Huddersfield Narrow Canal Bridge 75 – Uppermill, UK - Stone Bridges on Waymarking.com

The bridge also provides access to both sides of the canal allowing the lock gates to be operated.

The area around this bridge is a fantastic example of Victorian engineering.

The bridge is next to the southern end of lock 23W. When stone bridges were built over the canal they were nearly always incorporated into locks where the canal is at the narrowest.

Immediately next to the lock at the southern end is an aqueduct carrying the canal over the River Thame and built with a skew- segmental arch span.

These three items together form an English Heritage Grade II listed building, reference number 1356719.

Even more impressive is a large rock face stone Grade II listed railway viaduct which crosses the canal just to the south of the lock. It was built in 1849 by A S Jee for the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway Co.

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.

Physical Location (city, county, etc.): Uppermill, West Yorkshire Road, Highway, Street, etc.: Unnamed access road Water or other terrain spanned: The Huddersfield Narrow Canal Construction Date: 1/1/1811 Architect/Builder: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   02/09/2013 hulletteers visited it