Ice-Breaking on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal

Every canal company had its own individual identity and methods of operation. This included icebreaking, with many different designs of ice boat to be found around the country. The horse-drawn ones on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal were particularly unusual in that they were roughly triangular in cross section. Their keel was made from a long baulk of hard wood, with vertical side planks that were slightly barrel-shaped, finishing in a flat triangular transom at either end.

The triangular shape may have made them easier to handle should they be pulled out of the water onto the ice. This was not that uncommon as the bow of the boat was ballasted to be out of the water, the weight of the keel, together with rocking, then breaking the ice. The wood was covered in thin iron plate to protect it from the sharp edges of the ice which could easily remove the oakum from a horizontal seam or even cut through the wood.

The L&L had a large number of horse-drawn ice boats, and these were often kept sunk during the summer. Amongst the locations were the wide 400 yards from the top of Greenberfield, and in various of the larger winding holes. Remains can still be found at Armley warehouse, Niffany (near Skipton), and on the now disused Walton Summit branch. One went to the Boat Museum where, although it deteriorated badly, it has recently been fully recorded.

Besides horse-drawn ice boats, there were also three steam tugs, Nos 56, 57 and 58, which were adapted for ice-breaking by bolting an iron frame onto the stem post. All steam and motor boats were expected to be able to work through thinner ice, with the ice boats brought out when it became too thick.

The higher sections of the canal, between Barrowford, Bank Newton and Bingley, were most prone to ice. Though traffic on the other sections could also be affected during prolonged cold weather. Control of ice was helped by extensive use of the canal’s water by mills for condensing the exhaust steam from their engines. This made the engines much more efficient and provided additional income to the canal. Charges were related to the horse power of the engine, with a requirement for returning all the nowheated water to the canal. Through industrial Lancashire and down the Aire Valley below Bingley, many mills warmed the canal water, and those who grew up near the canal’s banks often recall the benefit to youthful swimmers.

The water from reservoirs also tended to be warmer, such that ice on the canal below where a water supply fed into the canal was often thinner. This effect was used to control ice between Greenberfield and Bank Newton following the opening, in 1893, of Winterburn Reservoir and the pipeline to Greenberfield. Four branch pipelines were installed in 1907, the slightly warmer water from the pipeline helping to reduce ice thickness on this section.

Early Ice-Breakers

L&L steam tug No 57 hard at work as an ice-breaker near Skipton, probably in 1947. The men on the bow have ice pounders for breaking the ice, and a tow line runs forward, out of the picture, from a bollard. Either horses were used to help move the boat, or it is following another steam or motor boat. They certainly seem to be towing dumb boats behind.

This water outlet from a branch off the Winterburn pipeline at Trenet was one of four designed to help reduce the problem of ice in winter.

The double-ended Foulridge Tunnel tug ice-breaking in 1941. Its name, and that of the canal company, have been erased to confuse the enemy in case of invasion. The tug was probably used for ice-breaking just on the summit pool, and sometimes had a horse-drawn ice boat lashed in front to break the ice. Used without this, the ice could well have damaged the unprotected propeller at the front of the tug.

The problem of ice goes back almost to the opening of the first sections of the canal. It was mentioned by the canal’s committee in November 1779, when it was noted that John Hustler, an important canal shareholder and Bradford committee member who also had coal mines in the Douglas valley, was using an iron plate fixed in front of the bow for ice-breaking. The following month, the canal’s engineer at the time, Richard Owen, produced several drawings and models of icebreakers, and it was agreed to build a pair of ‘sallying’ boats as well as an ‘engine’ on a raft as arranged in one of the models. Were the ‘sallying’ boats the first of the canal’s unique style of ice-breaker? Unfortunately, we will never know.

A typical horse-drawn ice boat after it had been pulled out of the water onto the ice, one of the difficulties encountered when ice-breaking. The flat sides would have made it easier to manhandle in these circumstances compared to the rounded sides found on most other ice boats. The bow was usually ballasted so that it was out of the water, allowing it to ride up onto the ice. Rocking the boat would help to widen the channel after it had first been created by the weight of the large keel breaking the ice.

