Rochdale Canal Lock 61 – Middleton, 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 a summit tunnel. 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 a summit tunnel 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 2002.

Details of this lock
This lock was restored in 2002 and the lock gates were replaced with new ones made at Northwich.

Next to the bottom lock gates is a small wooden footbridge that gives access to both sides of the lock for boaters to operate the lock gates.

On many locks there are warning signs about making sure the boat does not get caught 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.

This lock was at its lowest when I took the pictures and the cill is clearly visible. When the cill is visible it's much easier to understand the hidden danger.

Not far beyond the lock is a large cast iron railway bridge crossing the canal at an angle,

It was built in 1839 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway Company. As it’s name suggests it connected the cities of Manchester and Leeds but it also ran parallel with the canal for almost the canal's whole length. It was this railway, and then later road transport that led to the canal's demise in 1937.

Waterway Name: The Rochdale Canal Connected Points: The city of Manchester on the western side of the Pennine hills and the town of Sowerby Bridge on the east. Type: Lock Date Opened: 01/01/1804 Elevation Difference (meters): 2.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

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