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Aire and Calder Navigation
One of the 600 tonne barges used on the Navigation
Original Owner	Aire and Calder Navigation Company
Principal Engineer	John Hadley
Date of Act	1699
Date of first use	1704
Maximum Boat Length	200 ft 0 in (60.96 m) (originally 58 ft 0 in (17.68 m))
Maximum Boat Beam	20 ft 0 in (6.10 m) (originally 14 ft 6 in (4.420 m))
Start Point	Leeds (Aire) and Wakefield (Calder)
End Point	Goole Docks
Locks	16
Status	Open
Navigation Authority	British Waterways

Aire and Calder Navigation

legend Leeds and Liverpool Canal Leeds Leeds Lock Calder and Hebble Navigation River Calder and Wakefield Knostrop Flood Lock Fall Ing Lock River Aire Knostrop Fall Lock and weir Broadreach Lock A1/M1 Link Bridge Stanley Ferry Aqueducts Fishpond Lock Birkwood Lock Woodlesford Lock A642 Swillington Bridge Kings Road Lock Lemonroyd Lock M62 motorway Nordens Bridge Woodnock Lock Fairies Hill lock (disused) A619 road bridge Castleford Junction Castleford Flood Lock A656 road bridge Bulholme Lock Fairburn Railway bridge A1M bridge A162 road bridge Ferrybridge Flood Lock and weir Bank Dole Junction A645 Skew Bridge Bank Dole Lock Beal Lock and weir Haddersley Flood Lock Haddersley Old Lock (closed) A19 bridge M62 Motorway viaduct Whitley Lock Doncaster to Selby Railway Selby Canal Selby Lock River Ouse Navigation River Aire River Ouse Pollington Lock New Junction Canal Dutch River A614 bridge M18 motorway bridge Doncaster to Goole Railway Goole Docks Ocean, Ouse & Victoria Lock River Ouse

The Aire and Calder Navigation is a river and canal system of the River Aire and the River Calder in the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England.

History and route

In 1699 an Act of Parliament was passed to improve the navigability of the River Aire (from the River Ouse at Airmyn via Castleford to Leeds) and River Calder (from Castleford to Wakefield). This involved the creation of weirs bypassed by very short "cuts" equipped with locks. John Hadley was engaged as an engineer and by 1704 the original work was completed, including 12 locks on the Aire between Haddesley and Leeds and 4 on the Calder. The locks were 58-60' long by 14'6" to 15' wide with 3'6" depths over the sills.^[1] The early trade consisted mainly of woollen goods from Leeds, Wakefield, Halifax and Bradford and wool and corn inwards from Lincolnshire and East Anglia.

During the 18th century the navigation was improved by longer cuts to bypass difficult or circuitous stretches of river. The major improvements were made in the last quarter of the century by civil engineers John Smeaton and William Jessop. In particular, the 6-mile Selby Canal connected the Aire at Haddlesey directly with the Ouse at Selby - bypassing the lower reaches of the Aire completely, and forestalling a plan by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal company to construct their own extension from Leeds to Selby.

Selby boomed until the major development of the 19th century. In 1826 a wide canal was cut from Knottingley to bypass both the "Selby canal/mid Ouse" route and the whole of the lower reaches of the Aire. The new canal met the Ouse at a point well downstream of Selby, and created the inland port of Goole, easily reachable by large ships coming up the Humber. In 1839 a fine aqueduct was built at Stanley Ferry to take the navigation over the River Calder.

The 20th century saw two major phases of improvement. In 1905, the New Junction Canal connected the Aire and Calder to the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation near Stainforth. In the 1980s, the navigation underwent a huge scheme of modernisation in which, the locks from Goole to Leeds were modernised and enlarged to accommodate the new 600 tonne euro-barge standard. This makes the locks a massive 200 foot by 20 foot 0 inches (60.96 m by 6.1 m) whereas those on the Wakefield section are only 142 foot by 17 foot 8 inches (43.3 m by 5.4 m) - but Doncaster still awaits the large influx of cargoes from Rotterdam!