No 57 on the Skipton Pool, probably in the 1920s. Note the iron frame fitted to the stem post to help break the ice. Here also a towline reaches forward from a bollard, possibly to horses on the towpath, given the angle.

The double-ended Foulridge Tunnel tug at work ice-breaking near Foulridge in 1937.

Three years later it was recorded that, during a period of ice, boats operating on the Liverpool length were to be divided into three groups: one loading, one unloading, and the third following the ice-breaker. The type of ice-breaker was still not fully developed as, in 1785, Hustler reported that the ice boat used between Bingley and Holme Bridge was rendered entirely useless, and that a new one was to be built to the plan of John Harrison.

Methods of operation were also still being formulated for the Liverpool length. In 1797, ice-breakers were to be sent out only if there were at least 20 boats waiting. Early in 1803, they could go if six boats followed, as they were needed to relieve the shortage of coal but, the following winter, 12 boats had to be waiting before the icebreakers were sent out.

On the roads at the time, it was probably quite easy to decide when wagons were capable of moving. Canals brought a new problem in balancing the demand for cargoes and the need to keep boats moving against the cost of keeping the canal open, if possible. It was a problem that was to remain until the carriage of cargo ceased.

Ice closed the canal on a regular basis, though not as often as drought. It is difficult to give precise details because the closure often affected just the length from Barrowford to Skipton. The various figures mentioned in reports are also difficult to assess. One states that in the 21 years between 1884 and 1905, the canal was closed throughout by ice from 21st December to 26th January in 1890/1, from 27th December to 18th January in 1892/3, and from 12th to 14th January and 5th February to 6th March in 1895, a total of 12 weeks. In same period it was closed for about 61 weeks because of drought. A second report noted that the canal was also closed for ice for a couple of days in 1887, a couple of days in 1897, six days in 1900, three in 1910, eight in 1912 and 18 in 1917.

The carpenters’ day books for the workshop at Bank Newton give a further insight into how ice was handled. In November 1882, they spent several days fixing the ice racks at Eshton Road, Irland, Anchor, Scarland and Stegneck locks. These were shoots fitted over the bywash, down which broken ice was passed. Others were fitted at overflows to allow the ice to be deposited into nearby rivers or streams. They got rid of the broken ice which could cause problems for passing boats if it got into a lock chamber and behind the gates.

The variation in winter conditions can be judged from the cost of ice-breaking as set down in the L&L Canal Company’s annual report.

This poor photograph of a boat working through a lock nevertheless gives some idea of the conditions boatmen had to work under in cold Pennine winters.

A coal boat sunk in the ice on the Skipton Pool in the 1920s. It was carrying urgent supplies for Skipton gas works which could only be delivered by canal, and had been in a train of several boats towed by an ice-breaking steam tug. Because of the urgent need for coal in Skipton, this had carried on with the boats in front, leaving the sunken boat and two others behind it. Raising a boat in these conditions must have been hard work.

Tug 57 poses during a break in work. The horses on the towpath were probably there to assist, and the steam tug is certainly carrying proven for them in bags in front of the chimney.

Canal Transport Ltd’s Lyra approaching Foulridge during the winter of 1939. The sacks draped across the sheets at the front of the hold could well be filled with proven for the ice boat horses.

The carpenters also made ice pounders for breaking the ice by hand, and they would assist with passing boats through the locks, or even icebreaking. At such times, everyone had to help in keeping traffic moving.

During and after the First World War, Robert Kendrick was lock-keeper at the top of Bank Newton, and his diary gives further details of how ice was dealt with. From 1st to 16th February 1917 he noted that they were ice bound, but then, with nine horses and 13 men, managed to break the ice as far as Ulber, about a mile, before giving up. They finally broke through on the 20th allowing three boats to pass. Later that year, on 4th December, they set off with ice boat No 9 for the first time, following nine hard nights of frost. The ice was 3/8in thick and they used one horse with three men. By the 23rd the ice was too thick and the steamer had come to assist in keeping the canal open.

