Link with the Waterways

It may come as a surprise to learn that much of East Yorkshire's navigational system was actually owned by the railways for most of its existence, in some cases right up to nationalisation in 1948. Almost immediately the new railways were opened, they bought up the navigation rights in a ruthless drive to stamp out any modicum of competition.

Before the railway came, the best transport links in the area for goods and agricultural produce were the local waterways. The Rivers Humber and Ouse provided an ideal natural artery between York and Hull, serving Selby and Goole. The River Derwent connected Stamford Bridge to the system; Pocklington was linked to the Derwent by the Pocklington Canal (Act 55 Geo. III., c 55. R.A. 25th May, 1815) which opened at the very close of the canal era on 30th July, 1818; and Market Weighton directly to the Humber by the Market Weighton canal (Act 12 Geo. III., c. 37. R.A. 21st May, 1772), while a short half mile spur, Sir Edward Vavasour's Canal, or the " Holme Canal," was formed to connected Holme-on-Spalding-Moor to the Market Weighton Canal half a century or so later, still under the powers of the Act of 1772. The Trent, Calder and Aire navigations provided links to much further afield.

The insurgent railways found this situation unacceptable for although the water­ways were much slower they were also much cheaper and ideally suited to regular traffic like domestic fuels. Throughout Britain the railways found it difficult to make inroads into traffic traditionally carried by the waterways and they sought by any means, fair or foul, to end this competition. In this way the waterways of the East Riding fell heavily to the railways.

The contemporary Earl Fitzwilliam owned most of the navigation rights in East Yorkshire, especially over the Derwent, a natural navigation, which passed much grain, flour and animal feeds to and from mills at Stamford Bridge and Malton. The navigation rights had been in the Fitzwilliam family for two generations and in 1833 passed to the third Earl of Fitzwilliam. In the world of waterways the Earl was a Hudson-like magnate with interests in various navigations throughout the industrial areas of Yorkshire, as well as the three waterways affected by the York-Market Weighton railway. However, he gradually became more interested in railways, especially in South Yorkshire, and in 1855 sold the Derwent Navigation (Act 1 Anne, c. 20. R.A. 6th May, .1702) to the NER for £40,000. From then on the decline of the Derwent was slow but steady.

In 1854 it handled 43,764 tons but by 1905 traffic had plummeted to just 6,076 tons. In 1903 NER chairman Kaye Butterworth claimed that this was purely because farmers and traders preferred to use the railways. Certainly interest grew in replacing the Derwent Navigation altogether with a railway under the 1896 Light Railways Act, coming partly to fruition in the independent Derwent Valley Light Railway which opened along the valley to the south of Stamford Bridge in 1913.

By 1900 only one vessel had been navigating the Derwent for many years. It ceased when the master retired and no-one else could be found to navigate between the mudbanks, weeds and trees which were by then choking the river. By the 1930's navigation went only as far as East Cottingwith to serve Pocklington canal. For over 50 years since this canal closed only a few small pleasure craft have used isolated stretches of the river, with locks long since falling into disrepair.

Work on the Market Weighton canal began in 1772 and it opened in 1778 to serve a number of purposes ranging from the drainage of Walling Fen, a large tract of marshland between Market Weighton and the Humber, to the transport of local produce. Besides agricultural traffic were bricks and tiles from a growing number of concerns in the Newport and Broomfleet areas which were to form a major part of the canal's revenue.

On construction of the York and Selby-Market Weighton railways, the YNMR immediately undertook to buy out the canal's navigation interests. It acquired powers for the purchase by Act of Parliament in 1847 and by 1st January, 1850, had bought out all the canal's subscribers for a total of £14,404 15s. 10d, along with the rights to all profits accruing from navigation. It also bought Sir Edward Vavasour's canal (also known as the Holme Canal) for £846 15s. 0d but this was not actually taken over.

The waterway immediately came under threat. In 1851 a scheme was put forward for construction of a railway between Market Weighton and Broomfleet and to the Humber at a jetty at Humber Lock, starting point of the canal, but it came to nothing and the canal continued its then prosperous existence.

It remained profitable with the railway receiving a total net profit of £19,300 between 1850 and 1889. The best years were from 1860 to 1872, but the NER began to lose interest after the Beverley line opened in 1865.

The NER offered little help with maintenance and allowing things to slide. In 1888 they even refused to assist with much needed dredging. By this time the railway company was at the centre of a storm over the derelict state of the canal. In 1896 Henry Williamson and Co., of Newport, complained that they could no longer deliver bricks to Market Weighton because of the high mud level. Pocklington Rural District Council and the Local Government Board became involved when stagnant water began to pose a health hazard.

From then on a legal battle continued over who was responsible for maintenance, the NER claiming it was only responsible for navigation and the Drainage Trustees saying the NER had a responsibility to keep the canal clean.

In 1900 the Market Weighton Canal Drainage Act was passed which closed the entire canal, except the extreme Broomfield/Humber end, to navigation and vested the NER's interests in the Trustees. Commercial traffic did not vanish completely from the lower end until 1958

Pocklington canal was approved on 28th May 1815 and ran from the Derwent at East Cottingwith to a point on the York-Hull road. The bed was dug to a depth of 9 ft. with three overbridges and nine locks. The Engineer was George Leather who had created Goole Docks; he completed the canal for less than the estimated £43,000 8s. which was remarkable even in those days. Inward would come coal, lime and manure, while out would flow corn and flour. From 1834 passengers would be conveyed to Leeds and Wakefield every 3-4 day, while Hull drew the short straw with a service only ever 10 days.

In 1845, before being blocked by Hudson, the York, Hull and East and West Yorkshire Railway offered Pocklington Canal shareholders £18,000 in railway stock or cash for their navigation rights. Subsequently, the YNMR, on opening its York line in 1847, bought up the navigation on these terms and under the same Act as the Market Weighton Canal. As with that and the Derwent navigation, deliberate and ruthless neglect by the railways led to the canal's gradual but certain decline.

Again the railways were accused of neglect but in 1905 the NER claimed that revenue from the canal just wasn't worth thinking about. It had a point; of its total annual revenue of £9½ million, Pocklington Canal contributed just £49. But the company was more helpful with maintenance and in 1863 paid £35 towards the cost of dredging.

Back in 1850 the YNMR began to economise, making the collector of dues at Pocklington redundant. However, it did try to boost revenue in ways that did not damage the railway, such as the sale of fishing rights. Some landowners suggested converting the canal into a drain and laying a tramway alongside. Although this met with a favourable response from the railway, nothing materialised.

Strangled by the railways, business declined until Pocklington Canal closed to commercial navigation in 1932, with the "Ebenezer" the last working craft, and pleasure craft two years later. It lay derelict until 1969 when the Pocklington Canal Amenity Society set about restoring navigation facilities for pleasure craft.

The methods used by the railways, especially the NER, were effective in wiping out what competition the waterways presented. The pattern was straightforward; buy up the navigation rights and then simply forget about them allowing a steady rot to set in until the opposition just faded away.

Canal supporters can take heart though, because the waterways certainly lasted a lot longer than the railways intended with Pocklington Canal surviving well into LNER days. The railways finally lost control of the waterways only through nationalisation in 1948 when they passed to the British Waterways Board.