IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Lamb Hey, Spa Lane, HUDDERSFIELD, HD7 5QB

A mystery here; maps do not show a footpath along the side of the river. Perhaps it was intended that one be created, and the gate was delivered in anticipation but the idea fell through?

Quite a long section of the canal is almost empty. This happened previously in 2018, and was then due to a build up of silt that prevented the closure of a lock gate. This scene looks rural but there is industry behind the trees on the left.

Most of the old sewers carry rainwater from roads and roofs as well as sewage. In the old days the sewage works for Slaithwaite was in what is now part of a highways depot, behind the outfall bay. For various reasons the treatment of sewage has been centralised, and in the mid-20C a sewer was laid down the valley to connect with the Huddersfield system at Milnsbridge. It is not affordable to install the enormous pipes that would be necessary to carry all the surface-water runoff down to the Huddersfield sewage works at Deighton, and in any case the works could not cope with the large flows that occur during rainfall. There is therefore an overflow at this point, and it was reconstructed using the latest vortex design when the inlet sewer had to be relaid at a lower level in order to allow the canal to be reopened. This was because a lock on the canal was to be relocated further upstream, and also a sewer pipe-bridge had been constructed across the canal around a metre above water level.

Perhaps meant to be a reminder of mill machinery?

A health spa opened here in 1825, with baths fed by sulphur and iron-rich water piped from springs by Richard Varley. By 1891 the Slaithwaite Spa & Hydropathic Establishment Ltd. had built new swimming baths across the river, whereas on this side there was a grand hall (approximately where the children's play area is now), bandstand, bowling green, tennis courts and gardens. A cinema had opened by 1914. The two sides of the river were connected by a wooden bridge, which was swept away by a flood c.1947. In the Second World War the park was requisitioned for the training of soldiers, and after the war the hall was demolished and the park neglected. It was not until 2004 that volunteers and Kirklees Council started to improve the park for recreation and wildlife. (Information from a board in the park)

When the canal was being restored, it made sense to move Lock No 21E about two hundred yards further west to the other side of a dropped bridge. The original site of this lock is still clearly visible here.

Postbox No. HD7 309.