Leeds canal walk

It was a pleasant walk in the sunshine back to Leeds rail station, along the towpath of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. There are numerous bridges and it's all quite green and leafy, with waterlilies on the surface. 

A section sandwiched between the canal and river has been made into an urban park, quite untamed and full of wildflowers and butterflies. 

Graffiti 'artists'/hooligans (depending on your viewpoint!) have run amok. One wonders how they have managed to access some of the more out of the way stretches, like the wall below tightly sandwiched between the canal and rail lines.  And still more high-rise blocks are under construction. 

Here and there, reminders of the industrial past of this area have been retained. The Italianate tower (below), built in 1866 and modelled on the Torre dei Lamberti in Verona, was a dust extractor for the Tower Works, operational from 1864 until 1981, which made steel pins for carding and combing in the textile industry. 

Eventually the canal arrives at its Leeds endpoint, Granary Wharf (the name being no doubt a bit of a giveaway as to what used to be situated here). In the distance in my photo below you can see the lock that releases it into the River Aire, which becomes navigable from here through the centre of the city to the Leeds Dock marina and then into the Aire and Calder Navigation. 

Angles

There was something quite compelling about all the new glass and steel office blocks in Wellington Place in Leeds. Those vast expanses of windows reflect the sky quite wonderfully and the grids break and intersect in intriguing ways. I had fun trying out different compositions; I could have stayed and played a lot longer. I do, however, wonder if they'll have as long a life as the amazing Victorian and Edwardian buildings right in the city centre. Probably not! 

Monk Bridge Viaduct

Just south of the Wellington Place development (see yesterday), what's left of the disused railway viaduct has recently been reopened as a pedestrian walkway and urban garden, linking the office development with residential areas south of the river. 

The grade two-listed Monk Bridge Viaduct was built around 1846 as part of the new railway network being constructed in the Wellington Street area of Leeds. It became an important part of Leeds Central Station which was completed in 1857, carrying high level lines to the station and connecting to the lifting tower which still stands on the Wellington Place development today.

It still spans the Leeds-Liverpool Canal as that winds its way into the city:

as well as the River Aire which runs alongside the canal: 

The old trackway has been made into an urban park, quite attractive though I'm not sure I'd want to be wandering around there at dusk. 

Leeds Wagon Lifting Tower

I met a friend in Leeds recently. We had two objectives: 1) A coffee and a good catch-up 2) To find and explore the Leeds Wagon Lifting Tower mini museum. Both were achieved!

Just to the west of Leeds railway station there's a large area of development called Wellington Place, a  new urban quarter, 'blending high-specification office space with all the perks of the city centre: independent restaurants, enviable facilities and attractive outdoor spaces'. It is indeed quite an interesting area, with wide pedestrian boulevards linking modern high-rise glass office blocks. In the middle sits one of the last remaining pieces of history in this area: one of the twin towers that, using steam power and hoists, lifted railway wagons down from the rail viaduct that spanned the river and canal to deposit them in the Great Northern Goods Yard, at a lower level, ready to be unloaded. 

On the ground floor there is a tiny museum with old signs, photographs and sketches showing its history and how the area used to look between the 1850s and 1950s when it finally closed down. There were originally several rail stations in the city, belonging to the various railway companies. Eventually they were amalgamated into the existing Leeds station. 

It's a fascinating little piece of history and good to see a bit of Leeds' past restored and incorporated into the new urban quarter, part of Leeds' future. 

Mass Wuthering

Why, you might ask, was there a steady stream of people dressed in red climbing to Penistone Hill, above the Brontë family home in Haworth? 

It was what is known as 'The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever', held in July each year, which sees thousands of people across the world recreate the video to Kate Bush's 1978 song Wuthering Heights, inspired by Emily Brontë's novel. Dancers pay an entry fee, which raises money for charity. 

My daughter, son-in-law and younger granddaughter (all of whom simply LOVE 'dressing up') were participants so I and my older granddaughter (we don't love dressing up!) went along to watch.  

There were a few practice runs first. Though the 500 dancers were supposed to have learned the moves beforehand, the extent to which that had happened (or not) was abundantly clear!

