The three chambered staircase at Field Locks was passed without incident only thanks to the foresight of putting the cratch covers down and capping the chimney. The middle chamber wall leaked and could have swamped the boat to a serious degree.
Then came Shipley and the swing bridge that I was dreading after a bad experience 4 years ago. Amazing, it has a new all singing & dancing two pushbutton mechanised action now all done from the dinkiest miniature pedestal on the towpath side! Brilliant.
We stopped briefly at Aldi on the short visitor mooring, then carried on reaching Bingley 3 rise in due course. There is a notice requiring boaters to call the lock-keeper which we did and he duly appeared after instructing us to wait. I didn't know that the lock chambers in the Bingley three rise are of different sizes, the top lock being much smaller and the middle the deepest. So special measures are required and hence restriction to lock-keeper only operation. Richard looked after us and was a fount of information. He had called ahead and Edward awaited us for the five rise with bottom gates open. There was a huge fountain from the top gates in the middle section. Again, very happy to have the cratch cover down and chimney capped. Hats off to the lock-keepers who take great care that all proceeds uneventfully. Pat was at the helm through both sets of locks and had no problems. As we reached the top in good time we carried on to Silsden, leapfrogging swing bridges with another boat.
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