Ferrybridge & West Knottingley

Ferrybridge and West Knottingley sit on the Aire and its navigation channel in the Wakefield district, where waterways and former industrial sites shape the layout. The navigation here includes a run of locks and an adjoining weir that still manage river levels for boats and for local flood control. Much of the area grew around energy and manufacturing; the power station site and nearby yards once handled coal, rail freight and heavy goods, and those transport corridors remain visible in the road and rail alignments that cross the parish. Housing, small shops and light industry cluster close to the riverbank and the main routes into Knottingley town centre.

Green strips follow the river and the navigation towpath, used by walkers, anglers and cyclists. Boat moorings and occasional barge traffic give the waterfront a working feel, and the town’s glassmaking past can still be traced in older industrial buildings near West Knottingley. Local community facilities, schools and parish halls sit within short distances of the river, so daily life here is tied closely to the waterways and the infrastructure that served the area’s industrial era.