The Aire and Calder still fulfills its original purpose (although by different routes) by linking Leeds and Wakefield with York and the Humber (and thence the Trent). More recent canals now also make the A&C a vital link in the English (and increasingly, Welsh) connected inland waterway network. The current set of links is formidable. The A&C joins the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Leeds. The Calder and Hebble Navigation (from Wakefield) allows boats to reach the Huddersfield Broad and Narrow Canals, and the Rochdale Canal. The upstream Ouse (reached via the Selby Canal) allows boats to reach York, Boroughbridge and Ripon. The downstream Ouse (reached via Selby or Goole) connects to the River Derwent and the Humber (and hence Hull, Immingham, and the North Sea). The S&SYN (reached via the New Junction Canal) forms a link with (in one direction) Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield, and (in the other) the tidal River Trent at Keadby.

One of the large locks.

Traffic

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the company's chief engineer William H. Bartholomew devised the successful compartment boat system for the transport of coal from the Yorkshire collieries for transshipping to coastal colliers at Goole. The system consisted of tub boats called "Tom Puddings" which were loaded at the canal side, formed into trains of up to 19, pulled by a tug, and emptied into the collier by a hoist.

A 20th century modification of this system was used to feed the coal-fired power stations(s) at Ferrybridge. A train of three tubs ("Coal Pans") was loaded via canalside chutes at the colliery and pushed by the famous "Hargreave" tugs to Ferrybridge, where a hoist lifted each pan from the canal and upturned it to drop it contents onto a conveyor belt. Until recently the amount of coal (the waterway's main traffic) amounted to about 2 million tonnes per year, but coal carrying came to an abrupt halt during the late 20th century when the St Aidens opencast mine was exhausted and the coal from Kellingley colliery was found to have levels of sulphur content way above the acceptable limit. At Ferrybridge, the massive hoist, and the channel down which coal pans were pushed under it can still be seen - as can rows of idle pans. Near Castleford, idle tugs can still be seen in Hargreaves boatyard. Newer commercial traffic is starting to use the navigation, such as petroleum tankers and gravel barges, though the majority of users are now leisure boaters.

Leisure boating

The Aire and Calder was built for commercial freight, and although the volume carried has dropped significantly, particularly since coal deliveries to Ferrybridge power station by canal stopped, the navigation still carried 300,000 tonnes of freight in 2007, down from 1.64 million tonnes in 2000.^[2] The Leeds to Castleford section and much of the Wakefield branch are now designated as leisure routes, but below Castelford, the industrial nature of the waterway is more obvious, and pleasure boats must give way to commercial vessels. 600 tonne vessels, designed to make maximum use of the locks, which are 200 by 20 feet (61 by 6.1 m) on this section, produce considerable wash, and are not as manoeuvrable as a narrow boat.^[3]

Much of the ex-industrial (western) part of the Navigation now has the appearance of a tree-lined, gently-twisting river. The eastern part of the Navigation, sometimes known as the Knottingley and Goole Canal,^[4] is rather different: it has long straight stretches, but mainly through flat land that has always been agricultural. The majority of pleasure journeys are made between Wakefield and Leeds, via Castleford, as this stretch is part of the "Ring" formed by the Leeds & Liverpool and the Huddersfield or Rochdale canals. Only the more adventurous boaters travel on to Selby, York, Goole, Sheffield, and Keadby. However, with the possible restoration of the Barnsley Canal and the Dearne and Dove Canal, the section between Wakefield and the New Junction Canal would become part of a new "Southern Yorkshire Ring", which would no doubt bring more traffic to these lesser-used reaches.

See also

UK Waterways portal

• Canals of the United Kingdom
• History of the British canal system

References

External links

• Pennine Waterways

Coordinates: 53°47′N 1°31′W / 53.783°N 1.517°W / 53.783; -1.517