Lock 20W
Being a narrow canal the locks on this canal are also narrow, and this reduces the size of the lock gates compared to a broad canal.
The bottom gates are a double pair as is normal on U.K. broad canals, but the top gate, where the water enters is only a single gate.
The paddles for the bottom gates to let water out of the lock are built into the gates themselves. To let water into the lock at the top gate the paddles are built into the side of the canal.
The lock wall has a ladder that was added when the canal was restored and provides access from the boat at the bottom of the lock to the top of the lock.
There is a stone footbridge over the tail of the lock. Bridges are often built near locks because at this point the canal is at its narrowest and so bridges are cheaper and easier to build.
The combined bridge and lock form a Historic England Grade II listed building with the following text.
"Halls Bridge and Lock 20W at SD 994 049 - II Accommodation bridge and lock combination. EC19 with later alterations. Probably designed by Benjamin Outram. Bridge is of coursed, dressed stone. Single. semicircular arch with voussoirs. Stone band and half-round copings to parapet, some showing tow-rope incisions. West side terminates with stone pilasters with stone capstones. East side continuous with tail walls of lock. Lock has stone chamber with stone copings. Tail has pair of double wooden gates, each with manual gate paddle gearing. Head has single wooden gate with two sets of manual ground paddle gearings."
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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.