The Lost Canal of Birkenshaw | Emmet's Canal 

This is excellent! Great footage and narration! I grew up in Birkenshaw in the 1970s and lived on Brown Hill Drive, which was a new development in the early 70s. My friends and I used to explore a beck that ran along the western side of Bradford Road and ran down into the canal that you show here. Between the Bradford Road junctions with Brown Hill Drive and Mill Lane there used to be a caravan dealership in the 70s (Kenmore Caravans, I think) and behind the dealership there was a steep slope that led down into the beck. We used to go bottle digging on this slope and found all sorts of bottles and clay pipes dating from the late 1700s. Some of my ancestors (surnames Haleys and Tetleys) owned and operated slate mines in the area. Also, the Brown Hill housing estate was built on the site of an old mill - hence Mill Lane.

I have only just found your channel! Most interesting. It is worth noting that all over the these islands there are similar small lost canals and river navigations. Both on the surface and underground (in such roles the canal would also serve as a drainage level) Things that should be remembered are that such short private waterways were built for boats that today we would think are absurdly small carrying loads of between one & five tons. Such boats would be only about 10 to 15 feet in length and no more 4 feet in width. With a depth of around 3 feet or so. Personally I suspect that the canal would have been worked by a number of small boats chained together. Thank you for a very interesting video.

I’ve noticed that with a lot of canals built on the side of slopes that the canal is excavated and the spoil used to build up the side on the lower slope , so I think the bank you were walking on was the tow path and the shallow ditch was the silted up canal, just my guess.

Thanks for the video, Darren. Another walk back in time with you. Cheers mate.

Another great video, really enjoying this channel. Thank you!

Nice one Darren,thanks

Absolutely fascinating. It's more than a bit humbling that all the marks that man can put on the landscape, given a few years, time and nature can render them invisible.

great video, just down the road from me and I had no idea!

I grew up about a mile up the road and I never knew about this. Thanks for this, it’s really interesting and well researched. Subscribed, and looking forward to seeing your other videos👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Once again a brilliant video and a great choice of music.

Great video dude!! I'm just starting to explore the abandoned sections of canal near me 🙂

Very interesting 😎

The stone with the holes looks like a tenter stone with holes for the hooks and there were tenters near there on the old maps. I have read an account of the barges being pulled by horses, so they would have needed a hard flat surface to walk on, otherwise they would have just churned everything up, and as the maps show only a one sided embankment it is likely that the nice flat part is where the horses walked and the embankment did just hold back water in the dip, which would have been much deeper 250 years ago. I like your style with the video.

I think the canal was dug to the left and the earth dumped to form the mound you walked on. This would have provided a retaining wall down slope and a platform for the animal pulling the barge to walk on.

Brilliant mate thanks Steve

Thanks for this great documentary.. Look-up "Cheesdan Valley" the same people that built the Birkenshaw canal, was behind the engineering and building of the Cheesdan valley industrial works near Bury. Alot of it is still there.

thank you for the interesting adventure I got your channel from martin zero when you took him to gods own country so I had to come and have a look around you site all the best from trev and Christine down south in Sussex

Just found your channel. I love industrial archeology. What was the source of water to fill the canal? Birkenshaw beck looked lower. The flat top nature of the embankment almost suggests a railway.

I recon you're right about the channel being in the embankment and being filled in, I wonder which direction the prevailing wind comes from. If its from your left as you're walking it would explain the hedge on that side as hedges along canals make very effective windbreaks. Nothing as annoying as a side wind when you're trying to move a boat.

I am almost 100% certain that the elevation that you were walking along is indeed the towpath and not the actual canal, that being to the left. Also, approach farmers! The short term history that a farmer has, will nearly always give you the answers. They tend not to offer their stories unless you ask them, and yes, they usually are slightly hostile to begin with, but usually warm up (or at least not be at freezing point) eventually. If you look how high the bank on the left was by the farm, there is a good chance that a similar amount was on the left hand side all the way along. Although a lot of time has passed since the canal was made, it would only have been filled in with the introduction of Caterpillars and Drots, so there would be a very very good chance that this is still in living memory when there was a need to expand the fields into the maximum that they could produce. - Think WW2 era. One last observation. Going back to the level area by the farm, that would have probably been a loading point, by what, or how could give you other clues, especially the stone that was there which may have aided in the loading/unloading process. Going a mile across the landscape is fine, but what did it achieve? That might give you a clue to the next stage and where the terminal was. *One final final thought (honest). What if there were no canal at all, but that flat raised area had an early railway line? We know lines were horse drawn way way before the locomotive, so could that flat area have been a horse drawn line which just went backwards and forwards? - just an idea. :)

Really enjoyed your video. My son recently moved to Birkenshaw and finds shiny blue looking stone in the garden. Furnace slag from iron smelting. We know why now. I use NLS for maps, they are good but nothing prior to 1850 I'm afraid.'

