Oddy Locks On The Leeds Liverpool Canal - 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 although not all were staircase locks like this with no gap between each lock.

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.

Staircase locks are used when there is a need to raise canal boats quickly over a short distance. Unlike normal locks there is no pound or stretch of water between the sets of gates and boats enter the second lock chamber immediately after negotiating the first.

Whether heading up or down, the top lock needs to be full, and the bottom lock empty. The boat needs to enter its nearer lock, equalise the levels, forward into the other lock, and operate that like a single lock.

Each of the two chambers have a wooden footbridge to allow boaters to access the paddles at both sides of the lock.

The locks on this canal are numbered from the Leeds end of the canal and for numbering purposes Oddy Locks is considered to be locks 4 and 5.

A plaque on the lock gates indicate that they were replaced in 2011. Lock gates have an expected working life of around 30 years and a number of gates are replaced in the winter months when there is less traffic on the canal than normal.

Waterway Name: The Leeds Liverpool Canal Connected Points: Connects the City of Leeds with the City of Liverpool. It also has a junction with the Aire and Calder Navigation at Leeds and the Bridgewater Canal at Leigh. Type: Lock Date Opened: 01/01/1777 Elevation Difference (meters): 4.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

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