Standedge -the hard way

摘要

I'd better warn you, I'm a bit of a slave-driver," says Sue Day, chairperson of the Horse Boating Society. "I could have done with knowing that a little earlier", I think to myself as horse-drawn working boat Elland approaches the portal of the towpath-less tunnel, and crewmembers Gordon and Stuart take their places, lying down on the wooden boards laid across the hold from gunwale to gunwale. I've signed up as a volunteer to help take a boat through a tunnel in the way that it was done before the days of powered craft, by legging it - lying on your back and pushing the boat along by walking your feet along the sides of the tunnel. And not just any tunnel.