Huddersfield Narrow Canal Bridge 42 – 2000 - Slaithwaite, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 37.427 W 001° 52.496
30U E 574409 N 5942252
This road bridge on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal had to be re-built when the canal was re-opened and the in-filled channel excavated.
Waymark Code: WMG02J
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/26/2012
Views: 2
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.
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.
Although in the early days the canal was profitable, competition from railways and roads meant that it had closed by 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 was completed in 2001. In urban settings such as the centre of the town of Slaithwaite parts of the canal had been totally filled in and built over.
This bridge is actually completely new because sometime after the canal had been filled a new road had been built across it. Before the year 2000 the end of the navigable part of the canal at the east of the town ended near here. From here to the western end of the town the canal had been filled in and covered over.
When work started on the renovation it was necessary to dig out the channel of the canal.
The original bridge at Platt Lane, built as an accommodation bridge, had been slightly humped. When the canal was closed it was levelled to make easier access for lorries to the nearby mills. Just to the east of the bridge was lock 21E, but because the bridge had been lowered the level of the lock was now at the wrong height. At the same time as building the new bridge the lock was moved to the west of the bridge and the canal level lowered.
The keystone on each side of the bridge has the year 2000 carved into it and on the east wall of the bridge is a millennium commission lottery plaque.
The bridges along the canal are numbered from the start at Huddersfield and this is the 42nd.
Date built or dedicated as indicated on the date stone or plaque.: 2000
Date stone, plaque location.: Etched in keystone on both sides of the bridge
Road, body of water, land feature, etc. that the bridge spans.: The Huddersfield Narrow Canal
Website (if available): [Web Link]
Parking (safe parking location): N 53° 37.434 W 001° 52.689
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