Selby Canal

Selby Canal
The canal approaching the River Ouse
Specifications
Maximum boat length	78 ft 6 in (23.93 m)
Maximum boat beam	16 ft 6 in (5.03 m)
Locks	2
Status	navigable
Navigation authority	Canal and River Trust
History
Original owner	Aire and Calder Navigation
Principal engineer	William Jessop
Date of act	1774
Date of first use	1778
Geography
Start point	West Haddesley
End point	Selby
Connects to	Aire and Calder Navigation, River Ouse

[ ] Selby Canal
River Ouse Selby and Selby Lock Wharves and dry dock Selby Swing Bridge A1041 Bawtry Road bridge Doncaster to Selby Railway Brayton Road Bridge A63 road bridge A19 Burn Bridge Burton Hall Bridge East Coast Main Line Railway Bridge Paperhouse Bridge Tankard's Stone Bridge West Haddlesey Flood Lock Aire and Calder Navigation

The Selby Canal is a 6-mile (9.7 km) canal with 2 locks which bypasses the lower reaches of the River Aire in Yorkshire, England, from the village of West Haddlesey to the town of Selby where it joins the River Ouse. It opened in 1778, and provided the main outlet for the Aire and Calder Navigation until 1826, when it was bypassed by a new cut from Ferrybridge to Goole. Selby steadily declined after that, although traffic to York still used the canal.

Powers to increase its depth were obtained in 1828, and the residents of Selby used legal action to ensure that the company complied with its own Act of Parliament. The locks were enlarged in 1885, and subsequent history was uneventful, with the canal eventually coming under the control of British Waterways in 1962. When British Waterways also took control of the River Ouse, the canal was marketed as part of a through route to York, and the number of boats using it have steadily increased. Although not originally part of the canal, the section of the Aire from Dole Bank Lock to Haddlesey Flood Lock is usually considered to be part of the modern Selby Canal, making it 11.7 miles (18.8 km) long with four locks.

In the late 1760s, there was dissatisfaction with the state of the Aire and Calder Navigation, and there were several schemes to bypass part or all of it. John Longbotham was employed by some of the backers for the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to survey a route from Leeds to Selby, although the Leeds and Selby Canal was not officially supported by the Leeds and Liverpool undertaking. The canal would have been just over 23 miles (37 km) long, with ten locks, a ten-arched aqueduct over the River Aire at Hunslet, and a 400-yard (370 m) tunnel at Fairburn. The estimated cost of £59,468 was raised in two months, and a bill was presented to Parliament in December 1772, as was another by the Aire and Calder Navigation for improvements to the Aire below Haddlesey. The Parliamentary committee found a number of issues with the Leeds and Selby scheme, and generally favoured improvements to the Aire, but no decision was made on either proposal.