mya's mommy: July 2009

Last Sunday turned out to be a great outing for us three in which we coincidently visited the 3 & 5 Rise Locks on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal in Bingley. Built in the 1700s, they were such an engineering marvel at the time.

Back in the days, river navigation couldn’t solve all the transport problems of industrial Yorkshire, so artificial waterways, or canals, were cut into the landscape. With the Pennines being so hilly, locks had to be introduced to raise or lower the level of the canal. Bingley Five Rise lock, which alters the height of the water by almost 60 ft, is the most impressive in Britain.

An 18th century engineering masterpiece, these five locks operate as a 'staircase' flight in which the lower gate of one lock forms the upper gate of the next. When completed in 1774, thousands gathered to watch the first boats make the 60 foot descent. Now, over 200 years later, the flight is still in daily use providing access to 16 miles of lock-free cruising on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in the glorious scenery of the Yorkshire Dales.

my little one was admiring the canal

Mya as usual, being her self-willed cheeky self, insisted on picking up little stones as we walked along the path and throwing them into the canal and I equally insisted on not letting her near the canal's edge in case she tripped and fell over. And at one point she was crying her trademark cry for more..more...because she had forgotten even though I kept reminding her that she should never go close to the edge. I physically had to stop her from enjoying her little games.

Just another example of how this tiny little cutesy of mine always seems to know which wrong button to push.