Everything about The Leeds And Liverpool Canal totally explained
The
Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a
canal in the north of
England, linking the cities of
Leeds and
Liverpool. Over a distance of, it crosses the
Pennines, and includes 91 locks on the main line. It has several small branches, and a new link into the Liverpool docks system.
History
In the mid 18th century the growing towns of
Yorkshire including Leeds,
Wakefield and
Bradford, were trading increasingly. While the
Aire and Calder Navigation improved links to the east for Leeds, links to the west were limited to primitive and unreliable road transport. On the west coast, traders in the busy port of Liverpool were restricted in their ability to sell their goods from around the world to the rich towns of Yorkshire. Inspired by the effectiveness of the wholly-artificial navigation, the
Bridgewater Canal opened in 1759-1760. A canal across the Pennines linking Liverpool and
Hull (by means of the Aire and Calder Navigation) would have obvious trade benefits.
A public meeting took place at the Sun Inn in Bradford on
2 July 1766 to promote the building of such a canal. John Longbotham was engaged to survey a route. Two groups were set up to promote the scheme, one in Liverpool and one in Bradford. The Liverpool committee was unhappy with the route originally proposed, considering that it ran too far to the north, missing key towns and the coalfields of south
Lancashire. A counter-proposal was produced by John Eyes and Richard Melling, which was rejected by the Bradford committee as too expensive.
James Brindley was called in to arbitrate, and ruled in favour of Longbotham's more northerly route, a decision which caused some of the Lancashire backers to withdraw their support, and which was subsequently amended over the course of development.
An Act was passed in May 1770 authorising construction, and Brindley was appointed chief engineer and John Longbotham clerk of works; following Brindley's death in 1772, Longbotham carried out both roles.
By 1774 the canal had been completed from
Skipton to
Shipley, including significant engineering features such as the
Bingley Five Rise Locks,
Bingley Three Rise Locks and the seven-arch aqueduct over the
River Aire. Also completed was the
branch to Bradford. On the western side, the section from Liverpool to Newburgh was dug. By the following year the Yorkshire end had been extended to
Gargrave, and by 1777 the canal had joined the Aire and Calder Navigation in Leeds. By now, the subscribed funds and further borrowing had all been spent, and work stopped in 1781 with the completion of the
Rufford Branch from
Burscough to the
River Douglas at
Tarleton.
In 1789 Robert Whitworth developed fresh proposals to vary the line of the remaining part of the canal, including a tunnel at
Foulridge and a more southerly route in Lancashire. These proposals were authorised by a fresh Act in 1790, together with further fund-raising. In 1794 a further Act was granted authorising yet another change of route, and yet more fund-raising, as Foulridge Tunnel was proving difficult and expensive to dig. It opened in 1796 and was long. The new route took the canal south via
Burnley and
Blackburn, but the latter wasn't reached until 1810. The latest plan for the route had it running parallel to the isolated southern end of the
Lancaster Canal, but common sense prevailed and the Leeds and Liverpool connected with the Lancaster Canal between
Wigan and Johnson's Hillock. The main line of the canal was thus completed in 1816.
The canal took almost 40 years to complete, in crossing the Pennines the Leeds and Liverpool had been beaten by the
Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the
Rochdale Canal. The heavy industry along its route, together with the decision to build the canal with broad locks, ensured that (unlike the other two trans-Pennine canals) the Leeds and Liverpool remained open through the 20th century.
The canal suffered some damage during
World War II. It was breached by a German mine in
Bootle and the headquarters at Pall Mall were damaged. The canal in west Lancashire was part of Britain's defensive plans against invasion. Along the canal there were
tank traps,
bunkers and
blockhouses. Some buildings such as barns and pubs along the canal were fortified. There are still some remaining concrete
pillboxes and brick built blockhouses.
Trade continued on the canal until the 1960s. Coal was shipped to the power station in Wigan and corn to Ainscoughs mill in Burscough. The last horse drawn barge was
Parbold. The especially cold winters in the early 1960s finished off commercial use of the canal. The section of canal between
Aintree and the Liverpool terminus was classed as Remainder in the review of the waterways and therefore only receives enough maintenance to keep it structurally sound.
In the 1950s and 1960s the Mersey Motor Boat Club (MMBC) did a lot of work to keep the canal open and in use. With a variety of boats, converted lifeboats and wooden boats from the Lakes, they kept boats moving on the canal after commercial use stopped. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is one of the quietest canals for leisure boating on the network.
In the 1960s the Pall Mall terminus basin was filled in up to Chisenhale Street Bridge (Bridge A). In the 1980s the Eldonian Village housing estate was built for the community which was disrupted by the building of the
Mersey Tunnel and the demolition of the Tate and Lyle sugar refinery. This meant the canal was filled in between Chisenhale Street Bridge (Bridge A) and just north of Burlington Street Bridge (Bridge B). The current terminus is next to the Eldonian Village Hall. As part of the development a new bridge was built, Vauxhall Bridge (un-numbered) which was opened by
Cilla Black.
Route
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal main line is long and crosses the country from Liverpool,
Merseyside to Leeds,
West Yorkshire. It has two main side-branches, the
Leigh Branch and the Rufford Branch. The summit level is at . The canal was built with
locks long and wide to accommodate the Yorkshire Keel
barges already in use on the Rivers Aire and Humber. However, the locks on the Leigh Branch and the mainline between Wigan and Liverpool (and Rufford Branch), were extended to a length of to accommodate the longer boats trading on the rest of the canal network following the building of the Leigh Branch.
The original Liverpool terminus was at Clarke's Basin in present-day Old Hall Street. This later moved to Pall Mall when land was sold to a railway company. The Leeds end of the canal runs into the Aire and Calder Navigation. At Liverpool a direct connection to the docks via
Stanley Dock was built in 1846.
From Liverpool to Appley Locks, the canal runs for without locks, across the
West Lancashire Coastal Plain.
The two main side-branches both connect to other waterways. The Rufford Branch links into the River Douglas and, via the
Ribble Link and the
River Ribble to the previously isolated Lancaster Canal. The Leigh Branch from Wigan leads to the
Bridgewater Canal and thus to
Manchester and the
Midlands.
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is said to be the longest
single canal in England, but it's shorter than the longest canal of all, the
Grand Union Canal which was made up of many smaller canals merged together. The Leeds Liverpool Canal includes the southern part of the Lancaster Canal between Johnsons Hillock and Wigan Top Lock.
A very famous part of the canal is at
Aintree where it passes close to the racecourse and gives the name to the course's
Canal Turn. It has one of the country's most photographed canal features - the Bingley Five Rise Locks at
Bingley. Bingley Five Rise and the Burnley Embankment are two of the original Seven Wonders of the canal world chosen by Robert Aikman.
Liverpool link
Work is underway on the new £20 million
Liverpool Canal Link, due for completion in 2008, which will re-connect the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to Liverpool's South Docks via Stanley Dock, allowing boats to travel past the world-famous
Three Graces and into the
Albert Dock.
Places on Route
Direction: East (top) to West (bottom)
Further Information
Get more info on 'Leeds And Liverpool Canal'.
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