Huddersfield Narrow Canal Bridge 44 – 2000 - Slaithwaite, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 37.345 W 001° 52.867
30U E 574003 N 5942093
This road bridge across the Huddersfield Narrow Canal had to be re-built when the canal was re-opened and the in-filled channel excavated.
Waymark Code: WMG06J
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/27/2012
Views: 3
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. A number of bridges in Slaithwaite were rebuilt using funding from the Millennium Commission Lottery Fund.
Britannia Road bridge had originally been a small hump back bridge when the canal was first built but for modern trucks a flat bridge was needed. The bridge had been modified after the canal had been closed and so a new replacement bridge was now needed for the renovated canal.
A pre-formed concrete culvert was used to form the new bridge and the canal channel was lowered to allow boats to pass under the lower level of the road.
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 44th.
Date built or dedicated as indicated on the date stone or plaque.: 2000
Date stone, plaque location.: On the keystone of 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° 37.427 W 001° 52.496
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