Excellent documentary, I do favour the theory that the banking was for the horses, and the canal was to the left. I'm going to walk it myself in the next few days to get a better perspective on how level it was, to not need locks. The last few hundred yards does look like a lock would be needed. take care mate.

Walked the canal route today, there's quite a rise at either end. A cutting or a lock at the Blue Hills end looks like a possibility. The foundry end looks like it would end where you stated, as you said no locks. That stone shaped like a grave-stone has two rusty hinge hangers on it, the bit it broke off is still in the ground, so most likely been a gate post. I will see if Bradford Library has any pre 1850 maps.

Another great video, thanks! I personally think that the canal would have been to the left of where you were walking, the other side of the trees. The ground the other side is boggy, and canal builders made life easy for themselves by using the natural landscape (as much as possible), why would they build a wide embankment only to have to dig it out and fill it with water? They would have used the lowest point to get as much water from the surrounding hills. I think where you were walking would have been the towpath (though it gets a bit fuzzy around 17:30 as I think the canal would have been where the path is)

What a great presentation. I love your enthusiasm. If only my walking mates shared your excitement at finding old left-over industrial revolution artefacts. I also shared your “biggest problem”: was the channel in the ditch (with an unusually wide retaining embankment) or was the channel in the middle of the embankment which at some time has been infilled? I have a theory (sorry not a rumour!). The operation of a short truncated canal would have proved very difficult, e.g. water ownership issues, water shortages, silting-up, weeds, leaks and flooding. Also it would be very cumbersome to load the canal tug boats (or tubs or small barges) and even more difficult to empty them at the other end for transportation by horse and cart up to the foundry. How do you empty a tug boat (you can’t tip it) other than by man and shovel (and that’s just after you have loaded it the same way at the other end). I suspect that after only a few years of use these difficulties were overcome by sweeping away the canal, infilling and levelling the ground along the same route to create a waggonway (or tramway) on the wide embankment. The waggons could then be loaded at the colliery and pulled by a horse all the way to the foundry (with a little extra help up the final slope). The waggonway could have been surfaced with a double row of stone slabs (approx. 2 to 3 feet long) with a substantial raised outer shoulder to keep the waggons on the straight and narrow. There are examples of these around the district with a superb length of “track” on the edge of Shibden Valley near Halifax. Alternatively the embankment could have been equipped with metal rails to form a type of early tramway/railway. And finally, what if….. the conception, all the initial proposals, plans and mapping were geared towards towards a canal or navigation but in the end a much more realistic (and certainly more common way of moving heavy loads short distances) waggonway was actually built, and the only reference to water was on the initial navigation plans or related to the drainage ditch which ran (and still runs) alongside. I can see that where some form of railway is removed from an embankment there are often tell tail signs but there are certainly short stretches of the Shibden Valley route that are now missing and there are no signs on the ground that the tramway ever existed. Time is a great healer. So maybe Emmets Canal only lasted a few years before been infilled to become a waggonway or maybe although proposed and planned it was never actually built as a canal and was always operated as a horse drawn waggonway along its full length (including the second mile as looked at in Part 2 of the feature). Nigel Robertshaw

It would be interesting to do a geo-physical or resistivity survey on that site, then you'd probably get a better idea of where the channel actually was. I can't help thinking that the embankment is a bit narrow to hold in a deep body of water & still have room for horses walking alongside to pull the barges (we are talking several decades before Richard Trevithick's invention of the mobile steam locomotive engine after all). I suspect the embankment was the retaining wall and tow-path all in one - the uphill side would have been where the channel was but you find the soil will slip to some extent over the course of 250 years (see a lot of evidence of that around Slaithwaite [Slawit] where I live as the hills are a bit steep). Just a thought to ponder.

I believe that before around 1840, there were only the Tythe maps which are usually found in local county record offices. Tythes were the original land taxes, and so these maps and the written records with them were produced to track land ownership. They were updated every 10 years (from memory). After that, the OS took over mapping

This may be a long shot, but around 1870, the Midland Railway were pushing to build a railway from Dewsbury, through Heckmondwike and on to Bradford. Apparently some earthworks were started in a field near Bradford and seeing this canal feature, makes me wonder, if the Midland Railway bought the canal, as it would have been an established "right of way" potentially saving arguments and legal disputes with land owner(s) Maybe the railway contractors, filled in the canal and started building a railway embankment along its route. Somewhere around here, I guess, would have been the highest point, or summit of the line, if it had been built. An underpass was, actually made, as part of the scheme, underneath part of Bath Road, in Heckmondwike which would have linked the Midland Railway goods yard, to the nearby power station (the power station building stands even today, used as business premises) In the end, the Midland Railway abandoned the Dewsbury - Bradford idea, so it never went ahead. They had bought a number of buildings in Bradford, which would have been demolished to create space, for a viaduct from Foster Square to Exchange. I think the council bought the buildings off the railway about 1900 or something like that, not sure ?

