Lock 45 On The Trent And Mersey Canal - Church Lawton, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 05.610 W 002° 15.944
30U E 549170 N 5882923
This double chamber lock is known as Townfield lock and is the 45th lock from the River Trent end of the canal.
Waymark Code: WMR1C4
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/27/2016
Views: 8
The Trent and Mersey Canal
The Trent and Mersey Canal was the UK's first long distance canal and as the name suggests was built to give a connection to the Rivers Trent and Mersey. (Access to the Mersey was actually via the Bridgewater Canal with some locks at Runcorn that no longer exist).
It opened in 1777 and is 93.5 miles (150.5 km) long and stretches from its connection with the Bridgewater Canal at Preston Brook to its connection with the River Trent at Derwent Mouth.
It has a total of 76 locks which in the middle of the canal were built for narrow boats with a maximum length of 72 ft (22 m) and width of 7 ft (2.1 m). However at each end of the canal near to the rivers they were built 14 ft (4.3 m) wide to accommodate wider river craft.
The canal was intended for bulk loads especially china pots and on the return journey china clay.
A number of other canals had junctions along its length and trade was so busy that some of the locks were turned into double ones so that two boats could use the lock at the same time.
Commercial use of the canal continued until the 1950s but these days is mainly used by leisure boaters.
Lock 45
This lock is on the narrow part of the canal and can only take narrow boats with a maximum width of 7 ft (2.1 m). However it is one of the locks that where a second chamber was added because of the number of boats using the canal. When commercial usage of the canal reduced some of these locks went down to single usage, but this canal is extremely popular with leisure boaters and at peak times the double chambers are once again useful.
Each chamber manually operated by the boat owners and has a single top gate and double bottom gates. The paddles for the top gate are on the canal bank whereas on the lower gates are built into the gates themselves.
Waterway Name: The Trent and Mersey Canal
Connected Points:
The end points are the Bridgewater Canal at Preston Brook and the River Trent at Trentmouth.
There also junctions with the Macclesfield Canal at Kidsgrove, the Caldon Canal at Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent, the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal at Great Haywood, and the Coventry Canal at Fradley Junction
Type: Lock
Date Opened: 01/01/1777
Elevation Difference (meters): 2.00
Site Status: Operational
Web Site: [Web Link]
Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed
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