Snow-dappled sunrise at Lemonroyd Lock on the on the Aire & Calder Navigation near RSPB St Aidan’s

Methley’s beauty spot is on the Aire & Calder Navigation - which was built to connect Leeds to the Humber and the North Sea - a popular spot with anglers, walkers, runners and narrowboat owners.

It is next to Lemonroyd Marina, on the outskirts of Castleford, which offers space for nearly 100 moorings. RSPB St Aidan’s - where there is a variety of habitats including reedbed, wetland, meadows and woodland - is a short distance away and remains open for exercise purposes, according to its website.

Since 1625, Yorkshire entrepreneurs had sought to improve navigation on the natural rivers Aire and Calder.

According to the Canal and River Trust charity, after an Act of Parliament in 1699, short canals were cut to bypass “particularly narrow or tortuous stretches”.

Improvements continued, with the Knottingley and Goole Canal opening in 1826, and the most recent was a new section near Castleford, constructed in the 1980s.

In spring 2019 planning permission was given for a proposal at Lemonroyd Marina which aimed to allow more people to live there all year round. MMR Construction Ltd had asked to turn a number of leisure moorings into residential ones.

It means that they can be occupied by customers who live at the marina as their primary residence.

In contrast, leisure moorings can only be occupied by customers who use their vessels predominantly for leisure purposes, and customers have to demonstrate that they have a permanent home away from the marina, which is operated by British Waterways Marinas Limited.

That the same year the Lemonroyd Marina was named runner-up for the Yacht Harbour Association’s Towergate Inland Marina of the Year. Team members from the marina were presented with their trophy at Southampton International Boat Show that year.

Technical details: Fujifilm X-E1 18mm 1/60 sec f/4.0 ISO 400