Bridge 193 On Leeds Liverpool Canal – Silsden, UK - Moving Bridges on Waymarking.com

The canal is 127.25 miles long and flows from the inland woollen town of Leeds to the coastal sea port of Liverpool, crossing the Pennines along the way. Work on the canal started in 1770 and built in a number of sections and was finally completed in 1816.

The canal is no longer operational for commercial traffic but is popular with leisure boaters.

This steel counterweight swing bridge is also known as Holden bridge and was built to give access to farm fields.

The Moveable Bridges of Britain website tells us “John Powell reports that the old timber bridge was replaced by a counterweighted steel swing bridge probably around 1980.

In July 2008 the bridge seemed to be in fairly good condition and well maintained. The underframe and traditional wheel type bearings were however showing some corrosion.

John also comments that the photograph of the bridge fixing chain has jogged my memory. All the original timber bridges were fixed by a tang to a high timber post (The sort you see on farmers gates), whilst this arrangement was satisfactory in a working environment, when the canal became a pleasure cruising waterway a terrible accident occurred when a little girl was pushed by the bridge inertia onto the sharp pointed tang in the wooden post Unfortunately the child died from her injuries. British Waterways then had all the high wooden posts with the protruding tangs cut down to a low level and the bridge fixed by the Leeds & Liverpool Handcuff key to prevent a reoccurrence of this tragic accident. Moving Bridges can be very dangerous to the unwary!.” br>
It is manually operated with a simple lever arm to push and pull the bridge into position.

A sign next to the push arm has the following operating instructions.

Bridge 193,
Holden
Swing Bridge

To open bridge
Use handcuff key to unlock anti-vandal
locking mechanism
Use push arm to fully open bridge

To close bridge
Use push arm to close bridge fully
Relock anti-vandal lock mechanism

Please ensure bridge
is not left unlocked

Bridge Type: Swing Bridge Span: 40 feet over a clear waterway width of 17 ft 6 inches. Pedestrian Traffic: yes Bicycle Traffic: yes Vehicular Traffic: yes Railway Traffic: no Built: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the bridge and record the exact coordinates where the picture was taken.

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