking for a canal boat experience, as we have long experience and owned a narrowboat from 2003 until this February. I think initially that you were looking to hire a boat for yourselves and were very anxious about working the locks and I was encouraging you to try locking as an essential element in a UK call boat holiday. I'm glad that you found the perfect solution with Lady Teal. It's a pity that I did not know you were on your trip as I would have happily come along and met you, you were less than an hour from our home.

Firstly my pedantic nature has to make a small correction. You were not on a narrowboat but a broad beam boat, twice the width of a standard narrowboat. You will have seen many true narrowboats on your trip.

I should also correct some of the hyperbole that your Uber driver gave you. Burnley does have a high South Asian (not East Asian) population but it's nothing like a majority - it's currently about 17%. It comes from post war immigration from former British colonies in South Asia to initially work in the local cotton mills, which sadly are by and large no more. Whilst I'm sure there are some gangs in Burnley they are not a major feature and you would have been absolutely fine walking around the town. As you noted Reedley is right on the edge of town anyway.

Your comment about someone not letting you moor outside their house is something we have also occasionally come across and been frustrated by. I remember refusing to move from a mooring spot once when someone rather aggressively asked us to move. I made the point that his house, built maybe 10 years earlier, had been built overlooking a canal that was 200 years old and I was moored on a public towpath on it. The Canal & River Trust (CRT) tend to take a softer line on this to keep the peace I suspect.

There are a small number of other hotel boats operating on the canal and river network. Below is a link to a site that operates for 4 of them. A quick glance indicates that many cruises for 2027 are already booked up so if you want to come back next year I would act now. The 4 operators there all have true narrowboats and one is a pair of boats. In that case one boat will have an engine and the other will be a butty without an engine which the other boat tows and in board locks the boats will be strapped together. For the experience that would be my choice.

Note that some of the cruises use rivers such as the Thames. Personally I like these less - rivers being natural waterways have less contact with local communities and the locks are in general manned and electrified so your opportunity to help will be greatly reduced. If you want any advice on good routes please let me know.

https://www.hotelboating.co.uk

Continuing to enjoy your reports, Derek. I have on my list of things I want to do in England: Take a trip on a narrow boat canal journey, and your report just makes it seem even more desirable. I appreciate your honesty about working the locks though. When we were visiting Camden Market, we saw two women who were trying to navigate their narrow boat through. One was driving and one had jumped out to try to work the lock. She was in pretty good shape, probably mid the late 40s, and was really struggling. A couple of fellas that were walking on a path nearby came over and helped her and they made it through. I commend you for doing it!

So glad you and your wife had a wonderful experience!

The standard and difficultly of operating locks varies considerably around the country. The locks that Derek operated on the Leeds & Liverpool (and those at Camden) are broad locks that will fit a broad beam boat like Lady Teal or take two narrowboats together are generally harder and slower to operate. There are canals that are narrow and only have locks that can fit a narrowboat and on average these locks tend to be a lot easier to work.

Just to confirm Burnley is just safe as anywhere in that area! :-)

The taxi driver’s comment on the locals being from ‘East India’ is interesting as a significant proportion of the Asian community in Burnley is from Pakistan. My guess is he was referring to locals of Bangladeshi descent and in my experience they don’t have a better or worse relationship with the police than other groups.

His comments are an example of local rivalries which can go surprisingly deep within some communities.

emma sounds right, I suspect there is some underlying feud going on with the driver and people in Burnley -possibly family related.

Canal boats were a theme in our recent trip to the UK. We did short rides on the Leeds Liverpool Canal from Skipton and Kennet and Avon Canal from Bradford on Avon. We also visited two different canal museums. Your report has me checking the website for the Lady Teal, waiting for the 2027 trips to be posted.

derek, great trip report! It sounds like you had the perfect adventure. We took a barge cruise in Burgundy many years ago. Our boat was a bit larger and the crew handled all the locks. So, we didn't have the opportunity to assist. But, we did enjoy watching the process and walking along the canals. Thanks for sharing.

Fantastic trip report. My husband and I have discussed doing a self-drive canal boat in France or the UK, but I am a bit nervous about that. We are both seniors, and although my husband is in great shape I think it would be too much. Something like what you did would be perfect. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Andrea - You can find routes with relatively small number of locks or even none if you like but also plenty of locks are easier to manage than those on the Leeds & Liverpool. And stubborn swing bridges are a speciality of the L&L. What you do need to consider if you plan a self drive holiday as a couple is what your attitude to steering the boat would be. It will be a bit irrelevant that your husband is fit and active if you're not prepared to steer as it will be you working then locks and not for the most part him. Or, if you plan to leave both the steering and the lock working to your husband your progress will be very slow. In all our boating my wife and I shared the chores. The only caveat to that was with staircase locks, which she could never get her head round so I ended up doing them.

Thank you for posting this excellent report. In your reply to my posting of a few months back (https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/canal-boat-rental-in-the-u-k) you mentioned this upcoming adventure and it seems it was a gratifying experience.
Also, I would like to publically thank Johnew52 for his very helpful suggestions to my posting and his continuing helpful remarks, here, in your report.

Fabulous trip report. Thank you for taking the trouble to write it up in detail. Can't wait for the lake district part!

Thank you for your advice, John. I would definitely be willing to do what I can. I mentioned my husband’s fitness because he’s definitely stronger than I am.