Calverley on the south, to Woodhouse, when bending westerly to Apperley Bridge, it then changes its course to the north, leaving Idle to the south and Esholt Hall to the north; thence proceeding westward by Buck Mill to Shipley, where the Bradford Canal branches off; having obtained a rise, from the surface water in the River Aire, at the tail of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Lock above Leeds Bridge, of 155 feet 7 inches. From the junction with the Bradford Canal, it proceeds westward to New Mill, at which place it crosses the River Aire by an extensive aqueduct, and runs north-westerly to Bingley, where locking up 88 feet 8 inches, it attains a level that continues above eighteen miles, without another lock.
The Great Lock, as it is commonly called, at Bingley, consisting of five rises in one range of gates and masonry, and which unfortunate arrangement requires five locks full of water to pass one vessel from the lower to the higher level, must always cause a great waste of water, till remedied by dividing the fall or side ponds.
From Bingley Great Lock the canal proceeds in a north-westerly direction, passing Rushforth Hall, Riddlesden, within a mile of Keighley, about the same distance from Steeton, close to Silsden; thence to Kildwick, Snaygill and to Skipton. At this place, which is at an elevation of 272½ feet above tile River Aire at Leeds Bridge, a short branch proceeds from the canal to a lime-stone wharf on the north side of Skipton Castle, which branch belongs to the Earl of Thanet. From Skipton the canal runs north-west by Thorleby and Gargrave, and just above the latter place it again crosses the River Aire by another large aqueduct; it then bends south-westerly, passing Bank Newton, Marton, Gillchurch, Greenberfield and Rainhall Pasture, at which point, another branch of a quarter of a mile runs off southward to a limestone quarry called Rainhall Rock; this branch is upon the summit level of the canal, and at an elevation of 411 feet 4 inches above the River Aire at Leeds, which elevation is attained in a distance (from Leeds Bridge to the summit lock at Greenberfield) of forty-one miles. The canal then proceeds by Barnoldswick and Salterford to Foulridge, where the great tunnel commences, whose height is 18 feet, width 17 feet, and the length one thousand six hundred and forty yards. The surface of the ground on the