Then - the dance. Given that it hasn't rained here for weeks, the fact that it was very windy, quite cold and very wet was ironic. They all got soaked to the skin. It was certainly 'wuthering' (definition: blustering, stormy, or roaring loudly like a heavy wind)! Remarkably, it didn't seem to dampen anyone's enthusiasm. 

There were quite a few men in frocks and dogs in frocks. The men were allowed to dance, the dogs weren't!

BBC and ITV News were there and there’s a video HERE.

The 'stream' home again was more literally that, very damp indeed. Aw. We went for a pub lunch to warm up and dry off. I'd like to say it was good fun...  

Let there be light

Fife holiday 2026 #20

Whilst wandering the streets of St Andrews, I was delighted to come across a shop that still had its original Victorian cast iron and glass pavement lights, intended to allow a certain amount of light into the basement below. There used to be some in Saltaire but I think they have all been removed. The glass and iron deteriorates over time (those shown have been repaired with wood in places). I do like them. They usually look dusty and dull in situ but a bit of processing trickery lifts the colours. 

 

Ahoy there!

Fife holiday 2026 #19

It seems that on the East Neuk of Fife coast, the trendiest thing to place in your window is a model sailing boat. There were lots of them. I decided they would make a nice subject for a small photo project. There were also a few on date stones or above doors, so I included one of those. 

Seeing the sea

Fife holiday 2026 #18

I could have spent an entire day just gazing at the sea! It's an environment in which I'm only able to spend  time infrequently, and it's an enticing one, I think, because it changes all the time. When I was able to sit and stare I tried hard to really see it and understand what aspects were attracting my attention. (Maybe it's simply because it's mainly blue... my favourite colour! 😂 ) I enjoyed making photos of it. 

A pest

Its flowers are not unattractive but it's a pest! Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) is one of the UK's most aggressive, invasive plants. Introduced in 1839, it thrives along riverbanks and in damp woodlands. It outcompetes native flora and causes severe riverbank erosion in the winter. It is illegal to plant or allow it to spread in the wild. It has explosive seed pods that burst and scatter seeds up to 7 metres away. Sadly, it is rapidly taking over the riverside path beyond Saltaire. People periodically do some 'balsam bashing' before it sets seed but that isn't enough to eradicate it. It's now so high that in places it's hard to see the river.

Soothing

An overcast and slightly cooler morning in the midst of our heatwave encouraged me out for a longer walk. What a delight it was to immerse myself in the soothing greens alongside the river and canal. 

The water level in the river is very, very low - a mere trickle over the weir and, higher upstream, you could barely discern any movement or current.  I think we'll be getting a hose-pipe ban soon, to conserve water, despite the wet winter we had. 

Give peace a chance

A friend and I paid another visit to The Peace Museum, housed in a large gallery in Salts Mill, having relocated from the centre of Bradford a few years ago with a mission 'to collect, safeguard and interpret artefacts relating to peace, in its many forms, for the benefit of all'. They have a permanent collection on display and also take items from their large archive to mount exhibitions around particular themes.  

There is some information about Sadoko Sasaki, who was just two when the atom bomb destroyed her home city of Hiroshima. She survived the blast but later developed blood cancer. She folded 1000 origami paper cranes, traditionally believed to grant the creator a wish - but she died aged only 12, of leukemia caused by irradiation.

There is a table with squares of beautiful paper and instructions for folding paper cranes as a symbol of peace and healing. It seems quite a few visitors make a crane and others enjoy the craft table where you can make 'protest fairies'. 

These are a response to the current exhibition called 'Tactical Frivolity', an exploration of how humour, cartoons, banners, costumes and comedic acts can be used as a form of protest.

Among the exhibits are two 'pussy hats', worn during the Women's March in Shipley in 2017, part of a wave of protests that greeted Donald Trump's election to the US presidency (the first time!), despite his reported comments about women: 'Grab 'em by the pussy'. (You might remember my photos from that march HERE, HERE and HERE. ) 

There were some amusing videos of protest groups in costume, including some clowns from CIRCA (Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army - a group active in the UK in the early 2000s) larking about outside an Army Recruitment Office, to the bemusement of the local police. 

Other exhibits that caught my eye included this rather beautiful, though untitled, painting by Farzaneh Jafari and Madjid Malakzadeh, presented to The Peace Museum by Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Peace Laureate (below)

and the poster below by Quaker Peace and Service.