History of the Ripon Canal

The waterway was planned as long ago as 1766 when the engineer, John Smeaton, presented a proposal for five lock structures on the eight miles of the River Ure, and the 2.5 miles of the Ripon Canal itself. Public subscription raised £15,000 and a petition was made to Parliament in 1767. A Bill authorising the navigation recieved Royal Assent on 15 April 1767.

The works were carried out by the engineer, John Smith and Milby Lock and cut were completed in 1769. One of the first cast iron bridges in the country was built over the canalised section of the waterway to carry the Great North Road to Boroughbridge.

Coal traffic to Boroughbridge was seriously affected when the Great Northern Railway opened from Darlington to York in 1841.

Although the British Transport Commission obtained Royal Assent for the abandonment of the Ripon Canal in 1956, it was successfully reopened for navigation as far as Littlethorpe Road Bridge in 1986. The canal was officially reopened right into the centre of Ripon in September 1996, with the assistance of the Ripon Canal Society and local authorities, with funding from English Partnerships. For a short while, Ripon Basin was the northernmost point on England's waterway network - but as a result of the new Ribble Link, which connects the Lancaster Canal to the main system, this title is now claimed by Tewitfield on the Lancaster Canal.