Huddersfield Narrow Canal

History

The Huddersfield Narrow Canal was authorised by an Act of April 1794, one of two trans-Pennine canals approved that year as alternative routes to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. It was built for 70-foot narrowboats, and Standedge Tunnel, the longest, highest and deepest canal tunnel in Britain, almost bankrupted the project; around 50 workers were killed building it. The canal opened in stages from November 1796, but the tunnel was not formally opened until March 1811, when the canal was complete.

The Huddersfield and Manchester Railway agreed to buy the canal company in 1844 and used the canal to help build its own tunnel beside the canal tunnel at Standedge, the two being linked by short shafts. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway abandoned the canal in 1944, though it was kept as a water channel. In 1948 a party of Inland Waterways Association pioneers, among them Tom Rolt and Robert Aickman, took the boat Ailsa Craig from end to end; it was the last passage of the tunnel for more than 50 years.

The Huddersfield Canal Society was formed in 1974 by enthusiasts who wanted to restore the derelict canal to through navigation. After 27 years of campaigning and restoration led by its volunteers, the canal reopened in May 2001, and the Prince of Wales held an official ceremony that September.