The locks on this canal were designed to carry the ‘short boats’ that had twice the capacity of the narrow boats used on other canals.
The locks therefore had to be wide enough to allow the 62 feet long, 14 feet wide boats through them. Most of the locks were also grouped together to give long runs between the locks.
The boats were mainly used to carry bulk cargoes such as coal, stone and limestone. Commercial traffic ceased in 1964, but the locks are still used to carry leisure boats which have become very popular. Ironically the leisure craft are often narrow boats, because there are links to other canals, and wider boats would not be able to pass through the locks on the other canals. These locks are wide enough to allow two narrow boats to enter the lock side by side.
The construction of the canal was started in 1770 and the first section opened in 1774 and it as finally completed in 1816.
The final section completed in 1816 ran from Wigan Junction in Aspull to Wigan. Like other sections of the canal it has a large number of locks grouped together, in this case 23. The first 21 are known as the Wigan Flight and link Wigan Junction with the start of a branch on the canal to Leigh. This flight has a total rise of 65.5 metres.
When these locks were built they were numbered from 1 to 23 (this is lock 1) and the number carved into the walls of the lock in Roman Numerals. However these days the modern numbering system starts at Leeds and ends in Liverpool, and this group of locks are numbered from 65 to 87.
Many locks and bridges on the canal are Grade II listed buildings. Their website is organised geographically and there is a combined listing for the first 13 of the locks on the flight and associated bridges.
Listed building
As can be imagined the listing has a lot of text describing the locks and bridges but the relevant text for this lock and integrated bridge is as follows. "Lock No. I next to lock keeper's cottage on Withington Lane (q.v.). Top gates are iron, bottom gates timber. Platform has granite setts and steps to towpath. Timber footbridge. Bridge No.58 adjoins, arch replaced by concrete beams."
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 top gates do not go to the bottom of the lock but sit 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 the lock is empty it is much easier to understand how this works. When I took the pictures of this lock the top chamber was empty and the cill was visible.
There were a number of coal mines around the area of Wigan and subsidence has affected some of the locks near here. This lock has had wooden beams added to the bottom gates to brace the lock and strengthen it.