Rochdale Canal Lock 50 – Rochdale, UK - Waterway Locks, Planes and Lifts on Waymarking.com

The Canal History
The Rochdale Canal was completed in 1804 and is one of three canals that cross the Pennine hills. This is the only one that doesn’t use tunnels. In addition it was a broad canal with bridges and locks that allowed boats of 14 feet width to pass through.

The one downside of not using tunnels is that it originally had 92 locks. These days two of them have been combined into one deep lock.

Competition from railways and roads subsequently led to a decline in goods being carried and by 1937 the only section left in operation was at the Manchester end of the canal.

In 1965 there was talk of abandoning the canal but by this time leisure boating had become very popular in the UK and there was a campaign to keep it open. Work was started and the canal slowly re-opened in a number of different stages. The whole length finally reopened in September 2007.

Details of this lock
This lock is also known as Moss Lower Lock. It is immediately next to a road bridge that carries Oldham road over the canal. As well as carrying road traffic it gives access to the other side of the canal to allow the lock gates to be operated by boat users

A lock always forms the narrowest part of the canal and so incorporating the bridge into the lock makes it smaller and cheaper to build.

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 gate does not go to the bottom of the lock but sits 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.

This lock was at its lowest when I took the pictures and the cill is clearly visible. When the cill is visible it's much easier to understand the hidden danger.

This lock was made a Grade II listed building by English Heritage in 1985 before the canal was restored, reference number 1084248.

This web site refers to the fact that some locks including this one had a provision for a double set of lock gates. The extra gates are for when smaller boats of up to 57.5 feet went through. This provision would save 50 gallons of water.

It also states that there is no evidence that the system was ever used.

Waterway Name: The Rochdale Canal Connected Points: The city of Manchester on the western side of the Pennine hills and the town of Sowerby Bridge on the east. Type: Lock Date Opened: 01/01/1804 Elevation Difference (meters): 3.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

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