Went Aqueduct

Went Aqueduct
New Junction Canal


The New Junction Canal has aqueducts at both ends - not bad for a waterway which is barely five miles long.

Went Aqueduct

In my last post I looked at the Don Aqueduct but this time I turn my attention a few miles north to the Went Aqueduct, its no less substantial alter ego. True, it dosn't have those impressive guillotine gates but as a structure it is very similar. The same oversize steel channel with water so deep the base is obliged to lie in the water below.

Don Aqueduct

Don Aqueduct
New Junction Canal


Of all the aqueducts on the UK's Inland Waterways network, this is probably the big daddy of them all.


I knew very little of the New Junction Canal till we turned onto it from the Stainforth and Keadby and suddenly, there it was. A huge great lump of an aqueduct carrying the commercial sized NJC over the River Don. The canal it carries is so large and so deep that the immense cassion goes pretty much down to the river's surface, leaving the water to flow under it like a sump.

River Don Aqueduct, South Yorkshire

But its not only its size which is impressive. Each end is guarded with an immense guillotine gate which ads enormously to its grandeur as you approach it from the water. 

Don Aqueduct with its belly hanging into the waters below

The aqueduct also serves as an overspill, with surplus water cascading over its sides into the Don below. The sides of the aqueduct bear testimony to the weights involved, sagging down bewteen the supports.

Don Aqueduct with its undulating edge.

Tame Aqueduct

Tame Aqueduct
Huddersfield Narrow Canal


Just to the west of Stalybridge you come to the last (or first depending on your line of travel) aqueduct on the Huddersfield Narrrow.


Its a precarious iron trough carrying the navigation channel over the River Tame but unusually it has a parallel stone bridge to carry the towpath.

Tame Aqueduct, Stalybridge

Royal George Aqueduct

Royal George Aqueduct
Huddersfield Narrow Canal


Lying just to the west of Uppermill is the Royal George Aqueduct - one which nearly got away.

Royal George Aqueduct

The rain was slipping down but eased off just enough to let me slide down the bank and grab a single photo before the heavens opened again and I had to hastily tuck my camera inside my waterproofs.

Old Sag Aqueduct

Old Sag Aqueduct Dobcross
Huddersfield Narrow Canal

Just to the east of the Dobcross Transhipment Warehouse lies Old Sag Aqueduct which carries the canal over Diggle Brook.

Right from the start this aqueduct suffered and the profile of its arch distorted under the weight of water it carried. Like a weebil, it wobbled but didnt fall down, bending but stabilising itself. When the canal was reopened it was repaired using a new steel liner, but the peculiar sag was left in place. 

Old Sag Aqueduct, Dobcross

Colne Aqueduct

Colne Aqueduct
Huddersfield Narrow Canal

Having crossed to the southern side of the River Colne just north of Huddersfield, the canal now switches back to the north side, just above a pretty weir which serves as a swimming hole for the locals.

 Colne Aqueduct

River Colne

Paddock Foot Aqueduct

Paddock Foot Aqueduct

Huddersfield Narrow Canal
Update August 2011
2011 saw a return visit to the HNC, this time tackling it from the eastern end. Vegetation growth prevented me getting a better shot of the north side of Paddock Foot, but I did get an image of the south face, complete with a water cascade which is a result of a very leaky adjacent lock chamber.

Paddock Foot Aqueduct Huddersfield

Carries the Hudersfield Narrow Canal over the River Colne and into a lock of the same name, overlooked by a stunning railway viadict on the outskirts of Huddersfield.
Built around 1811 and closed to navigation in 1944, when the canal was abandoned. Reopened in 2001as part of the HNC restoration project.
Is located at the end of an impossibly filthy and shallow pound. Good luck to all who sail along it (the rest of the canal is fab!).

The Captain's own collection

Stanley Ferry Aqueducts

Stanley Ferry Aqueducts

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.

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.