Lathom Locks 1 Swing Bridge - Burscough, UK - Moving Bridges on Waymarking.com

The main line of the canal is 127.25 miles long and flows from the inland woollen town of Leeds to the coastal sea port of Liverpool, crossing the Pennines along the way. Work on the canal started in 1770 and built in a number of sections and was finally completed in 1816.

This branch off the main line links Burscough to the River Douglas at Tarleton. This was also built in stages between 1760 and 1805.

There is a lock very close to the junction on the Rufford Branch and this metal bridge is just in front of the top gates.

Although there are many vehicular swing bridges on canals in rural areas with light traffic, this one is unusual because it is a very narrow bridge only wide enough for pedestrians in single file. It is usually kept in its closed position so has to be opened whenever a boat uses the lock.

In many ways the bridge is superfluous. It is always necessary for boat owners to access both sides of the canal to operate the lock gates. The way this is done varies from lock to lock, but in many cases there is a small footbridge over the lock next to the bottom gates. This footbridge being next to the bottom gates, where the level of the water in the canal is at its lowest is always high enough to allow canal boats to pass underneath it.

This lock does have such a footbridge at the bottom gates so pedestrians could easily use that bridge to cross the canal, rather than the swing bridge. The presence of the swing bridge however means that boat users have to a little bit of extra work to get through the lock.

Bridge Type: Swing Bridge Pedestrian Traffic: yes Bicycle Traffic: no Vehicular Traffic: no Railway Traffic: no Built: Not listed Span: Not listed

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