Leeds - Liverpool Canal

This was my first visit to Al's new flat in the centre of Leeds - it overlooks the Leeds-Liverpool Canal - very nice.

We decided to explore the canal and walk for about 5 miles along the tow path to Rodley Nature Reserve

In the mid-18th century the growing towns of Yorkshire including Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford, were trading increasingly. While the Aire and Calder Navigation improved links to the east for Leeds, links to the west were limited. Bradford merchants wanted to increase the supply of limestone to make lime for mortar and agriculture using coal from Bradford's collieries and to transport textiles to the Port of Liverpool.

On the west coast, traders in the busy port of Liverpool wanted a cheap supply of coal for their shipping and manufacturing businesses and to tap the output from the industrial regions of Lancashire. Inspired by the effectiveness of the wholly artificial navigation, the Bridgewater Canal opened in 1759–60. A canal across the Pennines linking Liverpool and Hull (by means of the Aire and Calder Navigation) would have obvious trade benefits.

A public meeting took place at the Sun Inn in Bradford on 2 July 1766 to promote the building of such a canal. The canal took almost 40 years to complete.

At 127 miles long, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal is said to be the longest single canal in England constructed by one company, but it is shorter than the Grand Union Canal which was made up of many smaller canals merged together. The Leeds Liverpool Canal passes through 91 locks with a summit level of 487 feet and includes the southern part of the Lancaster Canal between Johnsons Hillock and Wigan Top Lock.

Kirkstall Abbey is a ruined Cistercian monastery north-west of Leeds city centre in West Yorkshire. It is set in a public park on the north bank of the River Aire. It was founded c.1152 and was disestablished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under the auspices of Henry VIII.

The picturesque ruins have been drawn and painted by artists such as J.M.W. Turner, Thomas Girtin and John Sell Cotman. The Abbey was acquired by Leeds Corporation as a gift from Colonel North and opened to the public in the late 19th century. The gatehouse became a museum.

 

Rodley Nature Reserve is designed to bring wetland wildlife back into the Leeds area.

Created on a floodplain in Kirkstall Valley, a recognised 'flyway' for wildfowl and waders on migration, the wetland habitats constructed here complement the nearby River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

See Rodley Nature Reserve for more details