During the latter half of the 18h century, trade was increasing in the Yorkshire towns of Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield. Though transport links to the east were fine for Leeds, through the Aire and Calder Navigation, links to the west were poor. In between both these cities, there was a wealth of manufacturers wanting improved transport links. Inspired by the recently opened Bridgewater Canal opened in a canal crossing the Pennines and linking Liverpool and Hull by means of the Aire and Calder Navigation would be the obvious solution and carry many trade benefits.
On 2 nd July , a meeting was held at the Sun Inn, Bradford, to suggest that this canal be built. John Longbotham was engaged to survey a route and two groups were set up to promote the scheme, one Bradford based and the other Liverpool based.
Once the first route was proposed the Liverpool committee was unhappy with the route. Old, penniless and with no means of support, he begged them to let him have a small amount as a stipend. The Committee agreed to think things over, but it was the following spring before anyone was sent to see the old engineer, only to find he had died in the winter.
It was a sad end for a man who gave us one of the most remarkable engineering works of the age: the Bingley Five. A new engineer, Richard Owen, was appointed, but by all work ground to a halt as the company had run out of money. Work languished for eight years before Robert Whitworth was called in to prepare an estimate for finishing the canal.
The new line certainly called for major engineering works, especially the massive embankment that carried the canal at Burnley. A new Act was obtained, work restarted, engineers came and went and the costs kept rising. A new branch was authorised to run from the Bridgewater Canal through Leigh to join the main line at Wigan. Whitworth died in with the canal still far from complete. His successor Samuel Fletcher finally saw it through to completion.
The mill at Saltaire - Credit: Martin Ludgate. The canal was a success, thanks to a steady demand for coal for the steam-powered mills lining the route and encouraged entrepreneurs to build new mills along its banks. This happened not only in existing mill towns, but in once quiet market towns such as Skipton. The most spectacular development came in the late 19th century when Sir Titus Salt established his vast new mill beside the canal and built the town of Saltaire to house his workforce.
Unlike many others, the canal continued to thrive in the railway age, until the First World War. In the first rush of patriotic fervour, young boatmen signed up and the canals found themselves short staffed. But instead of bringing enlisted boatmen back to the waterways, they trained new recruits in the techniques of boat handling.
Soon boat crews were arriving on the northern canal. Passenger traffic on the canal was another source of commerce, with packet boats operating until the s and recreational journeys increasing thereafter. Regular traffic over the summit stopped in and over the main line in , coal transport ceased in Restoration of the canal near Bradford took place in British Waterways completed the 2.
Drought conditions that depleted the canal's supply reservoirs to around one tenth normal capacity forced the closure of 96km between Wigan and Gargrave in August Elsewhere on the canal, lock opening was restricted to conserve water levels. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal was the first of the Trans-Pennine canals to be started and the last to be completed. The length and the complexity of the route meant that the canal took 46 years to build at a cost of five times the original budget.
The canal originates from a proposal in to construct a canal from Preston to Leeds to carry woollen goods from Leeds and Bradford and limestone from Skipton. Prospective backers in Lancashire argued for the canal to start from Liverpool.
In , the first part to open was the lock-free section from Skipton to Bingley. In , the canal was open between Liverpool, Parbold and Gathurst, near Wigan, and from Leeds to Gargrave, including the branch to Bradford. However, at this point all the funds had been spent and work came to a halt. By enough money was found to complete the branch to Wigan and the branch to Rufford.
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