Today marks 25 years since the Huddersfield Narrow Canal reopened to navigation. I’ve just returned home from a couple of days photographing the west side (Ashton to Diggle) and will repeat the exercise on the east side in a few weeks.

This will enable me to add a third strand to my “before and after” images. The first set I photographed in October 1974, around six months after the formation of the Huddersfield Canal Society. The official position at that time, given by the British Waterways Board in writing, was that “there was no question of restoring this canal.”

I returned to take photographs in the same locations during May 2001, in the few days before the official reopening ceremonies on 18 May.

Once I have all the current photos ready, I’ll be posting all three sets to this site. The post-industrial landscape of the 1974 shots gave way to rather stark views in 2001 of work which had obviously just been completed. The overwhelming impression now is of canal scenes quite dramatically softened by nature. Some of the photos were rather difficult to retake as trees and vegetation have now taken over the viewpoints.   

As a preview of the full project, here is just one location. This is Stalybridge; the bridge in the more recent photos is Corn Mill Lane. If you have local knowledge, I’m standing with my back to the Tesco superstore.