Tracking Down Our Roots

 We got another late start today! Packed our stuff to send home in the box we bought yesterday and taped it up so nothing can escape and put it in the car just in case we come across a Post Office in our travels. This house is so lovely I just want to curl up in one of the big soft lounge chairs and snuggle up with a book! But there is too much to see and do. There was a fair amount of blue sky when we left at about 11am but alas it didn’t last long. We saw a garage and stopped in to buy a local street directory, fat lot of good it did, I could not make head nor tail of it!  Luckily Michael, knew where he wanted to go and steered us up to West Royd Avenue, where Nannie and Granddad Hainsworth used to live. He remembered the house and said it hasn’t changed much, so photos were in order.

Michael in West Royd Avenue

Looking along West Royd Avenue

Number 48 where Nannie and Granddad Ainsworth used to live.

View from the vacant block beside number 48

The house is quite high and looks out over house tops and hills. Next we headed up, and I do mean Up, Carr Road to Wrose Road. Boy was it steep! It looked out over Shipley and to the hills beyond.  Michael found The Wrose Bull pub where the family used to go when they were visiting the Ambler grandparents. He then spotted Low Ash Avenue, the name was familiar and he was sure that it was where Nannie and Granddad Ambler had lived. We went for a look and Michael found what he thought was their old house, though he was a little confused as he was sure they had lived at number 6 with a side path on the left of the house as you are leaving and if his memory is right that would make it the adjoining house at number 8, he was quite sure that it was one of this pair though.

The Wrose Bull, the local pub that Michael remembers from his childhood.

Numbers 6 and 8 Low Ash Avenue, Nannie and Granddad Ambler's house was number 8 on the right of this photo. It is just down the road from the Wrose Bull.

View towards Shipley from Wrose

The next stop was Gaisby Rise, which Michael found easily, despite a few name changes on some of the streets, this is where Michael and his siblings lived with their Mum and Dad. Alas their old house no longer exists and the layout of the current houses is a little different. It was interesting to find the last house in this little court had two Morris Minors parked out the front, a ute and a van just like our old van!!

the Morris ute we found in Gaisby Rise the street where the Ambler children lived with their parents, Réne and Stan

the morris van just like our old one!!

 Michael remembers their house being a bit further back down another path which no longer exists, the layout of the existing house blocks is similar but not the same. We drove down a road that was trees on one side and a brick wall on the other, with views over the part of Shipley where the old Ambler Mill (no relation) is, the  building is still there but it is no longer a mill and appears to be vacant but is not derelict.

Michael remembered this road leading away from Gaisby Rise and the woods on the right.

We stopped a little way down the road for a picture of the old Ambler Mill visible above the roof of this house.

 We headed out towards Bradford and got caught up in road works before realising we were headed in the wrong direction, we were looking for the road to Bingley, to see the Five Rise Locks. Michael was adamant that he didn’t want to go on a motorway, but damn it we were following the signs to Bingley and next thing we knew we were headed for the A650, no turning back now and as it turned out it wasn’t so bad after all.

Approaching Bingley.

 We found Bingley easy but finding our way to the Locks wasn’t so easy. It was frustrating because I was sure I caught glimpses of them from the road we were on, we just couldn’t get to where we could see them. We stopped to consult the map several times but either we are map illiterate or the map just doesn’t give enough information. It was nearly 2 o’clock and we decided to stop at a pub for lunch and directions. The first pub we stopped at looked really nice, The Old White Horse Inn, we had to go around the block because we kept missing the turn into it.

The Old White Horse Inn, unfortunately closed!

The Inn was on the corner of this little cobbled street down from the church

When we got it right and found a car park we discovered it was closed, so set off for the next one we’d seen down the road when we’d passed through Bingley earlier. This pub was open but does not serve meals, we were beginning to lose faith in the pubs of Yorkshire, it was starting to rain and we were getting a bit peed off!! As we drove back through Bingley I suggested that we turn down the next street and lo and behold we saw a sign to the locks. We ended up in the car park of an old mill converted into a shopping complex and at the end of the car park we could look over the wall at the bottom end of the locks but there wasn’t much to see.

the sluice at the bottom of The Five Rise Locks

The last lock at the bottom of the Five Rise Lock system

 We decided to go up past the shopping complex and just keep turning in the direction we thought the locks should be and what do you know we eventually found the start of the Five Rise Locks, in a tiny dead end street with not really anywhere to park, we just left the car in the roadway and went for a quick look. At last we had actually found it.

Gears that change the water level in the lock to allow the gates to be opened.

Michael standing at the top of the Lock System.

Looking down the Five Rise Locks to the canal below. this is the Leeds to Liverpool Canal, the same one that flows through Shipley.

The first Lock

Looking back away from Five rise Locks, in the direction of Liverpool

 We went back to Saltaire, found a place to park and a little café/bakery and finally had lunch at 3pm! We found the 1853 Gallery in the old Salts Mill complex and went in to see a fine display of David Hockney’s paintings, lithographs and etchings. Hockney was born in Bradford, so is a local lad. It was getting dark and raining as we left the gallery at about 4.20 and made our way through peak hour traffic back to Calverley Old Hall. Together we prepared a casserole with stewing steak, onions, spuds, carrots, mushrooms and peas flavoured with some caramelised onion chutney and put it in the oven to cook on low for a couple of hours. So ends another day  for the Amblers in Calverley, West Yorkshire.