Day 11 Thorne – Knottingly

In the olden days I sometimes travelled through Thorne. I remember it as being a rather non-descript town. It still is. But a visit to the town provides food and cash and we spend a few hours trying to make the boat a bit cleaner and more presentable. The countryside and canal system beyond Thorne is rather non-descript as well. Flat land, long straight canals, electricity pylons, distant power stations There are few locks but more swing and lift bridges. All the bridges seem to operate in different ways. I learn that the best way to work them is, rather like putting Ikea furniture together, to read the instructions first. As we are only passing this way once the flat landscape, where the only hills are reclaimed spoil from mines, the remnants of industry and signs of long-gone commercial canal usage is interesting. If we had to do the passage along the Aire and Calder canal regularly it could become tedious.

At Kellingborough Colliery the old mine machinery still stands and there are acres of land covered in colliery waste. Large bollards line the edge of the wharf. Our fifteen-year-old guide warns of heavy commercial traffic but the huge barges transporting coal, sand and gravel no longer run along here. In Thorne we were told that the only large vessel on these waters is an oil tanker but that had passed by yesterday on it’s way back from the power station at Ferrybridge and was now in Goole. I don’t know whether to be sad that these boats no longer ply their trade along these waters or glad we’re not going to round a bend and meet one of the monsters.

Into Knottingly. It is a pleasant passage through a limestone cut where pink flowers grow out of the stone walls. The designated secure mooring is, less scenically, next to a builder’s yard, around the corner from the A1 and the massive cooling towers of the Ferrybridge Power Station. Well it’s supposed to be secure but somebody has nicked the padlock that locked the gate.