The Calder and Hebble Navigation
The Calder and Hebble Navigation completed in 1770 consisted of artificial improvements to the River Calder and River Hebble to allow canal boats use what used to be un-navigable rivers.
It ran for 21 miles from the Aire and Calder Navigation at Wakefield to Sowerby Bridge, was one of the first navigable waterways into the Pennines. It was an extension westwards of the Aire and Calder Navigation.
Work began in 1758 to make the River Calder navigable above Wakefield. The navigation to Sowerby Bridge was completed in 1770, including a short branch to Dewsbury.
The Railway Line
There had been many proposals to improve the railway links to the city of Bradford, but many had failed to come to fruition.
"1896 was a year of promise. At a meeting of Midland shareholders held at Derby in February, the Chairman, Sir Ernest Paget, spoke at length about a new line for which a Bill had been prepared, and stressed the need for a railway going in a north-westerly direction through the West Riding towards Bradford. The line surveyed, from Royston to Bradford via Thornhill and the Spen Valley, would cut the distance from London to Bradford by 11¼ miles and from London to Scotland by 5¾ miles. Events moved quickly and on 25 July the same year the Midland secured its Act for the West Riding Lines, from Royston to Bradford.
The line was to be in two sections, the first, just over 8¼ miles long, ending at Thornhill, and the second, eleven miles long, running from Thornhill to Bradford to terminate in a junction with the Leeds & Bradford Railway. The estimated cost of the work, which included the diversion or stopping-up of numerous public roads and the building of several bridges and tunnels, was £2,100,000.
Construction of the West Riding Lines started at Royston Junction on 3 July 1905 and by 1 March 1906 they were open as far as Savile Town yard, Dewsbury, at the end of a short branch from Headfield Road. There was also a connecting spur to the Lancashire & Yorkshire line at Thornhill. This section contained several engineering features worthy of note, particularly a viaduct of twenty-four arches across the Blacker Beck valley and another of seventeen arches near Horbury Bridge. Near Thornhill a three-span bridge crossed the Calder & Hebble Navigation."
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At this point the Calder and Hebble Navigation passes through a deep cut and the arches carried the railway high over the navigation.
At some point this spur was abandoned and all the tracks have been removed. Not far from the south eastern end of the bridge a small housing estate has been built over where the tracks used to run.