Queen Street South Bridge
This bridge is near to the start of the Huddersfield Canal, just to the south west of the position of the original lock 2E.
It is a single elliptical arch bridge that crosses both the canal and towpath. At the time it was built this would have allowed horses to pull the boats under the bridge without disconnecting the tow ropes.
The canal closed for commercial operation in 1944 (see the full story below) and this section of canal was drained. This was done in most conurbation areas that the canal ran through.
This section was one of the last to be reopened as part of a restoration projection in 2001. Not only had the canal here been filled in, but on the far side of the bridge a factory had been built over it. This prt of the canal had to be totally modified and lock 2E was moved to the other side of the factory. This allowed a tunnel to then be built under the factory which terminated just before this bridge. Because the level of the canal had been lowered it was necessary to buttress the canal walls. Canal boats pass through this deepened channel including the site of the old lock 2E and then onwards to lock 1E the first lock on the canal at the junction with the Huddersfield Broad Canal.
There is no towpath inside the tunnel. If you are walking away from the town centre you will have to leave the canal here and follow the footpath signs and rejoin the canal at a new lock 3E built in 2012. There is no access on foot to the new lock 2E.
This
website shows the route along the road to get to lock 3E.
This
website shows the redevelopment work and the building of the tunnel.
The Huddersfield Narrow Canal
This canal is one of three that crosses the Pennine Hills and built to provide transport between Huddersfield in Yorkshire and Ashton-Under-Lyne in Lancashire.
As the name suggest it is a narrow canal that although was cheaper to build had less carrying capacity compared to the other two broad canals.
Work started on it in 1794 and partly due to the need to construct the longest canal tunnel in the United Kingdom it was completed 17 years later in 1811.
The canal is only 20 miles long and due to the nature of the terrain has 74 locks even though the summit tunnel reduced the required number of locks. The canal climbs 436 feet from Huddersfield and descends 334 feet to Ashton-Under-Lyne.
In theory having a summit tunnel to reduce the number of locks means that the journey times should be relatively short. However the tunnel does not have a tow path and when it was first opened it was necessary to lead the horses over the moor to the other end of the tunnel. Meanwhile it was necessary to leg the boat through the tunnel. This involved specialist workers who lay on their backs and used their legs with their feet against the tunnel wall to leg the boat through.
Competition from the railways led to the closure of the canal in 1944.
During the 1970s leisure boating in the U.K. had become popular and there were various campaigns to re-open canals that had lain derelict for a number of years.
Work on restoring this canal started in 1981 and the whole canal was finally reopened by 2001. These days the canal is only open to leisure boaters and with the re-opening of other connecting canals it is possible to travel far and wide.
However boats are restricted to maximum width of 6 feet 10 inches and a draught of 3 feet 3 inches which does restrict some boats that are used on the broad canals.