Former Ramsdens Footbridge Over Aire And Calder Navigation - Stanley Ferry, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 41.983 W 001° 27.800
30U E 601447 N 5951209
This former footbridge stands next to a swing bridge and provided access across the Aire and Calder Navigation to pedestrians when the swing bridge was in the open position.
Waymark Code: WM103VK
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/20/2019
Views: 0
The Aire and Calder Navigation
The Aire and Calder Navigation is a river and canal system of the River Aire and the River Calder in the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. The first improvements to the rivers above Knottingley were completed in 1704 when the Aire was made navigable to Leeds and the Calder to Wakefield, by the construction of 16 locks. Lock sizes were increased several times, as was the depth of water, to enable larger boats to use the system.
Steam tugs were introduced in 1831. In the 1860s, compartment boats were introduced, later called Tom Puddings, from which coal was unloaded into ships by large hydraulic hoists. This system enabled the canal to carry at its peak more than 1.5 million tons of coal per year, and was not abandoned until 1986. To handle trains of compartments, many of the locks were lengthened to 450 feet (140 m).
Although much of the upper reaches are now designated as leisure routes, there is still significant commercial traffic on the navigation. 300,000 tons were carried in 2007, although most of the traffic is now petroleum and gravel, rather than the coal which kept the navigation profitable for 150 years.
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Ramsdens Swing Bridge
The swing bridge was originally used for road traffic and carried Ward Lane over the navigation. Next to this bridge is a fixed foot bridge which was originally used by pedestrians when the swing bridge was in the open position.
Ward Lane was truncated and vehicles no longer had access across the navigation at this point. The swing bridge was then fixed in the open position and only the footbridge was in use.
By 2015 both bridges were in a poor state of repair and a consultation took place to decide what to do about the bridges.
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Eventually in 2018 the swing bridge was replaced with a lightweight manually operated swing bridge for use by pedestrians, cyclists and wheelchair users.
This footbridge was also blocked off and closed down but still remains over the canal.
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