It was built by the canal engineer William Jessop to link the city of Ripon with the navigable section of the River Ure at Oxclose Lock, from where boats could reach York and Hull.

The engineer overseeing the day-to-day operation was John Smith, and a masonry contractor from Halifax called Joshua Wilson was also employed.

[2] One of the primary purposes of the canal was the carriage of coal to Ripon, north from the Yorkshire coalfields, with lead and agricultural produce moving in the opposite direction.

[1] Trade on the canal grew steadily, but there were difficulties by the 1820s, as the commissioners had failed to repay the original loans and interest totalling £11,450 had accrued on them.

[3] The original Commissioners had ceased to function, and so a group of creditors formed "The Company of Proprietors of the River Ure Navigation to Ripon", and obtained a second Act of Parliament on 23 June 1820, which gave them powers to raise £34,000 by the issuing of shares, with an extra £3,400 if needed.

[3] Despite the railway from Darlington to York opening on 4 January 1841, which provided a way to bring coal from the Durham Coalfields south to York, the Aire and Calder Canal were shipping around 26,931 tonnes of coal per year along the Ure Navigation at the time, and the Company of Proprietors was making profits of £886 on an income of £2,013.

An Act of Parliament to authorise the railway was obtained in July 1845, and the Navigation was bought for £34,577 in January 1846, although only £16,297 was paid in cash.

[5] To assist with the restoration of the section from Littlethorpe Lock to Ripon the Inland Waterways Association managed to have the idea included in North Yorkshire County Council's "River Ure and Ouse Recreational Subject Plan".

[7] The restoration was finally completed in 1996 and David Curry MP declared it open at a ceremony held on 8 September.

With their task completed the Ripon Canal Society disbanded at their 1997 annual general meeting, giving the remains of their funds towards the repair of Linton Lock lower down the River Ure.

Ripon was said to be the most northerly point of the connected British canal system, a claim that was affected by the opening of the Ribble Link in 2002.