10e. Beverley Beck Canal Walk

Scenes from the Yorkshire Wolds, East Riding of Yorkshire, North Sea Coast and South Yorkshire

See also

 Beverley Minster and Minster carvings * Town Centre * St Mary's Parish Church * Beverley Beck Canal Walk

This is very pleasant and interesting ~1.5 mile canal walk from the centre of Beverley to the River Hull and plenty to look out for e.g. boat moorings, leisure boats, rowing and motor boats for hire, a boat yard and fishing and an attractive tree-lined.

The Beverley canal is now home to the historic barge 'SYNTAN' owned by the Beverley Barge Preservation Society that once worked the local waterways carrying freight. The length of the Beverley Canal is ~0.8 miles.
 

The Beverley Beck is first mentioned in 1296 to connect the town with the River Hull. The medieval wharf at Grovehill was converted into a lock in 1704. For nearly 700 years it was an important, if short, trading route from Beverley to the outside world well into the 1970s using motorised barges.

The Creeler Statue, at the town end of Beverley Beck (left photo), represents the medieval 'creelers', who were the labourers who unloaded the barges on the canal and carried the goods into the commercial centre of Beverley town

The road on the left is Beckside North, which was part of our return route, so we started our walk on the south side (on the right).

Information board on the port of Beverley. Beverley Beck was once a very busy medieval port with boats regularly arriving at the wharves e.g. from Holland (Netherlands) and Belgium. Stone for the Minster was also conveyed from quarries by boat or barge.

Creelers or carriers would unload heavy baskets of firewood, salt and other goods which carried on carts to the town on barrows and sleds by carters and porters. The area by the wharves was also quite industrial e.g. kilns of the brickworks - the production of 'Beverley bricks and tiles' from local clay.

Even by the 1100s the Archbishop of York recognised the commercial importance of the Beverley Beck and had the waterway ('canal') deepened, straightened and widened so that larger commercial vessels could moor nearer the town centre and connect with the River Hull which ran south into the River Humber.

Before the arrival of the railways in the early 19th century, boats and barges were the quickest way to transport goods in bulk, but canal traffic significantly declined as the national railway network expanded.

In contrast to today, by the 1300s, Beverley was one of the largest towns in England and became very prosperous through the sale of wool, a valuable locally produced commodity.

The Beckside area was very busy and thrived on the work of millers, leather workers, shipwrights, potters and brick/tile makers.

The water in Beverley Beck and River Hull was also needed for the cloth and leather industries, power for corn mills as well as the transportation of goods.

By the 20th century the brick works was replaced by market gardens producing fruit, flowers and vegetables.

The SUN barge, moored in Beverley Beck, maintained by the Beverley Barge Preservation Society, formerly a British Waterways powered Mud Hopper built at Goole in 1960.
 

Crane Hill Wharf on the upper south side of Beverley Beck.

The preserved and fully restored to working barge SYNTAN, due to the hard work of the members of the Beverley Barge Preservation Society.

The barge SYNTAN was built in 1949 for Richard Hodgson Tanners in Beverley and became part of a fleet of 16 barges based at Beverley Beck. The barges where was used to carry coal and hides into the Tannery and transhipped vegetable raw materials used for tanning materials from India, South Africa and Paraguay. The barge SYNTAN also carried general cargoes such as grain, flour, paper and nuts to South and West Yorkshire.

The SYNTAN barge at Naburn Locks on the River Ouse south of York.

Near Grovehill Lock, the barge RALLY is in a dry dock near the start of the Beverley Beck as it branches off the River Hall.

Grovehill Lock was installed in 1803 to stabilise the water level in the Beverley Beck, since it would rise and fall with tides - the River Hull was tidal at this point.

The River Hull near the start of the Beverley Beck.

Moored boats at the start of the Beverley Beck, near Grovehill Lock, shot from Waterside Road

Information about the industries and workers in the past history of the wharves of Beverley Beck.

View of the Beverley Beck and Beverley Minster from the A1174/A174 road bridge over the canal.

A modern housing development on the south bank of the Beverley Beck - Beckside South.

Modern housing development on Beckside North, on the bank of Beverley Beck.

The barge SUN again

Passing SYNTAN again, view from Beckside North.

Left: The Sloop Inn, Beckside, Beverley, this old pub is first mentioned in the 1750s.

Right: Foresters Arms (once known as the Cock & Bottle), Beckside, Beverley, the site as a pub dates from ~1784, but was rebuilt ~1900 in a mock Tudor style.

Just north of the start of Beverley Beck, up Holme Church Lane is St Nicholas Church, Beverley. The medieval church, dating from the late 12th century, was demolished in the 17th century (1653-1655) due to its state of disrepair, and replaced by the present building by 1880.

 Beverley Minster and Minster carvings * Town Centre * St Mary's Parish Church * Beverley Beck Canal Walk

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 Beverley Minster and Minster carvings * Town Centre * St Mary's Parish Church * Beverley Beck Canal Walk