Ripon Canal
Encyclopedia
The Ripon Canal is located in North Yorkshire
, England
. It was built by the canal engineer William Jessop
to link the city of Ripon
with the navigable section of the River Ure
at Oxclose lock, from where boats could reach York and Hull. It opened in 1773, and was a moderate success. It was sold to the Leeds and Thirsk Railway in 1847, and was effectively closed by 1906, due to neglect. It was not nationalised in 1948, and was abandoned in 1956.
In 1961, members of the Ripon Motor Boat Club formed the Ripon Canal Company Ltd, and gradually restored the canal up to Littlethorpe. Subsequently, the Ripon Canal Society spearheaded restoration, which was completed in 1996. It is now managed by British Waterways.
passed on 15 April 1767, and the canal was the final part of a larger plan to upgrade the River Ure
from its junction with the River Swale
to Oxclose, where the canal would leave the river and head for Ripon, some 2.3 miles (3.7 km) away. Below the Swale, the Ure becomes the River Ouse
, and so carriage of goods to and from York
and Hull
would be possible. The estimated cost of the whole project was £9,000, and the Act established Commissioners, who could borrow money in order to fund the development, although the total amount of money to be borrowed was not regulated by the Act. The works were designed to allow the passage of keels
along the waterway, which were 58 by
Work started on the lower sections first, which were progressively opened from 1767. The canal route was surveyed by William Jessop
, and work on its construction started in 1770, with Jessop acting as Engineer, supervised by John Smeaton
. The engineer overseeing the day to day operation was John Smith, and a masonry contractor from Halifax called Joshua Wilson was also employed. Construction was completed in early 1773, at a cost of £16,400, and regular services between Ripon and York started in February. The canal was fed with water by a feeder which left the Rivers Laver and Skell in Ripon. One of the primary purposes of the canal was the carriage of coal to Ripon, north from the Yorkshire coalfields, with lead
and agricultural produce moving in the opposite direction.
Trade on the canal grew steadily, but there were difficulties by the 1820s, as the commissioners had failed to repay the original loans, and interest totalling £11,450 had accrued on them. The original Commissioners had ceased to function, and so a group of creditors formed "The Company of Proprietors of the River Ure Navigation to Ripon", and obtained a second Act of Parliament on 23 June 1820, which gave them powers to raise £34,000 by the issuing of shares, with an extra £3,400 if needed. They were required to spend £3,000 on repairs within five years of the Act being issued.
Improvements were made, both as a result of the Act, and separately in 1838, which resulted in larger boats being able to negotiate the canal. Payloads increased from 30 tonnes in 1822 to 70 tonnes in the 1840s, when the navigation could accommodate boats drawing 4.5 feet (1.4 m) all the way to Ripon. It was never able to handle the Humber sloops, which ran as far as Boroughbridge, with their width of 15.8 feet (4.8 m) and draught of 6.5 feet (2 m).
Despite the railway from Darlington to York opening on 4 January 1841, which provided a way to bring coal from the Durham Coalfields south to York, the Aire and Calder Canal were shipping around 26,931 tonnes of coal per year along the Ure Navigation at the time, and the Company of Proprietors were making profits of £886 on an income of £2,013. Some of this traffic stopped at Boroughbridge on the River Ure, but a good proportion passed along the canal to Ripon.
Railway expansion was rapid, with the Leeds and Thirsk Railway becoming the Leeds Northern Railway, and then that becoming part of the North Eastern Railway in 1854. The navigation was neglected, and the lack of dredging resulted in boats having to be loaded with less cargo. There was a brief upturn in trade in the 1860s, but the decline continued after that. By 1892, no traffic proceeded past Boroughbridge, and the Ripon Canal was effectively disused. The first attempt to abandon the waterway was made by the North Eastern Railway in 1894, but local opposition prevented this action. It was then offered to the Corporation of York as a gift, but it was not accepted. The NER then took action to prevent the waterway above Boroughbridge being used, and the canal was reported to be impassable by 1906. The River Ouse, and therefore the canal, were not nationalised in 1948, when most British canals were, but with no traffic, the canal was officially abandoned in 1956, under the terms of the British Transport Commission Act of 1955.
managed to have the idea included into North Yorkshire County Council's "River Ure and Ouse Recreational Subject Plan". The Council suggested that a restoration society should push this forwards, and so the Ripon Canal Society was formed in 1983. The restoration was finally completed in 1996, and David Currey, MP declared it open at a ceremony held on 8 September. With their task completed, the Ripon Canal Society disbanded at their 1997 annual general meeting, donating the remains of their funds towards the repair of Linton Lock, lower down the River Ure. Management of the canal is now handled by British Waterways.
in 2002. The Lancaster Canal
is now considered to be part of the connected canal system, and Tewitfield, at its northern end, now qualifies for this accolade.
