The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is the longest canal in Northern England at 127 miles long. It passes through 91 locks with a summit level of 487 feet.
It originates from a proposal to build a canal from Leeds to Preston in 1765
So a little about canal boats, on the Leeds-Liverpool canal you are likely to see two widths of boat (also know as the ‘beam’) narrow and broad, can you guess which is which?
The Leeds-Liverpool is a broad beam canal the locks will take two narrow boats at a time, but only one broad beam. We shared our accent of the Bank Newton Flight of locks with another narrow boat. Joe tells me that sharing locks like this saves over 1,000 baths full of water at each lock, more than a lifetimes worth of baths as far as he is concerned.
Each lock and bridge is numbered, for the locks the numbers run from Leeds to Liverpool and for the bridges the numbers run from Liverpool to Leeds, it strikes me that this must have been a committee decision, centuries may pass but committees ( and local politics) remain the same.
Lock are quite hard work, they are used to lift or lower a boat from one level to another.
Tom suggested it might have been a good idea to have chosen a canal boat holiday in an area that was flat not hilly.
The boys were particularly fond of the swing bridges,
where they got to stop the traffic.
October 25, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Very interesting to learn more about the canal, boats, locks and bridges. It seems like a perfect choice of a holiday break for your family with the two boys…and Spud. Since it is autumn, I am wondering if it was cold as the evening approached and how they are heated. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of ‘going with the flow’ on a canal, so perhaps I’ll have to put in on my wish list.
October 26, 2010 at 1:25 am
To be able to stop a line of cars with an imperious gesture–that’s living! And what fine hills rise above the canal. I would have been greatly distracted. Probably would’ve fallen in myself.
October 26, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Just out of interest, how deep is the canal? I ask because we panicked a few years ago when my daughter’s friend fell into the canal near us, only to realise she was standing on the bottom, and the water was at her waist.
October 27, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Thanks for such an interesting and informative post! xx
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