Page "Calder and Hebble Navigation" Paragraph 18

The importance of the Calder and Hebble as a through route makes one notorious feature of the canal very significant: its short locks.

The canal is a " wide " navigation, meaning that its locks are wide enough for wide-beamed boats, but its shortest locks are amongst the shortest on the connected network of English and Welsh inland waterways, with only the Ripon Canal having locks of a similarly restricted length.

The canal was built to accept Yorkshire Keels coming up the Aire and Calder Navigation.

The locks on the Aire and Calder and the lower Calder and Hebble ( below Broad Cut Locks at Calder Grove ) have since been lengthened, and can accommodate boats which are 120 ft by 17. 5 ft ( 36. 6m x 5. 3m ), but the shortest locks on the upper Calder and Hebble force boats longer than about to lie diagonally in the locks.

This is only possible for narrowboats, so is the maximum length for a wide-beamed barge on the C & H.

Even for a narrowboat ( less than beam ) the maximum possible length is about ( which is shorter than a full-length English narrowboat ).

Narrowboats approaching can only be squeezed through the shorter locks, even when lying diagonally, by expedients such as removing fenders, having shore parties pole the boat into position, and going down locks backwards.

In particular, an inexperienced crew of any boat longer than about might find it impossible to negotiate the middle lock of the " Salterhebble Three ", which is the shortest of all.

The C & H Navigation, and the Salterhebble locks in particular, thus define the maximum length of a go-anywhere English narrowboat.

( Note that other factors can restrict the places to which a boat can reach: for instance, boats with a high cabin top, or with insufficient tumblehome may not be able to fit into Standedge Tunnel at the summit of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal ).