Lock 85 On The Leeds Liverpool Canal - Ince-In-Makerfield, UK - Waterway Locks, Planes and Lifts on Waymarking.com

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 21) and the number carved into the walls of most of the locks 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.

This lock is a Grade II Listed building with the following details "Canal lock. 1816, for Leeds-Liverpool Canal, engineer John Rennie; altered. Coursed sandstone blocks (coping replaced with concrete); oak gates and beams to upper end, and iron gates and beams to lower end; 3 small mooring bollards on each side; overflow channel on south side.".

Waterway Name: The Leeds Liverpool Canal Connected Points: The main line of the canal connects the city of Leeds with the city of Liverpool. At Leeds it has a junction with the Aire and Calder Navigation. There is a separate arm on the canal at Wigan which connects to Leigh and has a junction with the Bridgewater Canal. There is also an arm at Burscough to Tarleton which has a junction with the Douglas Navigation. Type: Lock Date Opened: 01/01/1816 Elevation Difference (meters): 3.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/20/2018 ntpayne visited it