The history of the land on which Hebble Wharf now stands is intrinsically linked to the history of the waterways that surround it.

Historic photographs other information are reproduced courtesy of the Wakefield Libraries collection, Wakefield Historical Society and the Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society.

Wakefield stands at the junction of two historic waterways – the Aire & Calder Navigation from Goole and the Calder & Hebble Navigation which continues westwards from Wakefield to Sowerby Bridge where it joins the Rochdale Canal. The two waterways were owned by separate canal companies and built to very different standards.

The growing coal and textile industries benefited from the arrival of cheap water transport on the Calder, upstream to Wakefield in c1702, upstream further from 1761, and making through connections into the industrial North West via the Huddersfield (opened 1811) and Rochdale (1804) canals, while the Barnsley Canal, opened in 1799, extended southwards from Wakefield too

---

Why were these waterways called ‘Navigations’ rather than Canals?

In their natural state, neither the River Calder nor the River Aire above Knottingley were navigable. With the growth of industry across Yorkshire and Lancashire, the passing of Aire and Calder Navigation Act 1698 led to work starting immediately to make the rivers navigable to barges – initially from Knottingley to Leeds, then up the River Calder to Wakefield, opening to navigation in 1704. Construction to improve the River Calder and the River Hebble began in 1759, and the initial scheme, which included 5.7 miles (9.2 km) of new cuts, was completed in 1770 and has remained navigable ever since. The word “Navigation” was adopted to emphasise that the waterway was part river and part canal.

These short sections of “canal” or man-made waterway were built to by-pass unnavigable sections of the rivers where changing levels demanded the construction of weirs. Wherever there was a weir on the river to maintain navigable water depths above, the canal that by-passed the weir would include one or more locks to take boats up or down before rejoining the river.

On the Calder and Hebble Navigation, winter floods frequently risked overwhelming the man-made canal sections, and even before construction of the Navigation was completed, flooding in October 1767 caused some damage, with more serious damage created by further floods in February 1768 before the waterway finally opened in 1770.

To overcome the risk of inundation, these canalised sections are now protected by Flood Gates to prevent high water levels from entering the man-made canal channels. This is exactly what we see at Wakefield Flood Lock, where the Flood Gates by the river are closed whenever river levels rise, protecting the short section of canal known as Fall Ings Cut which by-passes the river weir and rejoins the River Calder after passing through Fall Ings Lock.…

Fall Ings Cut was a key element of this waterway network providing the link between the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Calder & Hebble Navigation. When Fall Ings Cut was constructed by the Calder & Hebble Navigation Company, the old cut of the Aire & Calder Navigation to the north of the river, terminating at Wakefield Wharf, became virtually redundant. Note that Chantry Bridge was then known as Wakefield Bridge and was the only river crossing until the new Wakefield Bridge was opened in 1933.

These maps, dated 1905 and 2025, show how Fall Ings Cut formed an essential link between the two waterways.

---

Serving Wakefield and beyond by canal and river

Wakefield Old Wharf, at the end of the Old Cut, was where the Aire & Calder Navigation company established its headquarters in a building that can still be seen today in the business centre known as Navigation Yard.

The process of unloading cargo from one barge and loading it onto another took place at Wakefield Wharf on the River Calder, alongside the Navigation Warehouse. This was the impressive headquarters of the Calder & Hebble Navigation Company, built four storeys high with a loading dock in the centre. The Navigation Warehouse has been substantially restored and now stands alongside Hebble Wharf.

Hebble Wharf as we know it today was built between 2006-2008 on the site of another major canal warehouse – this one owned by the Aire & Calder Navigation Company – and in the heyday of canal traffic, long barges from the Aire & Calder would dock here to offload cargo for transfer to the shorter Calder & Hebble barges, as can be seen in the picture below. The iron mooring bollards for these barges are still in place today.

…

---

The importance of Wakefield Flood Lock

This map dating from 1851 shows the Flood Gates from the river leading to a wide canal basin, terminating at two separate sets of lock gates under Barnsley Road bridge. Between the two sets of gates was a man-made island supporting the road bridge. Alongside the basin were warehouses on the site of Hebble Wharf where goods were transhipped between the longer barges of the Aire & Calder Navigation Company and the shorter boats of the Calder & Hebble Navigation Company.

…

---

Just beyond Barnsley Road bridge were the Sutcliffe’s malt kilns – later to become the London & North Western Canal Warehouses.

---

A covered dock was added over part of the Flood Lock

By 1890, the Aire & Calder Navigation Company had constructed a canopy across part of the Flood Lock to create a covered dock, supported by a stone column on the end of the island (still visible today) and sunken pilings in the centre of the flood lock, as shown on this map dating from 1891.

---

---

During the 1950s, the canopy over the covered dock was dismantled, leaving in place the additional mooring bollards, which were still visible in the following photograph taken in 1959 showing the British Waterways barge Valour moored in the space that would previously have been covered. .

---

---

These photographs dating from 1971 show the BW Barge Lambda still using the mid-lock mooring bollards while waiting to pass through the flood gates and onto the River Calder.

---

---

In the images below, we see the Aire & Calder warehouse at the entrance to Wakefield Flood Lock, alongside a picture taken at the same location today.

…

This aerial image shows the site on which Hebble Wharf was to be built in the bottom right corner, after the Aire & Calder warehouse had been demolished. Note the many warehouses and small buildings that covered the areas now occupied by the Hepworth Gallery (opened in 2011), Rutland Mills and the new office buildings around Navigation Walk.

…

Here you can see the entrance to Wakefield Flood Lock at around the same time, before construction started on Hebble Wharf.

---

---

Wakefield Waterfront today

---

Today’s map and Aerial View reveal how the Flood Lock and Fall Ings Cut have changed since the 1970s.

The pilings and mooring bollards in the centre of the flood lock have long since gone, and the smaller (northern) canal channels under the arches of Barnsley Road and Doncaster Road bridges have been filled in. The warehouses between the two bridges have been replaced with the Bridge Inn (formerly the Ruddy Duck) on the north side and modern houses along the south side overlooking the Barnsley Road visitor moorings.

---

This stone plinth is all that remains of the covered dock, removed nearly 50 years ago

---

Are the flood gates still in use?

The flood gates protecting Fall Ings Cut from the River Calder are still very much in use today. Whenever the Canal & River Trust receives an alert of rising river levels from either the Environment Agency or their own network of SCADA monitoring stations along the River Calder, CRT staff are dispatched (day or night) to close the floodgates between Brighouse and Wakefield. Once the flood gates are closed, the water level in the Flood Lock is stabilised, protecting the area around Hebble Wharf from flooding. As a condition of the development of Hebble Wharf and the neighbouring offices, the flood gate walls were raised and hydraulic flood barriers installed around the neighbouring buildings as further protection against flooding.

The power of the river in flood can be seen in the following photographs – the first dating from 1951 and the others from December 2015, showing barges that had been swept away from the boatyard above Wakefield Bridge and become trapped either on the Weir or under the bridge itself.

---

---

---

After the floodwater subsided, an experimental power generator barge was left upturned on the brink of the weir and a narrowboat which had been swept over the weir had to be recovered from under the bridge.

---