Photograph - Mono (Document ID: 101567)
Exterior of Canal Mills and Calder & Hebble Navigation from Elland Bridge, Elland.
Author: Jack Townsend
Date: not dated
Location: Elland
Format: Photograph - Mono
Document ID: 101567
Library ID: 106213(35-8.37A/38)
The Calder & Hebble Navigation started life as a river navigation with a few short lock cuts. It links Sowerby Bridge (and the Rochdale Canal) to Wakefield (and the Aire and Calder Navigation). As it became prosperous, the more difficult or unreliable sections were bypassed by longer and longer canal sections. The Calder & Hebble locks use a particular handspike to operate the unique paddle gear.
In 1740 the first proposals for the construction of a navigable waterway were put forward to improve the transport system for the woollen industry and an Act of Parliament for the waterway was passed in 1768. By 1765 the canal was complete from Wakefield via Elland to Salterhebble, and in 1768 the Brighouse Canal Basin was opened. Over the next two centuries the navigation first prospered then declined until the last commercial boat usage in 1955. Since the 1970s more leisure traffic has developed on the waterway.
This photo is by Jack Townsend of the Halifax Photographic Society.
