Calder and Hebble Navigation
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The Calder and Hebble Navigation is a navigable wide-locked (14'0") inland waterway in West Yorkshire, England.
[edit] 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.
Construction was started in 1757 by the civil engineer John Smeaton (assisted by William Jessop). 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 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, longer cuts bypassed (even longer) sections of river. These days the navigation now largely consists of long "cuts" (all named as such : eg "Horbury Cut") with fairly short river sections.
[edit] 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.
[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 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 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.
