Calder and Hebble Navigation

Calder and Hebble Navigation

legend River Calder and Rochdale Canal Sowerby Bridge basins Halifax Branch Salterhebble Basin Salterhebble Branch Salterhebble locks (3) Long Lees lock Woodside Mills lock A629 road Railway Elland lock Park Nook lock Cromwell lock Broadfoot lock Ganny lock weir Brighouse locks (2) To Cooper Br Anchor Pit flood lock M62 motorway weir Kirkless Top lock Kirkless Low lock Cooper Bridge flood gates weir -- Huddersfield Broad Canal Cooper Bridge lock To Greenwood Battyeford flood lock weir Battyeford lock weir Ledgard flood lock Shepley Bridge lock weir Greenwood flood gates Greenwood lock Thornhill flood lock weir Savile Town Basin Dewsbury Arm Thornhill Double locks (2) Mill Bank lock Disused lock Figure of Three locks (2) Disused lock Disused Railway Broad Cut Top lock weir Railway Broad Cut Low lock M1 motorway Thornes flood lock weir Thornes lock Wakefield flood lock weir Fall Ing lock -- Aire and Calder Navigation

Looking towards the terminal basin of the Calder and Hebble Navigation, from a point near the junction with the Rochdale Canal

The Calder and Hebble Navigation is a Broad (ie with 14-foot wide locks and bridgeholes) inland waterway in West Yorkshire, England, which has remained navigable since it was opened.

History

By the beginning of the 18th century, the Aire and Calder Navigation had made the River Calder navigable as far upstream as Wakefield. The aim of the Calder and Hebble Navigation was to extend navigation west (upstream) from Wakefield to Sowerby Bridge near Halifax.

The first attempt at obtaining an Act of Parliament was defeated in 1740, as a result of opposition from local landowners and from millers, who thought that navigation would disrupt their water supply. An Act was obtained in 1758, for a somewhat different route, and construction was started soon afterwards by the civil engineer John Smeaton (assisted by William Jessop). Smeaton was replaced by James Brindley in 1765, who was in turn replaced by Smeaton again in 1768. The navigation originally consisted of improved stretches of the River Calder with short "cuts" between sections of the river to avoid circuitous stretches, shoals or weirs. Construction of the initial phase was finished in 1770^[1]

Later side-extensions were made from Thornhill to Dewsbury (necessary because the main line of the navigation had by then bypassed the Dewsbury section of the Calder) and from Salterhebble to the centre of Halifax (along the River Hebble).

In later improvements, ever-longer cuts bypassed more and more sections of river. These days the navigation largely consists of long "cuts" (all named as such : eg "Horbury Cut") joining fairly short river sections.

Competition from the railways led to the navigation being leased to the Manchester and Leeds Railway, and then to the Aire and Calder Navigation. During this period, the locks from Fall Ing lock to Broad Cut Top lock were enlarged. After the Aire and Calder's lease expired in 1885, the Navigation Company again took charge, rebuilt many of the bridges, and established the Calder Carrying Company. Shareholders continued to receive dividends until the canal was nationalized in 1948, and the canal was used by commercial traffic until 1981^[1].

Current route

The Navigation runs from Wakefield (junction with the Aire and Calder Navigation) upstream via Mirfield (junction with the Huddersfield Broad Canal) to Sowerby Bridge (junction with the Rochdale Canal). Other towns on the navigation are Horbury, Ossett, Dewsbury, Brighouse, and Elland. The Branch to Halifax is no longer navigable, except for a stub now known as the Salterhebble Arm.

Current use

The navigation is used almost entirely by leisure boaters, to whom it represents both an attractive cruising ground in it own right, and also a vital four-way link.

• The Rochdale Canal leads to Rochdale and Manchester
• The Huddersfield Broad and Huddersfield Narrow canals lead to Uppermill and Ashton-under-Lyne, and on towards the Midlands and Wales
• The Aire and Calder Navigation carries boats to Leeds, and (via the Leeds and Liverpool Canal), to Lancashire
• East to Selby and York, Goole and the Humber, Keadby and the River Trent, and Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster

The importance of the Calder and Hebble as a through route makes one notorious feature of the canal very significant: its short locks. The canal is a "wide" navigation, meaning that its locks are wide enough for 14ft boats, but its shortest locks are amongst the very shortest on the connected network of English/Welsh inland waterways (the Ripon Canal has locks of a similarly restricted length). The canal was built to accept (57' by 14') Yorkshire Keels^[1] coming up the Aire and Calder Navigation. The Locks on the Aire and Calder and the lower Calder and Hebble (below Broad Cut Locks at Calder Grove) have since been lengthened, but the shortest locks on the upper Calder and Hebble force boats longer than about 57 feet to lie diagonally in the locks. This is only possible for narrowboats, so 57 feet is the maximum length for a wide-beamed (14') barge on the C&H. Even for a narrowboat (less than 7' beam) the maximum possible length is about 60ft (which is 12 feet shorter than a full-length English narrowboat). Narrowboats approaching 60ft can only be squeezed through the shorter locks, even when lying diagonally, by expedients such as removing fenders, having shore parties pole the boat into position, and going down locks backwards. In particular, an inexperienced crew of any boat longer than about 57' might find it impossible to negotiate the middle lock of the "Salterhebble Three", which is the shortest of all. The C&H Navigation, and the Salterhebble locks in particular, thus define the maximum length of a go-anywhere English narrowboat. (Note that other factors can restrict the places to which a boat can reach : for instance, boats with a high cabin top, or with insufficient tumblehome may not be able to fit into Standedge Tunnel at the summit of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal).

It was the diparity in boat sizes between the Calder and Hebble and the Rochdale canal, which made Sowerby Bridge (at the junction of the two canals) so important : long boats coming over from Lancashire had to have their cargoes unloaded, stored, and transferred to shorter boats at Sowerby Bridge Wharf.

Another quirk of the Calder and Hebble locks is the handspike, a length of 2" by 4" timber shaped at one end to provide a comfortable two-handed grip. Calder and Hebble boaters have to carry these in addition to the more usual windlass, in order to lever open the simple lock gear which lifts the lock paddles to allow a full lock to empty or an empty one to fill.

References

See also

• Canals of Great Britain

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