The canal appears to have been planned for some time before it was authorised, as the
Calder and Hebble Navigation obtained an
act of Parliament, the
Calder and Hebble Navigation Act 1757 (
31 Geo. 2. c. 72), for its canal in 1758, which included a clause to prevent interference with any future navigation
"from the Mouth of the River Coln to the town of Huddersfield". In 1766, Robert Whitworth surveyed a route for such a canal, and the
Calder and Hebble Navigation Act 1769 (
9 Geo. 3. c. 71) contained a similar clause. A second survey was carried out in 1773 by Luke Holt and Joseph Atkinson for the
Ramsden family, who owned the whole of Huddersfield at the time and keen to develop the canal. The family also owned roughly one-third of the land along the proposed route of the canal. Holt had worked on the construction of the Calder and Hebble above Cooper Bridge. Atkinson presented evidence for the
bill to the parliamentary committee, being somewhat less than truthful when he stated that Huddersfield was 'the only market for narrow woolen cloths' in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The estimated cost of its construction was £8,000, and it was expected to take one year to complete. Profits were limited by the act, which stipulated that the tolls must be cut as the profits increased. Commissioners were to be appointed, with powers to examine the canal accounts and ensure compliance. In order to prevent water drawn by the canal from interfering with the operation of local mills, the upper were made deeper than the rest of the canal, to provide a reservoir of water.
Construction The canal was authorised by an
act of Parliament, the '''''' (
14 Geo. 3. c. 13), obtained on 9 March 1774, which enabled "
Sir John Ramsden, Baronet, to make and maintain a navigable Canal from the River Calder, between a Bridge called Cooper's Bridge, and the Mouth of the River Colne to the King's Mill, near the town of Huddersfleld, in the West Riding of the county of York". Sir John was Lord of the Manor of Huddersfield, and proprietor of the
Ramsden Estate that owned much of the town. Although a connection to the
River Colne at Huddersfield was authorised by the act, the upper terminus was a basin at Apsley, where Ramsden built wharves and warehouses. even after the Huddersfield Narrow opened throughout in 1811. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal provided a heavily-locked western connection to the wool-weaving towns of the upper Colne valley, (
Golcar,
Linthwaite,
Slaithwaite, and
Marsden) and across the Pennines to
Saddleworth,
Stalybridge and
Manchester via Standedge Tunnel. It was never particularly successful, and Ramsden's Canal was seen almost as a branch of the Calder and Hebble, with links to Yorkshire, rather than Lancashire. The Calder and Hebble brought prosperity to the area, and Ramsden's Canal shared in it. The Narrow Canal was hampered by the need to tranship cargoes at Huddersfield. Their boats were , the same as those on the connecting
Ashton Canal and
Peak Forest Canal at the Manchester end. However, they were too long to fit through the shorter locks of Ramsden's Canal and the Calder and Hebble. In 1812 they built a narrowboat, which could work through to Wakefield, but it carried a smaller cargo. The company tried unsuccessfully to get the Calder and Hebble to entend their locks to cater for longer boats. Had they succeeded, locks on Ramsden's Canal would have needed lengthening.
Railway ownership The canal passed into railway ownership in 1845 when it was bought by the
Huddersfield and Manchester Railway and Canal Company for £46,560. The company was incorporated in 1845 and had already the
Huddersfield Narrow Canal primarily to aid in the construction of a cross-Pennine rail link at
Standedge. The railway company became part of the
London and North Western Railway (LNWR) in 1847, and the negotiations meant that shareholders received 70 per cent of the dividends paid on shares in the LNWR. In the year of the LNWR takeover, the canal carried 120,207 tons of cargo, but this gradually declined. An attempted revival of trade to Manchester in 1856, spearheaded by the Aire and Calder Navigation after a railway company took over the Rochdale Canal, foundered when the LNWR created obstacles to using Standedge Tunnel. The Aire and Calder negotiated the expansion of Huddersfield Wharf in 1872, and leased the original and extended wharves in 1873, installing hydraulic hoists two years later. At around this time, the LNWR began selling canal water, reportedly per day according to the
Huddersfield Chronicle. Trade held up well, with some 75,000 tons passing between the Calder and Hebble and Ramsden's Canal in the 1890s, of which about one quarter transferred to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. By 1905, this had fallen to 54,580, of which one fifth passed onto the narrow canal.
The leisure era The Calder and Hebble Canal company bought Ramsden's Canal on 1 January 1945, in an agreement with the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway company. They paid £4,000 which included a short length of the Narrow Canal, and the rest of that canal was abandoned. The canal was used to carry coal to a power station, and was used by some 80 barges each month. Along with most of the operating British canals, it was nationalised on 1 January 1948. The coal traffic ended in October 1953, and was the last commercial traffic to use the canal. With the passing of the
Transport Act 1962 responsibility passed from the
British Transport Commission to
British Waterways. Under the terms of the Transport Act 1968, the canal was classified as a cruiseway, meaning that it had a future for leisure use. In 2012, responsibility passed to the
Canal and River Trust. ==Current state==