Railway Bridge 10 Over The Huddersfield Broad Canal - Deighton, UK - Orphaned Bridges on Waymarking.com

The railway bridge
It carried the railway high over the canal via a brick arch bridge. Most of the bricks are a grey / blue colour but the arch is picked out with yellow bricks. These days there are no tracks on top of the bridge.

It was built in 1867, eighty seven years after the canal opened.

According to Wikipedia, "The Huddersfield-Kirkburton Branch Line opened in 1867, serving Deighton, Kirkheaton, Fenay Bridge and Lepton and Kirkburton. It was unusual in that it was operated by the London and North Western Railway company in an area where the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway company had a virtual monopoly. Plans to extend the line to Barnsley never materialised and so Kirkburton remained at the end of the line. It was primarily used for the transportation of goods, although passenger services ran until 1930. The line continued to be used to transport goods until 1965, when a combination of road haulage and a decline in industry lead to closure."

The Huddersfield Broad Canal
The Huddersfield Broad Canal was completed in 1780. It runs between the Calder and Hebble Navigation at Cooper Bridge and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal in the centre of Huddersfield.

The Huddersfield Broad Canal was originally known as the Cooper Canal, as it branched off the Calder and Hebble Navigation at Cooper Bridge. It was later known as Sir John Ramsden's Canal, after the Lord of the Manor and main land-owner. It later became known as the Broad Canal to distinguish it from the Narrow Canal.

The waterway is only 3¾ miles (6 km) long and has 9 wide locks and follows the valley of the River Colne.

The maximum dimensions for a boat to be able to travel on the waterway are 57 feet and 6 inches long and 14 feet wide.

The Huddersfield Narrow Canal has locks 72 feet long and maximum width of 6 feet 10 inches so there is a mismatch in the size of boats that can move between the two canals. When the canals were used commercially the boats’ cargoes had to be loaded and unloaded when moving between the two canals.

Obviously boats that are less than 57.5 feet long and narrower than 6 feet 10 inches can pass between both canals.

This canal never closed but because other canals such as The Huddersfield Narrow Canal had done very few boats used it. However since 2001 when the Huddersfield Narrow Canal re-opened to non commercial traffic leisure boaters have started to re-use it. The usage increased again when the Rochdale Canal re-opened in 2002. This gave access to different routes over the Pennines and also completed 2 rings of canals known as the South Pennine Ring, and The Outer Pennine Ring.

Original Use: Railroad Date Built: 1867 Construction: Brick / Block Condition: Good See this website for more information: [Web Link] Date Abandoned: 1965 Bridge Status - Orphaned or Adopted.: Orphaned

Visit Instructions:
Tell of your visit and post unique photo(s).

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   04/06/2013 hulletteers visited it