All the locks on the Aire & Calder Navigation are now electrically operated, which is just as well; the Knostrop Fall lock was increased in size on a number of occasions finally resting at the 132’ we now see; this was in response to the increased traffic and use of the “Tom Pudding” boats; essentially a connected train of up to 21 barges for carrying coal and other bulk traffic.
A Typical Tom Pudding “Train”
Knostrop Fall Lock Looking East
A turn of the British Waterways key, a press of a button and the sluices start to open; in order to avoid excessive turbulence, the sluices operate in stages; 15 seconds between each action until the lock starts to empty in earnest.
A further button operates the gates and we slip smoothly into the lock before the gates and sluices are closed and the action moves to the up-stream gate to reverse the operation and fill the lock.
Before cruising out of the lock, it’s worth a word or two about Knostrop;
any place name which ends in “Thorpe”, “throp” or “trop” traces its origins to the Norse invaders. Knostrop is known today as a synonym for sewage works; its low level and proximity to the river made it an ideal site for the Corporation to direct its human waste; the facility now boasts the latest in technology, but the history of Knostrop, the village, is largely forgotten. Built over in the 1960s by what is now the Cross Green Industrial Estate, the hamlet is fondly remembered by the few people who survive to do so, but once contained two of the finest houses in Leeds.
Knostrop Old Hall
The city’s first MP, Adam Baynes, (1620-70) had what became known as Knostrop Old Hall built in the mid-17th century; the building was occupied from the 1870s by, perhaps Leeds’s best known painter, John Atkinson Grimshaw and it is appropriate that we reproduce an example of his skill here:
Painted in the year of his death, this and many examples of Grimshaw’s work can be found the Leeds Art Gallery.
Check back in the next few days as John’s cruise continues past Hunslet Mills