Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
38
Calder & Hebble Navigation
Distance
35km from Sowerby Bridge to Wakefield
Highlights
Wakefield's 99-arch railway viaduct
Navigation Authority
Canal & River Trust
OS 1:50,000 Sheets
104 Leeds & Bradford
110 Sheffield & Huddersfield
(111 Sheffield & Doncaster)
The construction of the navigation parallel to the River Calder and, in places, using its course,
was completed in 1770. This was one of the canals that made a major contribution to the Indus-
trial Revolution, linking the Aire & Calder Navigation with the Rochdale Canal and providing
a route from industrial Yorkshire over the Pennines. At no point is it far from conurbations yet
it is surrounded by far more open country than the map might suggest.
Its western terminus is the basin at Sowerby Bridge, deep in the valley of the River Calder.
Hillsides rise steeply to north and south. Roads, some still cobbled, are equally steep as they
climb away from the grimy industrial buildings. The canal basin is a place where new life has
come to the old buildings in various forms. The Bolton Brow Gallery featured in the BBC's
True Tilda
series and the Moorings bar is in an old canal building.
Just beyond the canal basin, the Rochdale Canal leaves on the right, opposite the first of the
Navigation public houses.
Assorted industrial smells permeate the air at times all along the canal yet some industry has
been replaced by housing and trees gradually replace the buildings. The open hills rise behind.
Railways and roads intertwine around the navigation in a three-dimensional tangle. The rail-
way crosses for the first time at Copley, the viaduct passing over both canal and river.
