The Navigation

The Navigation is a house, now a pub, in Sowerby Bridge. It probably originated in the early to mid 17th century with earlier foundations, extended in the late 18th century and converted into cottages with a weaving shop above, and then in the early 19th century converted into a pub. The building is constructed of coursed squared stone and thin-coursed stone, with a stone slate roof.

The east front has two storeys and an attic, arranged over four bays. The left bay, added in the 18th century using thin-coursed stone with quoins, features a blocked, corniced doorway and a 3-light, flat-faced mullion window within the reveal, above which is an eaves stack. The main 17th-century section has, to the left, a round-arched doorway with voussoirs, a window inserted in approximately 1970 to its left, and an 8-light, double-chamfered mullion and transom window with a king mullion and diamond-stopped dripmould to its right. Above these are two 3-light, double-chamfered mullion windows. The right-hand bay has paired doorways dating from the late 18th or early 19th century, with a 3-light, flat-faced mullion window to the right on each floor. Two renewed stacks are present, one of brick, projecting forward from the ridge, above the doorway and between the right-hand bays.

At the rear, the two left-hand bays are three-storeyed, featuring 18th-century paired doorways and a 3-light window to the left on each floor, with a 2-light window to the right on each floor. These rear windows are 18th-century, flat-faced mullioned, with some mullions removed. The two right-hand bays have been refronted in the 19th century, projecting forward and containing a corniced doorway flanked by 2-light windows on each floor, a continuous ground-floor hoodmould, and end stacks projecting forward from the ridge. The right return features a taking-in door to the attic/second floor. The left return has blocked ground-floor windows, a 2-light flat-faced mullion window on the first floor, two similar 3-light windows with stepped reveals, and two 2-light, flat-faced mullion windows in the gable.

The interior of the main housebody includes chamfered spine beams and a segmental-arched, moulded fireplace with a moulded cornice, bearing a later date inscribed "IMW 1722" (John and Mary Wainhouse). A mill was present on the site since 1300, and a house existed by 1521; in the 17th century, it was occupied by the Waterhouse family. The property was sold in the late 17th or early 18th century to John Wainhouse, whose initials are inscribed above the fireplace. The conversion to a pub likely followed the construction of the canal to the south between 1759 and 1764.