Britain's Waterways - Leeds and Liverpool Canal page

One of the featured waterways.
Leeds & Liverpool Canal
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The maps identify main roads, motorways & junction numbers, waterway features, waterway related museums & other tourist attractions etc.

Highlighted features such as Granary Wharf: Leeds are described in a couple of paragraphs which end with a set of simple 'road directions' from an identified motorway junction.
Contact telephone numbers of local Tourist Information Centres, Boat Trip Operators, Waterways Managers and Restoration Societies are given, including web-site addresses.

Leeds and Liverpool Leeds and Liverpool Canal 118B2- 119D2 Opened: Gargrave and River Douglas (1774), River Aire (1777), Foulridge (1796), Blackburn (1810) Wigan Flight (1816) Engineers: Longbotham, Brindley, Owen, Whitworth, Clowes, Fletcher Liverpool Docks to River Aire in Leeds. 127 miles, 93 wide locks, 2 tunnels	Arching north between the Red and White Rose Counties, this wide canal effectively provides a coast to coast waterway route. Climbing up through some of the most attractive scenery in the country spectacular locks lead to the summit on one of the lower passes across the Pennines, typified by the environs of the lock flight at Greenberfield.			Johnson’s Hillock Locks Ten miles of the southern section of the Lancaster Canal had already been built from Walton to Wigan (1799) when Leeds and Liverpool proposed to connect and utilise their line (1810). In order to seal the deal, the Lancaster built this flight of seven locks and extended their Wigan end by a half mile. Approach from M6 J8. Use A674 going north. Burnley Embankment Overlooking the ‘Weavers Triangle’ of industrial archaeology, over 60 feet high, over 3500 feet long, a

		A wide canal, 127 miles long and made suitable for Yorkshire keels (62 x 14) needing 200 bridges and 93 locks, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was by far the most ambitious project by a single company. First mooted at a meeting in Bradford (1766) this bold canal, the first to attempt a Pennine crossing, was somehow a relic of the Wars of the Roses. Finances were controlled by Yorkshiremen and this led to much discussion of the route to be taken through Lancashire. It became a canal in two pieces which were not connected for 40 years. At the start two virtually lock free sections were built, one in each county... 24 miles from the River Douglas to Liverpool and 16 miles from Bingley to beyond Skipton in Yorkshire (1773). Then the valley up from Leeds to Gargrave was conquered with staircase’ locks (1774) and connection made to the River Aire (1777). After an 8 year delay the summit tunnel at Foulridge was tackled (opened 1796), the canal extended to Blackburn (1810) and then the final link was completed (the lock flight at Wigan:1816). Thereafter, Lancashire improvements included a link to the Bridgewater Canal (1820), lengthening locks to Liverpool (1822) and a link to the Mersey through Stanley Dock (1846). The company was always independent of the railways, partly because their wide boats could carry twice the load of the standard ‘Midlands’ narrowboat. Management and Restoration British Waterways, (Liverpool to Greenber Field), Wigan Tel: 01942 242239 British Waterways, (Greenber Field to Leeds), Bradford Tel: 01274611303	Merseyside Maritime Museum: Albert Dock On Liverpool’s waterfront and within walking distance of the present day canal terminus, (1/4 mile short of the original one at Pall Mall [closed: 19601) there are five converted warehouses around Albert Dock (1846). Built for shallow draft sailing vessels, the dock is now used for floating exhibits and the warehouses contain the Maritime Museum working displays and the modern art collection of the Tate Gallery (1988). From M6 J23, use A580 /A59 going west and south. Aintree Canal Turn Sharp corner on the Grand National Race Course, five miles inland from Stanley Dock in Liverpool. Approach from M58 J7. Use A59 going south. Scarisbrick (1821) Change here for the sea side! A regular passenger service ran from industrial heartland of Manchester to meet with a stage coach from here to Southport. Approach from M58 J3. Use A570 going north. Burseough Junction Rufford Branch (1805) drops down 7 locks and replaced the earlier Douglas Navigation which had been exporting coal from Wigan for over 60 years (1741-1805). Tarleton Lock enters the tidal River Douglas and gives access to the Ribble estuary. Approach from M6 J27. Use A5209 going west. Wigan Flight Five locks from Liverpool, two locks from Runcom and eleven locks from Lancaster; a flight of twenty one wide (14 foot) and short (60 foot) locks rises (215 feet) to meet (and in 1851 to ‘take over’) the 13 mile southern pound of the Lancaster Canal. Approach from M61 J6. Use A6 going north. Turn south; stop at the canal bridge beyond Aspull.	major feat of engineering is now paralleled by the M65. From M65 J12, use A6114/A682 going south. Foulridge Tunnel (4900 feet) Foulridge was the Achilles’ heel of the canal. It was constructed mainly as a cut-and-cover project, took six years to build, seriously overran its budget, collapsed three times (1824, 1843, 1902) and was regularly closed in summer due to shortage of water (especially 1824, 1826). Five reservoirs, at Foulridge Lower, Barrowford, Winterburn, Rishton and Whitemoor, were built before this was solved. It was also unlucky for cows. One fell in (1912), swam the wrong way, and was only pulled out after struggling through the whole length of the tunnel. Apparently the landlord’s brandy revived the animal. From M65 J13, use A6068 /A56 going north. Gargrave On the borders of Yorkshire Dales National Park twelve locks pass under the ‘most picturesque route to Scotland’, the Settle to Carlisle railway. App roach from M6 J36. Use A65 going south-east. Lord Thanet’s Canal (1797) Privately funded, this very short branch gave access to a tramway from Lord Thanet’s limestone quarries. Approach from M6 J36. Use A65 going south-east. G Bingley Five-Rise (5 locks rising 60 feet) Awesome centrepiece of 5 sets of staircase locks within 5 miles of each other. In combination with 3 more staircases to the south, it was part of the bold attack on the slopes of the Pennines. There are 3 sets of two-rise plus 4 sets of three-rise plus Bingley five-rise, a total of 23 locks rising 155 feet over 16 miles from Kirkstall to the long pound past Skipton. From M62 J26, use M606 /A6177 /A650 going north.