Rochdale Canal Lock 24 – Gauxholme, UK - Waterway Locks, Planes and Lifts on Waymarking.com

The Canal History
The Rochdale Canal was completed in 1804 and is one of three canals that cross the Pennine hills. This is the only one that doesn’t use tunnels. In addition it was a broad canal with bridges and locks that allowed boats of 14 feet width to pass through.

The one downside of not using tunnels is that it originally had 92 locks. These days two of them have been combined into one deep lock.

Competition from railways and roads subsequently led to a decline in goods being carried and by 1937 the only section left in operation was at the Manchester end of the canal.

In 1965 there was talk of abandoning the canal but by this time leisure boating had become very popular in the UK and there was a campaign to keep it open. Work was started and the canal slowly re-opened in a number of different stages. The whole length finally reopened in September 2007.

All the locks on the canal have a standard length of 72 feet (22 metres).

Details of this lock
This lock is named Gauxholme Highest Lock and as the name suggests this is the middle lock of a set of 3 situated in the small village of Gauxholme. There are a number of industrial buildings along this stretch of the canal, including a warehouse with a wharf that was obviously used for the loading and unloading of goods.

The lock has an integrated wooden foot bridge that gives access to the other side of the canal to allow the lock gates to be operated.

This lock was made a Grade II listed building by English Heritage in 1984 before the canal was restored, reference number 1278603. This web site refers to the fact that some locks including this one had a provision for a double set of lock gates. The extra gates are for when smaller boats of up to 57.5 feet went through. This provision would save 50 gallons of water. It also states that there is no evidence that the system was ever used.

Waterway Name: The Rochdale Canal Connected Points: The city of Manchester on the west side of the Pennine hills and the town of Sowerby Bridge on the east side. Type: Lock Date Opened: 01/01/1804 Elevation Difference (meters): 3.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   01/15/2013 hulletteers visited it