Aire and Calder Navigation (Main Line - Goole to Castleford)

The maximum dimensions for a boat to be able to travel on the waterway are 200 feet long and 20 feet wide. The maximum headroom is 11 feet and 10 inches. The maximum draught is 8 feet and 2 inches.
It has junctions with the Aire and Calder Navigation (Selby Section) at Bank Dole Junction and with the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation (New Junction Canal) at Sykehouse Junction.
The navigational authority for this waterway is Canal & River TrustRelevant publications — Waterway Maps:
- Waterway Routes 01M - England and Wales Map
- Waterway Routes 13M - Aire and Calder and Calder and Hebble Navigations Map (Downloadable)
Relevant publications — Waterway Guides:
Ouse - Aire and Calder Junction Junction of the River Ouse (Yorkshire) with the Aire and Calder Navigation. |
|||
Ocean Lock No 13 Access to the River Ouse |
1¼ furlongs | 0 locks | |
North Docks Access to four large basins and a large sea lock |
1¾ furlongs | 1 lock | |
South Dock Bridge Access to Goole |
3¼ furlongs | 1 lock | |
South Dock Basins | 4¼ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Goole Marina Goole Marina formally known as Goole Boat House |
6¾ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Viking Marina | 7½ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Dutch Riverside | 1 mile and ¼ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Dutch Riverside Aqueduct | 1 mile and 1¾ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Dutch Narrows This is a lock gate which closes when a train is going over Doncaster Line Railway Bridge. |
1 mile and 1¾ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Doncaster Line Pipe Bridge | 1 mile and 2 furlongs | 1 lock | |
Doncaster Line Railway Bridge | 1 mile and 2¼ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Doncaster Line Narrows | 1 mile and 3¼ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Rawcliffe Bridge Aqueduct No 3 | 2 miles and ¼ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Rawcliffe Bridge Aqueduct No 2 | 2 miles and 4¼ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Rawcliffe Bridge Aqueduct No 1 | 2 miles and 6 furlongs | 1 lock | |
Rawcliffe Pipe Bridge | 3 miles and 1 furlong | 1 lock | |
Rawcliffe Bridge Wharf | 3 miles and 1¾ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Rawcliffe Bridge | 3 miles and 3 furlongs | 1 lock | |
M62 - M18 Motorway Bridge No 22 | 4 miles and 3½ furlongs | 1 lock | |
New Bridge (Aire and Calder Navigation) | 5 miles and 3¾ furlongs | 1 lock | |
New Bridge Aqueduct | 5 miles and 4½ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Beever's Bridge | 6 miles and 3¾ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Sykehouse Junction Junction of Aire and Calder (Main Line) and Sheffield and South Yorkshire New Junction Canal |
7 miles and 1½ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Site of Balne Croft Lane Bridge | 8 miles and 3½ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Crowcroft Bridge | 8 miles and 7¼ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Pollington Visitor Mooring | 9 miles and 2 furlongs | 1 lock | |
Pollington Manor Swing Bridge | 9 miles and 2½ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Pollington Lock No 13 | 9 miles and 3½ furlongs | 1 lock | |
Pollington Bridge | 9 miles and 5¼ furlongs | 2 locks | |
Heck Railway Bridge No 20 | 10 miles and 7½ furlongs | 2 locks | |
Heck Bridge Marina | 11 miles and 4¼ furlongs | 2 locks | |
Heck Bridge With pipe bridge alongside |
11 miles and 5¼ furlongs | 2 locks | |
Whitley Lock Visitor Moorings | 13 miles | 2 locks | |
Whitley Lock No 12 | 13 miles and ½ furlongs | 2 locks | |
Whitley M62 Bridge No 19 | 13 miles and 1½ furlongs | 3 locks | |
A19 Whitley Bridge |
13 miles and 4½ furlongs | 3 locks | |
Whitley Pipe Bridge | 13 miles and 5¾ furlongs | 3 locks | |
Selby Road Bridge | 13 miles and 6¼ furlongs | 3 locks | |
Whitley Bridge | 13 miles and 6½ furlongs | 3 locks | |
Stubbs Pipe Bridge Whitley Pipe Bridge |
14 miles and 6¼ furlongs | 3 locks | |
Stubbs Bridge Bridge 11 |
15 miles and 4 furlongs | 3 locks | |
Kellingley Railway Bridge Bridge 16 |
15 miles and 7 furlongs | 3 locks | |
