Calder and Hebble Navigation
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The Calder and Hebble Navigation is a wide-locked (14'0") canal system in West Yorkshire, England.
[edit] History
Construction was started in 1757 by the civil engineer John Smeaton (assisted by William Jessop) to extend navigation on the River Calder west (upstream) from Wakefield to Sowerby Bridge near Halifax. 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. Later side-extensions were made from Thornhill to Dewsbury (necessary because the main line of the navigation bypassesd the Dewsbury section of the Calder) and from Salterhebble to the centre of Halifax (via the River Hebble). In later improvements, longer cuts bypassed (even longer) sections of river.
[edit] Current Route
The Navigation runs from Wakefield (junction with the Aire and Calder Navigation) upstream via Mirfield (junction with the River Colne and 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.
[edit] 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 canals lead to Uppermill and Ashton, and hence to the Midlands and Welsh canals.
- The Aire and Calder Navigation carries boats to Leeds, and (via the Leeds and Liverpool Canal), to Lancashire
... and also East to Selby and York, Goole and the Humber, Keadby and the Trent, and Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster.
The importance of the Calder and Hebble as a through route makes one notorious feature of the C&H very significant: it has the shortest locks on the connected network of English inland waterways. Boats longer than about 57 feet must be narrowboats, because only they can fit into the shorter locks (by lying diagonally). Additionally, boats near the 60ft limit can only pass the very shortest locks (such as the Middle Salterhebble, reputed to be the shortest on the network) by means of expedients such as removing fenders, having shore parties pole the boat into position, and going down locks backwards. Thus it is the C&H Navigation which defines the maximum length of the English go-anywhere narrowboat. Another quirk is the C&H handspike, a length of 2" by 4" timber which boaters have to carry (in addition to the more usual windlass) in order to lever open the lock paddles which allow a full lock to empty or an empty one to fill.
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