Operation
The canal operated for approximately 140 years and although moderately successful for a while its width (limited to boats less than 7 ft (2.1 m) wide), number of locks, and long tunnel made it much less profitable than its main rival, the Rochdale Canal, which had a similar number of locks, but was twice as wide, with no long tunnel. The Standedge tunnel proved to be a real bottleneck, having been constructed without an integral towpath. Narrowboats had to be 'legged' through, eventually by professionally employed leggers. A company employee would chain the tunnel entrance behind a convoy of boats, and walk over Boat Lane, accompanied by boat boys and girls, leading the boat horses, to unchain the opposite end of the tunnel before the boat convoy arrived. This journey was made at least twice per day, for over twenty years. The construction of a double railway tunnel parallel with its route affected the revenue that was brought in and the canal was abandoned in 1944.
Read more about this topic: Huddersfield Narrow Canal
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