Lock 87 On The Leeds Liverpool Canal - Wigan, UK
Posted by: dtrebilc
N 53° 32.422 W 002° 38.216
30U E 524059 N 5932445
This lock is on The Leeds Liverpool Canal which at 127 miles long is the longest canal in Northern England.
Waymark Code: WMPX5G
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/02/2015
Views: 3
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 number 87 is the lowest lock of all of them and is known as Wigan Bottom Lock. It is a Grade II
Listed building
with the following details "Canal lock. 1816. By John Rennie; restored. Coursed squared sandstone blocks (coping now concrete); wooden gates at lower end, steel gates at upper end. South side of lower end has inscription "L No.XXIII", and above this an oval metal plate lettered "87". Modern metal footbridge over lower end probably replacing former wooden footbridge.".