Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/145

CALDER AND HEBBLE NAVIGATION. shall take place in the rates, in the year following the payment of more than ten per cent, in the proportion of two shillings and sixpence in the pound upon all such surplus.

Millers are required to stop their mills, when the water is reduced 18 inches below the crown of the dam.

Mr. Smeaton was again directed to view the Calder, by the new proprietors, with reference to the repairing and perfecting the navigation; and he accordingly reported on it in December, 1770, the year after the obtaining of the act. In February, 1779, he again examined the river and suggested several improvements, which were carried into immediate execution.

The Calder and Hebble Navigation, from its junction with the Aire and Calder Navigation at Fall Ing Lock, to the basin at Sowerby Wharf; where it communicates with the Rochdale Canal, is twenty-two miles in length, with a fall of 192 feet 6 inches, by twenty-eight locks.

A considerable portion of the line of this navigation occupies the original course of the river, and the remainder consists of cuts, to avoid the circuitous course of the river, and for the purpose of passing the mill weirs. It was first projected with the sole object of giving greater facilities to the populous manufacturing district situate westward of the town of Wakefield; but it has subsequently, by its connection with the Rochdale and Huddersfield Canals, become a very important part of the line of inland navigation between the ports of Liverpool, Goole and Hull, thus connecting the German Ocean and the Irish Sea.

For many years a considerable portion of the manufactures of Manchester and Rochdale were brought, by land carriage, across the grand ridge, to this navigation at Sowerby Bridge Wharf; but when the Rochdale and the Huddersfield Canals were opened, the increase to the revenues of this navigation was such, as to enable the proprietors to divide fourteen per cent, notwithstanding the prohibitory clause in the act of 9th George III. besides accumulating a considerable fund for any exigency. The country through which it passes has also partaken of the great advantages arising from a well regulated navigation. Agricultural lime has, by its means, been carried to fertilize a sterile and mountainous district; stone and flag quarries have been opened in its vicinity,