Transshipment Warehouse - Dobcross, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 33.361 W 002° 00.473
30U E 565722 N 5934583
This information board describes the history of a warehouse at the side of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. It stands on the canal towpath on the opposite side of the canal from the warehouse it is describing.
Waymark Code: WMQZBA
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/18/2016
Views: 1
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.
At its summit is the longest, highest and deepest canal tunnel in the UK.
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 number of locks needed.
It was originally expected that the tunnel would take 5 years to build, but the terrain was more difficult than expected and in the end it was not completed until 1811, 17 years after work first started.
Competition from railways meant that the whole canal had ceased to be a working canal in 1944, but after an extensive campaign the canal reopened in 2001 to leisure craft, including the tunnel.
The information board text
THE HUDDERSFIELD CANAL SOCIETY
THE TRANSSHIPMENT WAREHOUSE
The Past...
The building opposite you, with its projecting roof or 'oversail' acquired its name at a time when it was believed to be used for transshipping goods over Standedge Moor before the tunnel was completed and the navigation officially opened in April 1811.
However it is now thought to have been constructed by the Huddersfield Canal Company in the early 1820s following a decision at a meeting in March 1819 when it was :
'Resolved that a Smithy and Shed be erected at Wool Road as proposed by Mr Raistrick'.
The Smithy was brick built and a number of courses of its structure have been preserved as well as its flagstone floor.
The 'shed' was originally built for the temporary storage of Lime (burnt limestone or calcium oxide) which may well have been produced nearby at the Brownhill lime kilns. Lime was a valuable commodity not only for the production of mortar and plaster for building works, but as an agricultural improver helping to neutralise the naturally acidic soils of the district.
It was still described as a Lime Shed in an 1886 inventory, but has seen a variety of uses including a boat maintenance yard and wool store for Stonebottom Mill at the rear.
It fell into dereliction by 1960 and was saved from collapse, in the latter 1970s, by members of the Saddleworth Historical Society. They renewed many of the major structural timbers and restored the stone slate roof, making the building "wind and water tight".
A New Start
In 1993, thanks to various sources of funding including European monies, charitable trusts and Oldham Council, the Canal Society's Restoration Team renovated the building and fitted it out as a community facility. They also constructed the adjacent boaters' utility block in a traditional style.
After many years of community use, mainly for art classes and events, it fell vacant. The Canal Society leased the building from British Waterways before purchasing it in 2009 and now use it as their full time office.