Rochdale Canal Lock 30 – Walsden, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 41.435 W 002° 05.986
30U E 559445 N 5949473
The Rochdale canal is 32 miles long and connects Manchester on the west side of the Pennine Hills and Sowerby Bridge on the east side.
Waymark Code: WMERBA
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/01/2012
Views: 3
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 Winterbutlee Lock, and has an integrated wooden foot bridge that gives access to the other side of the canal to allow the lock gates to be operated.
Canal locks always have a way of letting excess water flow past the lock gates. Depending on the lay of the land and the design of the lock the overflow is not always very obvious. In this case there is a side channel where the water can clearly be seen by-passing the lock.
On many locks there are warning signs about making sure the boat does not get on the cill.
It's not always obvious what this means, but basically the wooden lock gate does not go to the bottom of the lock but sits on a stone base. When the lock is full and a boat is going down, the cill is not visible. This means that when the water is released from the lock it is possible for the boat to get caught on the cill.
When I was here the lock was almost empty and the canal level was quite high with water flowing over the lock gates. However it’s possible to see the cill and turbulence as the water falls on to it. It’s much easier to understand the hidden danger when the lock is empty rather than full.
This lock was made a Grade II listed building by English Heritage in 1984 before the canal was restored,
reference number 1230534.