The year 1925 was also bad; on the 12th November he noted 5/8in of ice, with one of the local carpenters, Richard Turner, coming to remove the wash boards at Hulber and the second lock, presumably so they could act as ice shoots. He described 4th December as the worst day he had had at Bank Newton for snow, ice and boats, with 30 boats passing on the 8th after the canal reopened.

Winter Pleasures

Winter was not all hard work on the canal. Lucy Betts, daughter of Ben Walls at Higherlands Lock, Gargrave, interviewed around 1970 by one of her brothers, recalled that “the ice boats had to be constantly going from one end to the other to keep a way open for special cargoes, which may be for urgent shipment to Hull or Liverpool.

“At times, it took ten men to swing the triangular boat from side to side, with 12 horses pulling away in the forefront. Of course, the boat was made of oak and its front and sides plated to battle with the sometimes 6 inch or even 8 inch of ice.

“When the worst happened, and we could do no more, that portion of the canal was closed. Then, of course, came the excitement for the children: skating. There were devious ways of learning to skate on the canal. In those days the skates were mostly wooden, with steel runners and leather straps. This was the hay time for the saddlers, who not having collars to renew or harness to fettle, found his income in making skates, which were in great demand.

“Father used to flood the pool between Anchor Bridge and Higherland Lock, and the frost soon made it beautiful for skating on. If it snowed, we were asked to sweep it clean, and thus charge 6d for an evening skating. We also supplied roast potatoes. I remember once skating to Skipton, to school, getting off at Dewhurst’s Mill. Of course, we had also to climb out at the bridges, in addition. It was a sad day when we saw the tug, or ice boat, finding itself able to break the ice, breaking up our ‘playground’ . . .”

Many people used reservoirs for skating, and this could be hazardous. Such was the case at Rishton in 1870, when the reservoir was being used by a large number of skaters. A day or so earlier, two had fallen through the ice, but had been able to get out. But on this day a ‘string’ of skaters were enjoying themselves when the ice broke, and nine people fell into the water. Four of them drowned.

The winter of 1947 was a hard one, and here members of the ice-breaking gang pose on the back of the Foulridge Tunnel tug near to Foulridge to have their photograph taken.

An Icy Finish

The difficulty in keeping the canal open was further explained by Dan Turner, who was in charge of the Yorkshire section of the canal from the 1940s:

“. . . during very frosty periods, when the ice was so thick, even if we could manage to break it, the horses could not pull the boat through the loose ice, and the locks were full of ice also; you could not open or close the gates or manoeuvre the cloughs in any way, and there were times when the traffic was stopped until there was a break in the very severe weather.

“During the early 1940s, when we had two very severe winters, the only little bit of canal that I managed to keep open during the whole of the time was from the terminal lock at Leeds up to the Kirkstall Power Station. We managed to keep that going, but with great difficulty; but from there right over the summit and into Lancashire, Wigan and beyond, it was all closed . . . the Electricity Department were very very keen to keep the waterway open. In fact, for every man I put on, they put one on of their own to help with the boats – an extra man on every boat. If I had 20 men working on the ice-breaking, they had 20 extra men on helping, and with a little bit of team spirit, with great difficulty, we managed to keep the canal open. We worked 7 days a week, and we were averaging 14/15/16 hours a day sometimes, but we carried on. It was very hard, and I was very grateful when there was a thaw, I can assure you . . .”

The hard work necessary for keeping the canal open in winter was recognised during the war, with those employed on ice-breaking receiving additional rations.

With so much done to counter the effects of ice, it is perhaps ironic that it was the freezing winter of early 1963 which led to the end of traffic on the canal’s main line. Coal from Wigan to Liverpool Gas Works, and from Burnley to Whitebirk Power Station, were the two major traffics at the time, though both were suffering as well from a deterioration in the quality of the coal supplies. The closure of the canal because of ice was just the last straw.

No 57 was the Skipton-based ice-breaking steam tug, Nos 56 and 58 working in Lancashire. Here, in 1947, 57 is seen relieving a horse-drawn ice boat at Holme Bridge, Gargrave. A feeder enters the canal here, and the horse boat has probably got into trouble in the thicker ice above the feeder.

The ice boat in the best condition today is this one at Armley, though it has deteriorated since this photograph was taken in 1987.