ROCHDALE Canal winds through Hebden Bridge on its 32 mile journey from Manchester to Sowerby Bridge - cleaving through some of the country’s most fascinating industrial archaeology and breathcatching Pennine scenery.

Built by immigrant navvies between 1799 and 1804, the canal’s ambitious construction claimed many lives. Ninety-two locks were needed to lift it 600ft above sea level, a feat rewarded by the prosperity it enjoyed for at least another century.

Canal transport was revolutionary because a barge could carry 50 tonnes from one end of the canal to the other in 28 hours - a speed not possible by horse.
But even when other canals had succumbed to competition from road and rail, the Rochdale remained busy right up to the 1930s.

Lack of maintenance during World War Two finally finished its commercial life, but at its height it had carried three-quarters of a million tonnes of goods every year.
Decades of dereliction and neglect ended in 2003 when the Rochdale re-opened - fully restored and reconnected to the national network at Sowerby Bridge where the deepest canal basin in the country marks its merging with with Calder and Hebble Navigation.

Increasingly popular as a leisure waterway for narrowboat holidays, the Rochdale Canal corridor has also gradually softened and blossomed into a treasured amenity for walkers.

Abundant with wildlife, the towpath provides long or short linear walks as well as easy access to the surrounding hills.

Many abandoned canal buildings have been converted into luxury waterside apartments, small businesses and workshops, and the whole atmosphere of the canal bank has been enhanced by refurbished parks, marinas and gardens.

As London has discovered its Docklands, so Hebden Bridge has uncloaked the visual, recreational and historic delights of the waterway on its doorstep.