On 21st February, WHS members Lesley Taylor and Shirley Levon enjoyed speaking to a large, friendly and responsive audience at Halifax Antiquarian Society about John Smeaton and the Calder Navigation. Many of the Halifax ‘gentlemen’ who backed the building of the navigation between 1760 and 1763 will be familiar characters to Halifax local historians. The venue for the meeting was Calderdale Industrial Museum, adjacent to the Piece Hall. John Caygill, who was one of two treasurers for the Commissioners of the Navigation, provided the land on which the Piece Hall was built. .
You can find out more from their book, available through Wakefield Historical Publications: