Aire and Calder Navigation
Update August 2011
We finally made it to the Yorkshire navigations and crossed the new aqueduct en route to Huddersfield. Of Course, we just had to stop whilst I grabbed some photos of my own.
Its difficult to reach these far flung aqueducts from a Midlands base, so it is always a pleasure when a fellow blogger manages to get a really good photo, and then kindly allows me to add it to my collection.
I have nb Gypsy Rover to thank for this excellent view of the original Stanley Ferry Aqueduct, a cast iron marvel built in 1839 to cross the River Calder. Technically it is a version of a compression arch suspended deck bridge, which is built on the same lines as the Sydney Harbour Bridge - but much more exciting because it carries 940 tons of water rather than boring old cars.
Whilst is may be nowhere as big as it's antipodean relative, it is none the less a world record holder in that it is the longest cast iron structure of its kind, measuring in at 165 ft long, 28ft wide and 8ft 6in deep, to accommodate the serious commercial traffic which used to operate in the area.
The structure is built around two huge cast iron arches from which the trough is suspended using 35 2 1/4in cast iron hangers, cast at the Milton Ironworks and designed by George Leather.
This site has something of a bonus in the form of a second pre stressed concrete aqueduct, built in 1981 to carry traffic whilst the original was being renovated. This second aqueduct may be a poor cousin in the aesthetics stakes, but it is unusual to see two operating aqueducts running side by side.
Update August 2011
We finally made it to the Yorkshire navigations and crossed the new aqueduct en route to Huddersfield. Of Course, we just had to stop whilst I grabbed some photos of my own.
The old Stanley Ferry Aqueduct
and the new one
Stanley Ferry moorings
Its difficult to reach these far flung aqueducts from a Midlands base, so it is always a pleasure when a fellow blogger manages to get a really good photo, and then kindly allows me to add it to my collection.
I have nb Gypsy Rover to thank for this excellent view of the original Stanley Ferry Aqueduct, a cast iron marvel built in 1839 to cross the River Calder. Technically it is a version of a compression arch suspended deck bridge, which is built on the same lines as the Sydney Harbour Bridge - but much more exciting because it carries 940 tons of water rather than boring old cars.
Whilst is may be nowhere as big as it's antipodean relative, it is none the less a world record holder in that it is the longest cast iron structure of its kind, measuring in at 165 ft long, 28ft wide and 8ft 6in deep, to accommodate the serious commercial traffic which used to operate in the area.
The structure is built around two huge cast iron arches from which the trough is suspended using 35 2 1/4in cast iron hangers, cast at the Milton Ironworks and designed by George Leather.
This site has something of a bonus in the form of a second pre stressed concrete aqueduct, built in 1981 to carry traffic whilst the original was being renovated. This second aqueduct may be a poor cousin in the aesthetics stakes, but it is unusual to see two operating aqueducts running side by side.
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