Huddersfield Narrow Canal Bridge 44a – 2000 – Slaithwaite, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 37.329 W 001° 52.937
30U E 573926 N 5942063
This road bridge across the Huddersfield Narrow Canal had to be built when the canal was re-opened and the in-filled channel excavated.
Waymark Code: WMG06T
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/27/2012
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 west of the town ended near here. From here to the eastern 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 and build this new bridge using a pre-formed concrete culvert .
The new bridge is relatively narrow because the tow path does not go under the bridge, but stays on the outside of the bridge.
As part of the restoration project, Millennium Commision Lottery Funding was obtained to rebuild this bridge. 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. British Waterways made a decision that the bridges should retain their numbers from when the canal was first built. Any totally new bridges are assigned a letter after the nearest bridge number. This bridge was therefore given the number 44a.
Date built or dedicated as indicated on the date stone or plaque.: 2000
Date stone, plaque location.: Bridge keystone one each side 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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