Boat & Cruising Clubs Boat Builders Boaters Blogs Boaters Handbook Boat Handling Courses Boat Hire Firms Boat Insurance Boating Essentials Bridgewater Canal British Waterways Brokerage Firms B.S.C.Examiners Canal Art & Giftware Canal Search Canal Societies Chandlers Discount books and guides Equipment Suppliers Galleries Hotel Boats How Does That Work Inland Waterways Map Launderette List Magazines & Canal Guides Mail On The Move Manchester Ship Canal Marinas Maximum Craft Dimensions Museums & Historic Boats Narrowboat Owners Web Sites New Marina At Scarisbrick Other Canal Related Links Recycling by The Canals Ribble Link - Planning and Preparation. Seven Wonders of The Waterways Stoppages The Canal Builders There Go The Boats (1951 Canal Video) Trip, Restaraunt & Charter Boats UK Canals Web-Ring Wateways Of The UK What Does That Mean

The 5-rise is the steepest staircase flight of locks in the UK, with a gradient of about 1:5 (a rise of 59ft 2in over a distance of 320ft). The intermediate and bottom gates are the tallest in the country. Because of the complications of working a staircase lock, and because so many boaters are inexperienced, a full-time lock keeper is employed, and the locks are padlocked "out of hours". Barry, the "locky", after twenty years based here is now almost infamous on the local canals. Barry was awarded an MBE in the 2006 New Year Honours List for "Services to Inland Waterways in the North" The locks opened on March 21, 1774 and a crowd of 30,000 people turned out to celebrate it! The smaller Three Rise opened at the same time just a few hundred yards further down the canal. The staircase is a major tourist attraction in the area. Most boats that pass through attract a lot of attention especially at weekends where they may be a crowd of thirty people or more watching a boat go up or down! The staircase underwent extensive restorative maintenance in 2004,and again in 2006 when the lock gates and paddles were replaced. As is expected with such a feat of engineering it requires a lot of maintenance and is often on British Waterway's list of winter stoppages. UKCanals Ring Owner: Ken Fairhurst Site: UK Canals PREV LIST RANDOM JOIN NEXT Powered by Bravenet UK Waterways web ring member [ See All Sites | Join | Random | << Prev | Next >> ] Top 100 Sites The author is a member of Mail the Web-master. This site is designed and written by KJF Designs © 2000 - 2009