Kellingley Bridge With pipe bridge alongside |
16 miles and 2 furlongs | 3 locks | |
Wheeland Road Skew Bridge | 16 miles and 7 furlongs | 3 locks | |
Bank Dole Junction Junction of the Aire and Calder Navigation (Selby Section) and the Aire and Calder Navigation (Main Line) |
17 miles | 3 locks | |
Shepherds Bridge | 17 miles and 1 furlong | 3 locks | |
Cow Lane Bridge Knottingley |
17 miles and 2¼ furlongs | 3 locks | |
Jackson's Bridge No 22 | 17 miles and 4¼ furlongs | 3 locks | |
Gaggs Bridge | 17 miles and 5½ furlongs | 3 locks | |
Forge Hill Lane Bridge | 18 miles | 3 locks | |
Mill Bridge Wharf | 18 miles and 1½ furlongs | 3 locks | |
Ferrybridge Flood Lock No 11 | 18 miles and 4½ furlongs | 3 locks | |
Ferrybridge Flood Lock Footbridge | 18 miles and 4¾ furlongs | 4 locks | |
Ferrybridge Weir Entrance Channel leading to the Weir |
18 miles and 5 furlongs | 4 locks | |
Ferrybridge Bypass Bridge | 18 miles and 5½ furlongs | 4 locks | |
Old Great North Road Bridge | 18 miles and 5¾ furlongs | 4 locks | |
Ferrybridge Railway Bridge | 19 miles and 2¼ furlongs | 4 locks | |
Power Station Pipe Bridge | 19 miles and 5¼ furlongs | 4 locks | |
Ferrybridge Wharf | 19 miles and 6¼ furlongs | 4 locks | |
A1(M) Motorway Bridge | 20 miles and 2½ furlongs | 4 locks | |
Fairburn Railway Bridge | 20 miles and 5 furlongs | 4 locks | |
Fryston Basin | 21 miles and 2½ furlongs | 4 locks | |
Fairburn Ings Basin | 22 miles and 6½ furlongs | 4 locks | |
Bulholme Lock Railway Bridge | 23 miles and 1¼ furlongs | 4 locks | |
Bulholme Lock Weir Exit Channel leading to the Weir |
23 miles and 2 furlongs | 4 locks | |
Bulholme Lock No 10 C&RT key needed to operate this lock |
23 miles and 2¼ furlongs | 4 locks | |
Castleford Cut Visitor Moorings | 23 miles and 4 furlongs | 5 locks | |
Site of Castleford Lock (leading to River Aire) Infilled |
23 miles and 5¼ furlongs | 5 locks | |
C&RT Castleford Maintenance Yard | 23 miles and 5¾ furlongs | 5 locks | |
Supreme Marine Boatyard and drydock |
23 miles and 6 furlongs | 5 locks | |
The Griffin PH | 23 miles and 6¼ furlongs | 5 locks | |
Barnsdale Road Bridge | 23 miles and 6¼ furlongs | 5 locks | |
Castleford Sanitary Station | 23 miles and 7 furlongs | 5 locks | |
Castleford Flood Lock No 9 C&RT key needed to operate this lock |
23 miles and 7½ furlongs | 5 locks | |
Castleford Junction Footbridge (closed) Although it's closed to pedestrians it's still a footbridge!! |
23 miles and 7¾ furlongs | 6 locks | |
Castleford Junction Junction of the Aire and Calder Navigation (Wakefield Section) and the Aire and Calder Navigation (Main Line) |
24 miles | 6 locks |
- Goole Marina — associated with Goole Marina
- Goole Marina Website
Wikipedia has a page about Aire and Calder Navigation
The Aire and Calder Navigation is the canalised section of the Rivers Aire and Calder in West Yorkshire, England. The first improvements to the rivers above Knottingley were completed in 1704 when the Aire was made navigable to Leeds and the Calder to Wakefield, by the construction of 16 locks. Lock sizes were increased several times, as was the depth of water, to enable larger boats to use the system. The Aire below Haddlesey was bypassed by the opening of the Selby Canal in 1778. A canal from Knottingley to the new docks and new town at Goole provided a much shorter route to the River Ouse from 1826. The New Junction Canal was constructed in 1905, to link the system to the River Don Navigation, by then part of the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation.
Steam tugs were introduced in 1831. In the 1860s, compartment boats were introduced, later called Tom Puddings, from which coal was unloaded into ships by large hydraulic hoists. This system enabled the canal to carry at its peak more than 1.5 million tons of coal per year, and was not abandoned until 1986. To handle trains of compartments, many of the locks were lengthened to 450 feet (140 m).
Although much of the upper reaches are now designated as leisure routes, there is still significant commercial traffic on the navigation. 300,000 tons were carried in 2007, although most of the traffic is now petroleum and gravel, rather than the coal which kept the navigation profitable for 150 years.