Aire Miles - Wendy and others still walking

This is an update of progress on the project

Aire Miles

Written by:

Wendy Robinson

May 6, 2026

The Aire Miles Project sees Wendy Robinson of The Aire Rivers Trust walking the length of the River Aire over the course of a year. This is the penultimate leg of her journey.

River Aire running through the urban landscape of Leeds

Aire Mile 50 Crown Point, Leeds

Leeds outskirts and beyond

The last you heard was hopefully from Leeds City Golf Course in heavy rain with Emily Eden of YW’s Healthy Rivers Team. The next stage took me and a great bloke called Steve through Leeds city centre in fine, hot weather. First stop: Crown Point where the Leeds Liverpool Canal joins the river. From here on the river continues the navigation towards the east coast and boats still work along it. The river is kept deep and slow by a series of weirs. Americans refer to weirs as ‘low-head dams’ and the term more easily reflects their raison d’etre which is to raise the upstream water level and concentrate the river’s gradient into one short, steep drop.

Return to nature (but not natural)

We walked the riverside path to beyond Rothwell into an area that was an open cast mine-works, now treed over. We became lost and the footpath gone. While we were discussing this issue, Steve added to the agenda that neither of us had any food. What to do? Turn around? Walk on? Just at that point, would you believe it, we came across a tree laden with ripe apples. We munched onwards. Steve admitted that he didn’t care much for apples but a little further along, we came across a similarly laden pear tree. It felt like Wonderland and I began looking out for bottles labelled DRINK ME. From Rothwell, the Aire has been much straightened to make way for quarrying and the banks made vertical with pilings. Approaching Woodlesford however, the river regains its natural character and water fowl flock on the exposed gravels.

Wildlife sunning itself on a gravel bank

Ordnance Survey map showing location of Mile 55

Aire Mile 55 on an 1847 map

Humans changing the river

The photo of Aire Mile 55 is where the red dot is on the 1847 map. It shows that by 1847, the river had been straightened and its meanders disconnected. Check a modern OS map and you will see that the northern meander has been reinstated or in other words, the bend put back in. What a difference re-wiggling makes. We the walkers took the train from Woodlesford station back to Leeds and found a cafe.

Challenges of a navigable river

The next stages were through St Aidan’s and towards Castleford where Claire Beasant met up with me to explore this urban paradise. We paused on the wavy footbridge and gawped at a sunken half of a barge trapped across one of its piers. Then following the river upstream to Aire Mile 60 we found the other half of the barge. Claire picked up empty beer cans and I took photos of these gorgeous colours.
So back to the subject of weirs on a navigable river. Boats and weirs don’t mix that well and the solution is to build a canal to by-pass the drop. Pop a lock in to raise and lower the boats and Bob’s yer uncle. These pacified stretches of water also provide safe moorings and are busy, fascinating places.

An old barge sunk and still partly showing in the River Aire

A sunken barge in the river

In the next post, we will continue along the navigable stretch of the river until we reach its confluence with the Ouse at Airmyn.
This glorious river of ours needs looking after, by both professionals in the Aire Rivers Trust and our wonderful cohort of volunteers.

If you would like to help, you can find upcoming dates and more detail by visiting our volunteering page below:

Read about our volunteering opportunities

Whilst this was basically a voluntary effort, I want to thank all those who walked with me, and not least those members of Yorkshire Water's River Health Team, each of whom is committed to improving our rivers across the whole of Yorkshire.

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