Castleford Lock On The Aire And Calder Navigation - Castleford, UK
Posted by: dtrebilc
N 53° 43.886 W 001° 21.471
30U E 608329 N 5954892
This lock is lock number 8. It is close to the junction of the the River Aire and River Calder. From here the navigations heads west along the route of the Calder to Wakefield. Following the Aire takes you to Leeds to the north or Goole to the east.
Waymark Code: WMNPXM
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/15/2015
Views: 2
The Aire and Calder Navigation is a river and canal system of the River Aire and the River Calder in the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. The first improvements to the rivers above Knottingley were completed in 1704 when the Aire was made navigable to Leeds and the Calder to Wakefield, by the construction of 16 locks. Lock sizes were increased several times, as was the depth of water, to enable larger boats to use the system.
Steam tugs were introduced in 1831. In the 1860s, compartment boats were introduced, later called Tom Puddings, from which coal was unloaded into ships by large hydraulic hoists. This system enabled the canal to carry at its peak more than 1.5 million tons of coal per year, and was not abandoned until 1986. To handle trains of compartments, many of the locks were lengthened to 450 feet (140 m).
Although much of the upper reaches are now designated as leisure routes, there is still significant commercial traffic on the navigation. 300,000 tons were carried in 2007, although most of the traffic is now petroleum and gravel, rather than the coal which kept the navigation profitable for 150 years.
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The majority of canals in the UK are true, man made canals, not based on existing rivers. The locks on such canals vary in size, but rarely if ever match the size of the locks on this navigation.
On this section of the Navigation between Leeds and Castleford the locks are just over 200 feet long. This is to conform to the 700 tonne Euro barge standard size of 200 feet by 20 feet.
Because of the size of the locks the lock gates are mechanically operated. For commercial traffic this is always done by a lock keeper that uses an observation tower next to the lock. However leisure boat users are allowed to operate the lock via a control panel on the canal side.
A traffic light system indicates whether leisure boaters can operate the lock themselves. An amber light indicates that there is no lock keeper present and the lock can be self-operated by boaters. This is the normal practice these days except when commercial traffic is expected. If there is a green light showing a lock keeper is present and the lock is ready for you to enter. A red light indicates that the lock keeper does not want you to enter the lock because a commercial craft is being handled.
This is a flood lock at the top end of one of the cuts on the navigation. The gates are normally left open and in flood conditions the gates are closed and boats banned from using the lock. However if the river level is only slightly higher than normal then the gates are closed and the lock operates as a normal lock. An indicator board in the lock walls is used as a simple visual indicator of the river's height.
Green indicates it is safe to proceed.
Amber indicates proceed with caution.
Red indicates stron stream conditions - do not proceed.