The problem I see is how were the barges dragged along the canal. I would expect that a horse would pull the barges. In that case there would be evidence of a towpath. On the other side of the stream I could see no evidence of a towpath. For this reason I suspect that the embankment was to provide a towpath to give a safe surface for the horses to be able to pull the barges which would have been extremely heavy.

very interesting as I have lived near there for 15 yrs and wasn`t aware of this.

Hey up. The house at the bottom of Foundry lane belongs to my old boss. Smashing folk. He said if he’d have known he’d have come out and given you more info. His house was built on the foundry site.

35 years ago birkenshaw was on one my delivery areas , never heard or knew anything about this wonderful find. wonder if the new housing at emmetts reach is connected to this

your'e definitely walking along the towpath with the canal to your left. I've no doubt the towpath has a rubble core to hold the water back and prevent landslip, which would have emptied the canal.....

Lots of ifs and buts on this one e.g. why not build up the banks of the brook for transportation rather than build a canal next to it? was the banking for the horses to use? did that last section not rise up a bit?? Excellent historical content, explanations and use of maps. 😊👍🏻

first of all may I congratulate you on your excellent work I love any thing to do with exploring This area is not Bradford it is Kirklees MDC formally The Borough of Spenborough with Cleckheaton being the Principal town with the town hall and administrative offices until the formation of Kirklees MDC on the 1st April 1974 Just down Whitehall road towards Cleckheaton is a lane called Drub Lane it leads to Drub Village and on to Laytham Lane Gomersal as you turn left from Whitehall road into drub lane it goes into a hollow with Mazebrook running under the road directly to the Left in the hollow this was always known by the old people as Drub Docks it used to make me laugh because Drub village is about 100 miles from the sea but your video has now made me wonder and also answered a few questions I had for years this maybe the start of your canal You might be able to find some reference maps at Cleckheaton library to help you It is 40 years since I lived in the area well Hunsworth to be precise so things will have changed I watched every shovel of earth being excavated on the M62 and all the colliery waste hills flattened to make way for the M62 and the colliery waste hills on fire underground which they didn't seem to be able to extinguish Well happy exploring and keep up the good work Just higher up the road from Drub village is where the railway known as the Spen valley line later known as the Leeds new line came from Manchester to Leeds I watched many a train thunder past me up by Gomersal tunnel my favourite was the 6.50 pm double head of steam thunder through on its way from Manchester to Leeds bringing the news papers well happy exploring and keep up the good work regards Thomas

Suggest you put a request into National Highways (the new name for Highways England aka Highways Agency. I used to work for them. The engineers who worked on the M62 will probably have retired but if you address your request to Rich Marshall. He is Regional Director. He is very customer focused and will almost certainly help if he can.

Just a thought, ever thought that there might have been an inclined plane at the foundry end?

The raised area is too narrow to be a filled in canal, but possibly the tow path beside it. With the land being farmed and 250 years of changes, it will be hard to be sure.

Be interesting to run over the area with ground penetrating radar to see what is below!

have you tried local archives for maps?

There’s abandoned Canal near Walton Wakefield 👍🇬🇧

I live in birkenshaw and have a history assignment about this canal I feel like Im in third person

When’s the next one uploaded?

Have you searched for a local history society ? In particular, 'industrial history' ?

Have you tried side by side mapping? maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16&lat=53.75087&lon=-1.69750&layers=6&right=BingHyb This is really cool, and it does show the navigation!

Flaming hell Darren I gotta stop watching your explorations around Birkenshaw and district as it gets me too nostalgic for my past🙁 I wish I had taken more in of the surroundings instead of just accepting things. Still as a boy/lad that's what you did its only in older years you realise folk history and its then too late. Now of course all my parents generation have gone, so no one to ask about the history. As a boy it was my and my slightly older brother's Saturday trip from Batley (via the no4 bus) to grans in Birkenshaw and walk down the B/shaw bottoms with our uncle Herman and his dog for a couple hours. How well I remember the bottoms and following the beck probably to the Blue banks farm etc and back. Where the M62 cutting through at lower Birkenshaw there was a pub built on the land that became the bridge over the M62. (Gomersal?) Opposite where the pub was it is a building that was a loudspeaker manufacture (I don't know if it still exists) The area that was on Bradford Road In Birkenshaw opposite the park was open fields and the Birkenshaw show was held on it till the land was sold? for the houses built there and the pathway down into Birkenshaw bottoms ran at the side of it. But what an expensive village Birkenshaw has become now!!!!! Still its getting me into a Victor Meldrew mode and I don't even live there (well over 50+ years since I escaped from Batley LOL) for pastures new. Cheers matey DouT the Mancs pensioner (aka V Meldrew in tow with Mrs Warboys)