The canal terminates at a basin close to the centre of Ripon, where one of the warehouses has been restored. New housing on one side of the basin has been designed to fit in sympathetically, and there is some older housing on the other side. There are no moorings in the terminal basin itself, but short-term mooring is available just to the south. There is also a marina near Ripon Racecourse
. The canal is only 2.3 miles (3.7 km) long, and the entire length has a canalside walk, which utilises the towpath from Rhodesfield Lock to Oxclose Lock, although the towpath cannot be used by cyclists.
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was built by the canal engineer William Jessop
William Jessop
William Jessop was an English civil engineer, best known for his work on canals, harbours and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...
to link the city of Ripon
Ripon
Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located at the confluence of two streams of the River Ure in the form of the Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature the Ripon Cathedral which is architecturally...
with the navigable section of the River Ure
River Ure
The River Ure is a river in North Yorkshire, England, approximately long from its source to the point where it changes name to the River Ouse. It is the principal river of Wensleydale, which is the only one of the Dales now named after a village rather than its river...
at Oxclose lock, from where boats could reach York and Hull. It opened in 1773, and was a moderate success. It was sold to the Leeds and Thirsk Railway in 1847, and was effectively closed by 1906, due to neglect. It was not nationalised in 1948, and was abandoned in 1956.
In 1961, members of the Ripon Motor Boat Club formed the Ripon Canal Company Ltd, and gradually restored the canal up to Littlethorpe. Subsequently, the Ripon Canal Society spearheaded restoration, which was completed in 1996. It is now managed by British Waterways.
History
The building of the Ripon Canal was authorised by an Act of ParliamentAct of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
passed on 15 April 1767, and the canal was the final part of a larger plan to upgrade the River Ure
River Ure
The River Ure is a river in North Yorkshire, England, approximately long from its source to the point where it changes name to the River Ouse. It is the principal river of Wensleydale, which is the only one of the Dales now named after a village rather than its river...
from its junction with the River Swale
River Swale
The River Swale is a river in Yorkshire, England and a major tributary of the River Ure, which itself becomes the River Ouse, emptying into the North Sea via the Humber Estuary....
to Oxclose, where the canal would leave the river and head for Ripon, some 2.3 miles (3.7 km) away. Below the Swale, the Ure becomes the River Ouse
River Ouse, Yorkshire
The River Ouse is a river in North Yorkshire, England. The river is formed from the River Ure at Cuddy Shaw Reach near Linton-on-Ouse, about 6 miles downstream of the confluence of the River Swale with the River Ure...
, and so carriage of goods to and from York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
and Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
would be possible. The estimated cost of the whole project was £9,000, and the Act established Commissioners, who could borrow money in order to fund the development, although the total amount of money to be borrowed was not regulated by the Act. The works were designed to allow the passage of keels
Humber Keel
The Humber Keel was a type of sail craft used for inshore and inland cargo transport around Hull and the Humber Estuary, in the United Kingdom, particularly through the late 19th and early 20th centuries....
along the waterway, which were 58 by
Work started on the lower sections first, which were progressively opened from 1767. The canal route was surveyed by William Jessop
William Jessop
William Jessop was an English civil engineer, best known for his work on canals, harbours and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...
, and work on its construction started in 1770, with Jessop acting as Engineer, supervised by John Smeaton
John Smeaton
John Smeaton, FRS, was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist...
. The engineer overseeing the day to day operation was John Smith, and a masonry contractor from Halifax called Joshua Wilson was also employed. Construction was completed in early 1773, at a cost of £16,400, and regular services between Ripon and York started in February. The canal was fed with water by a feeder which left the Rivers Laver and Skell in Ripon. One of the primary purposes of the canal was the carriage of coal to Ripon, north from the Yorkshire coalfields, with lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
and agricultural produce moving in the opposite direction.
Trade on the canal grew steadily, but there were difficulties by the 1820s, as the commissioners had failed to repay the original loans, and interest totalling £11,450 had accrued on them. The original Commissioners had ceased to function, and so a group of creditors formed "The Company of Proprietors of the River Ure Navigation to Ripon", and obtained a second Act of Parliament on 23 June 1820, which gave them powers to raise £34,000 by the issuing of shares, with an extra £3,400 if needed. They were required to spend £3,000 on repairs within five years of the Act being issued.
Improvements were made, both as a result of the Act, and separately in 1838, which resulted in larger boats being able to negotiate the canal. Payloads increased from 30 tonnes in 1822 to 70 tonnes in the 1840s, when the navigation could accommodate boats drawing 4.5 feet (1.4 m) all the way to Ripon. It was never able to handle the Humber sloops, which ran as far as Boroughbridge, with their width of 15.8 feet (4.8 m) and draught of 6.5 feet (2 m).
