Sowerby Bridge

Today's the day ........................... to check in

We were hiring our boat from Shire Cruisers of Sowerby Bridge so that was out first port of call - and where we all met up having travelled from various parts of the UK.

This is their base on the Wharf at Sowerby just where the Calder & Hebble Navigation meets the Rochdale Canal. It's very easy to imagine how it once would have been a place bustling with a very different trade reflecting the importance of the town on the Trans-Pennine canal network.. There are several handsome stone-built warehouses which remain intact and together with the weighbridge, porters' lodge and agent's house give more than a hint of the trading activities that would have been going on here.

The large chimney in the distance is the Wainhouse Tower. It was completed in 1875 and although it is thought to have been intended as a chimney for a dyeworks, it became a viewing tower instead. Open to the public on selected dates, 369 steps will take tou to the Lower Balcony from where, allegedly, it is possible to see Blackpool on a clear day!

We had opted to do the one-way trip from Ashton-under-Lyne ending up in Sowerby Bridge. So, first of all, we were taken by mini-bus to our starting point and to make the acquaintance of our floating home for the next week - the Narrowboat Cornwall...............