Experience Wakefield publishes a walk by the Stanley Ferry aqueducts. The checked visit is an external view from the walking route, not entry to workshops or operational areas. Check local notices and ground conditions.
Check the official visitor arrangements ↗ · checked 2026-09-13
Stay within authorised areas. Do not enter unstaffed tunnels, shafts, railway land or restricted property.
How to explore responsiblyReviewed 2026-09-13 · review due 2026-10-13. Desk research from official records and published operator or public-authority information. No site visit or direct operator contact.
Why this place matters
The scheduled record is brief, but a second Historic England designation supplies the engineering detail. The iron aqueduct was built in 1837–1839 to a design by George Leather junior, carrying the Aire and Calder Navigation’s Calder Cut over the River Calder.
The listed description identifies an iron trough supported from arches, with classical detailing on its outer faces. Utility and architectural presentation were combined: the water container was also designed to be seen.
- Historic England — Stanley Ferry listed aqueduct ↗ · reviewed 2026-09-13
What to look for
Look for the difference between the canal water above and river below. Then follow, visually, how the trough relates to the supporting ironwork. This is a useful counterpart to Marple’s masonry crossing and Barton’s movable aqueduct.
Use the published local walking map to select an authorised vantage point. The presence of canal workshops nearby does not make their yards public, and a special workshop open day is not a permanent access arrangement.
- Historic England — Stanley Ferry listed aqueduct ↗ · reviewed 2026-09-13
What remains uncertain
The scheduled entry has no detailed history. Structural facts come from the separate Grade I listing for the same aqueduct; the point does not identify a visitor entrance.
Sources used for the access review
- Experience Wakefield — Stanley Ferry walk ↗ · reviewed 2026-09-13
What the official index records
Historic England / Planning Data records this location as Stanley Ferry aqueduct. Our atlas groups it under industrial relics using that source wording.
Record details
- Category
- Industrial relics
- Source classification
- Stanley Ferry aqueduct
- Period / construction dates
- 1837–1839
- Current condition
- Not verified
- Designation
- Scheduled monument
- Designation date
- Not supplied
- Nearest reference town
- Wakefield (approximate)
- County / historic source county
- Not supplied
- County or local authority (ONS)
- Wakefield
- Nation
- England
- Source record ID
- 1005773
- Coordinates
- 53.702393, -1.46255 (reference point, not an entrance)
- Index checked
- 2026-09-13
- Source last updated
- 2026-08-28
- Published access reviewed
- 2026-09-13
Index verification means the record and supplied attributes were checked against the official downloaded index on 2026-09-13. It does not mean a site visit or confirmation of current access. Points may refer to a whole complex, a surviving component or a recorded location.