Despite the railway from Darlington to York opening on 4 January 1841, which provided a way to bring coal from the Durham Coalfields south to York, the Aire and Calder Canal were shipping around 26,931 tonnes of coal per year along the Ure Navigation at the time, and the Company of Proprietors were making profits of £886 on an income of £2,013. Some of this traffic stopped at Boroughbridge on the River Ure, but a good proportion passed along the canal to Ripon.
Decline
1844 marked a turning point for the canal. The Leeds and Thirsk Railway Company wanted to build their railway, and sought to buy the Ure Navigation, and hence the canal, in order to gain local support for their plans, and hopefully to reduce the potential opposition to their bill in parliament. The sale was agreed between the two Boards, and the railway Company's shareholders endorsed the decision in January 1845. An Act of Parliament to authorise the railway was obtained in July 1845, and the Navigation was bought for £34,577 in January 1846, although only £16,297 was paid in cash. The Act required the railway Company to keep the navigation open and in good order.Railway expansion was rapid, with the Leeds and Thirsk Railway becoming the Leeds Northern Railway, and then that becoming part of the North Eastern Railway in 1854. The navigation was neglected, and the lack of dredging resulted in boats having to be loaded with less cargo. There was a brief upturn in trade in the 1860s, but the decline continued after that. By 1892, no traffic proceeded past Boroughbridge, and the Ripon Canal was effectively disused. The first attempt to abandon the waterway was made by the North Eastern Railway in 1894, but local opposition prevented this action. It was then offered to the Corporation of York as a gift, but it was not accepted. The NER then took action to prevent the waterway above Boroughbridge being used, and the canal was reported to be impassable by 1906. The River Ouse, and therefore the canal, were not nationalised in 1948, when most British canals were, but with no traffic, the canal was officially abandoned in 1956, under the terms of the British Transport Commission Act of 1955.
Restoration
Although an attempt by the British Transport Commission to sell the canal to Ripon Corporation in 1952 had been declined, closure of the canal was unpopular locally, and such opposition prevented the canal from being filled in. In 1961, the Ripon Canal Company Ltd was formed, consisting largely of people who were part of the Ripon Motor Boat Club, with the intention of leasing the canal, and gradually re-opening it. The lower half from Oxclose lock to Littlethorpe was finally restored to use 25 years later. To assist with the restoration of the section from Littlethorpe Lock to Ripon, the Inland Waterways AssociationInland Waterways Association
The Inland Waterways Association was formed in 1946 as a registered charity in the United Kingdom to campaign for the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and sensitive development of British Canals and river navigations....
managed to have the idea included into North Yorkshire County Council's "River Ure and Ouse Recreational Subject Plan". The Council suggested that a restoration society should push this forwards, and so the Ripon Canal Society was formed in 1983. The restoration was finally completed in 1996, and David Currey, MP declared it open at a ceremony held on 8 September. With their task completed, the Ripon Canal Society disbanded at their 1997 annual general meeting, donating the remains of their funds towards the repair of Linton Lock, lower down the River Ure. Management of the canal is now handled by British Waterways.
Features
Ripon was said to be the most northerly point of the connected British canal system, a claim which has been affected by the opening of the Ribble LinkRibble Link
The Millennium Ribble Link is a Linear Water Park and new navigation which links the once-isolated Lancaster Canal in Lancashire, England to the River Ribble...
in 2002. The Lancaster Canal
Lancaster Canal
The Lancaster Canal is a canal in the north of England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria...
is now considered to be part of the connected canal system, and Tewitfield, at its northern end, now qualifies for this accolade.
The canal terminates at a basin close to the centre of Ripon, where one of the warehouses has been restored. New housing on one side of the basin has been designed to fit in sympathetically, and there is some older housing on the other side. There are no moorings in the terminal basin itself, but short-term mooring is available just to the south. There is also a marina near Ripon Racecourse
Ripon Racecourse
Ripon Racecourse is a thoroughbred horse racing venue located in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England. It has been used for horse racing for more than 300 years and is nicknamed the Garden Racecourse. The course is a right-handed oval of approximately 1m5f with a 5f finishing straight and a 6f chute...
. The canal is only 2.3 miles (3.7 km) long, and the entire length has a canalside walk, which utilises the towpath from Rhodesfield Lock to Oxclose Lock, although the towpath cannot be used by cyclists.
Points of interest
See also
- Canals of the United KingdomCanals of the United KingdomThe canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a colourful history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the Industrial Revolution, to today's role for recreational boating...
- History of the British canal systemHistory of the British canal systemThe British canal system of water transport played a vital role in the United Kingdom's Industrial Revolution at a time when roads were only just emerging from the medieval mud and long trains of pack horses were the only means of "mass" transit by road of raw materials and finished products The...
External links
- http://www.ripon-internet.com/Businesses/92.html - Ripon Canal basin page
- http://www.ripon.co.uk/history/townandcity.html - Ripon local History