Lock 36 On Leeds Liverpool Canal - Leeds, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 58.585 W 002° 07.952
30U E 556893 N 5981245
This lock called Bank Newton Bottom Lock is on The Leeds Liverpool Canal which at 127 miles long is the longest canal in Northern England.
Waymark Code: WMN7H1
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/12/2015
Views: 1
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 normally 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.
The construction of the canal was started in 1770 and the first section opened in 1774 and finally completed in 1816. These days no commercial traffic operates on the canal, but it is popular with leisure boaters and the canal never closed.
The lock is an English Heritage Grade II listed building with the following details. "Lock, c.1790. Robert Whitworth, Engineer. Dressed sandstone, rebated for gates which are of wood. Coping is ramped and sweeps out to the basin at the lower end."
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It is the bottom lock of a series of 6 locks at Bank Newton. These locks were built in 1790 when the canal was extended from Gargrave to Burnley.
A small wooden footbridge over the bottom gates gives access to both sides of the lock to operate the gates.