The Aire and Calder Navigation - History

The Aire and Calder Navigation is based on improvements to the rivers Aire and Calder with a first Act of Parilament in 1699 referring to a navigation running from the River Ouse at Airmyn via Castleford then to Leeds and  the river Calder from Castleford to Wakefield,. Thus connecting Leeds and Wakefield  to the North Sea for purposes of coastal navigation and access to the continental markets, plus other inland waterways, as the system developed.

John Hadley was the engineer and the first improvements were completed by 1704, this consisting of a a series of locks and weirs which included 12 locks between Haddesley and Leeds with another four completed on the Calder. These were 14’6” to 15’ wide 58 to 60 foot long and 3’6” deep allowing for the passage of barges  (about 14’ wide )passing singly  through the lock or narrow boats ( about 7’ wide) in pairs. This was to service the wool trade and woollen goods from Leeds Wakefield Halifax and Bradford. Wool would be coming in from Lincolnshire and East Anglia together with cereals and other goods necessary to support the textile manufactures in these cities. Woollen goods would be exported via the coast and waterways.

 Further  improvements were made in the 18th Century effectively straightening the navigation by providing short cuts across some of the more circuitous routes, the Engineers in charge being John Seaton and William Jessop/ This work included the 6 mile Selby canal which effectively made redundant plans by the Leeds and Liverpool company for an extension of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to Selby.

1826 saw the development of a wide canal from Knottingley to which bypassed the Selby canal meeting the Ouse well downstream of Selby and establishing goole as an inland port serviceable by  sea going vessels coming up the Humber. This resulted in a considerable demise in trade through Selby , which had formerly boomed. 

1905 saw the New Junction Canal connecting  the Aire and Calder to the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation near Stainforth.

In the 1980’s further improvements were made with an extensive modernisation of the Navigation to allow it to accommodate the Euro-barge standard, requiring the locks to be 200’ x 20’, though the Wakefield section remains at 142’ x 17’8”. The anticipated traffic from Rotterdam never actually materialised in the originally hoped for tonnages, so presumably this is why things were left there.

The Aire and Calder still links Leeds and Wakefield with York and the Humber, from where it also makes the connection with the Trent giving access to the midland waterways by that route. The Aire and Calder also joins the Leeds and Liverpool Canals at Leeds giving a connection to Liverpool, the Trent and Mersey, the Welsh Canals and a vast range of other waterways, increasingly used by holiday traffic.