Lock 50 On The Leeds Liverpool Canal - Colne, 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.

This lock is the second lowest of seven locks known as Borrowford Locks, named after a nearby small village. The seven locks have a total rise of 69 feet 3 inches. The top lock of this rise is at the height of the highest stretch of the canal as it heads towards Foulridge Tunnel.

The lock is a Historic England Grade II Listed Building link

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.

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: 01/01/1794 Elevation Difference (meters): 3.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Logs marked as “visits” should be made after physically visiting the waymark location. Include a picture taken during the visit. Notes may be logged by individuals who have visited the web site or looked at the online information and would like to provide comments or feedback on the waymark.

Recent Visits/Logs:

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