For many years Ripon was the most northerly point on Britain's inland waterway system. The Ripon Canal takes you to the River Ure, and from there you can navigate via the South Yorkshire waterways to the Trent and the Midland canals.
In truth, this status was purely theoretical for much of the canal's history. According to Wikipedia, the Ripon Canal was impassable by 1906, officially abandoned in 1956 and not fully restored until 1996.
In 2002 Ripon lost its status, as the Lancaster Canal was connected with the main system by the construction of the Ribble Link.
So now the most northerly point on the system is Tewitfield, the current northern limit to navigation on the Lancaster Canal. However, there are plans to restore this waterway all the way to its original terminus at Kendal, even though this will involve some new lengths of canal to undo the damage caused by the construction of the M6.
Anyway, this is Ripon canal basin, which I found close to the centre of the city on a lovely sunny afternoon.
Re the Lancaster Canal: "long been isolated"? No, always isolated. "Reconnected"? No, just connected.
ReplyDeleteSorry, you are right.
ReplyDeleteThe southern end of the Lancaster did link with the Leeds and Liverpool originally, but that southern section was always severed from the mainline of the Lancaster by the River Ribble.
There were plans for an aqueduct, but it was never built.