The Huddersfield Narrow Canal Guide and Map

The Huddersfield Narrow Canal

Short but steep, the Huddersfield Narrow Canal rises into glorious Pennine moorland with many reservoirs and swathes of National Trust land. Once dubbed "the impossible restoration", the canal is now fully restored to navigation for the first time since 1944, as a result of a Millennium Project (funded by the Millennium Commission, English Partnerships and other agencies), which has been one of the most exciting and ambitious restoration projects in the country.

 

At first safety considerations required that all boats should be towed through the tunnel in convoys behind an electric tug. Now, after a period of testing, boaters can take their own boats through with a BW 'chaperone'. However cruising the canal needs careful planning since British Waterways staff must assist boats through some of the locks and boats must be booked for tunnel passages. See the Standedge Tunnel website.

 

Standedge Tunnel is 17,000 feet long, one third bare rock, 638 feet below ground and 645 feet above sea level. Marsden Moor, with it’s reservoirs and clough is crossed by the Pennine Way, the Chester-York Roman Road, packhorse trails and three turnpikes, all of which can be followed today. The canal tunnel (1811-1944) preceded three railway tunnels, took 16 years to construct and then £5 million to clear four rock falls and make safe, nearly bankrupting the company. Locks from the west up the Tame valley were open after three years (1797), as were those from the east up the Colne valley. Packhorses took transhipped goods on the turnpike over the top of the tunnel for fourteen years.

 

Transhipment was also needed when narrowboats met the relatively short length of Sir John Ramsden’s Canal. It was designed for the Calder keels which were only 57 feet long and, therefore, the locks, though broader than required, were too short to take the standard 70 foot narrowboats. Double handling pushed up costs and reduced canal revenue even before the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway bought it out.

From the Standedge Visitor Centre at the eastern end of the tunnel boat trips into the tunnel in a glass topped boat are available.

 

The Mikron Theatre Company is the most famous of several groups of players who tour the waterways system. Travelling aboard narrowboat Tyseley, they bring theatre to waterside pubs and village halls. Original plays, often on waterway related themes, always include songs and humour. The Mechanics Institute, Marsden is their base from which they also produce a wide range of community theatre.