Rochdale Canal Lock 34 – Warland, 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 Warland Lower Lock, and as the name suggests is one of a pair of locks at Warland. It has an integrated stone arch bridge built as an access bridge. It also gives pedestrian access to the other side of the canal to allow the lock gates to be operated.

A lock always forms the narrowest part of the canal and so incorporating the bridge into the lock makes it smaller and cheaper to build. In this case it gives road access to a nearby farm.

There is a warning notice on the lock gates indicating this is a narrow lock and only wide enough for one boat at a time. Most leisure boats are narrow boats and because this canal was designed for boats 14 feet wide it’s possible for two boats to enter the locks side by side. However this lock is not wide enough for that.

This lock was made a Grade II listed building by English Heritage in 1984 before the canal was restored, reference number 1230548.

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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