Five Rise Locks

November 2004

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal was the first of the Trans-Pennine canals to be started and the last to be completed. The length and complexity of the route meant that the canal took around 46 years to build at a cost of five times the original budget.

The canal originates from a proposal in 1765 to construct a canal from Preston to Leeds to carry woollen goods from Leeds and Bradford and limestone from Skipton. Prospective backers in Lancashire argued for the canal to start from Liverpool.

The line of the canal, over 108 miles long, was laid out along the Aire valley by James Brindley, one of the greatest of the canal builders. The original survey for the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was not performed by Brindley and proved to be impracticable. Therefore in July 1768 Brindley carried out a survey of the canal and an act of Parliament was obtained in July 1769. Brindley was offered the post of engineer but he declined because he had so much other work.

Robert Whitworth and his brother started the construction of the 127 miles long canal but they didn't live to see its completion in 1816, (neither did Brindley who died in 1772).

River navigation couldn’t solve all the transport problems of industrial Yorkshire, so artificial waterways, or canals, were cut into the landscape. With the Pennines being so hilly, locks had to be introduced to raise or lower the level of the canal. Bingley Five Rise lock, which alters the height of the water by almost 60 ft, is the most impressive in Britain.

An amazing engineering feat, this stretch of the canal was opened on 21st March 1774, and the first boat down the Five Rise Locks took 28 minutes. The event was given full coverage in "The Leeds Intelligencer"

"From Bingley to about 3 miles downwards the noblest works of the kind are exhibited viz: A five fold, a three fold and a single lock, making together a fall of 120 feet; a large aqueduct bridge of seven arches over the River Aire and an aqueduct and banking over the Shipley valley ....... This joyful and much wished for event was welcomed with the ringing of Bingley bells, a band of music, the firing of guns by the neighbouring Militia, the shouts of spectators, and all the marks of satisfaction that so important an acquisition merits".


The lock system was designed by John Longbotham of Halifax and built in 1774 by local Stonemasons : Barnabus Morvill, Jonathan Farrar, William Wild all of Bingley and John Sugden from Wilsden. The locks raise boats 59ft 2in over a distance of 320ft

An 18th century engineering masterpiece, these five locks operate as a 'staircase' flight in which the lower gate of one lock forms the upper gate of the next. When completed in 1774, thousands gathered to watch the first boats make the 60 foot descent. Now, over 200 years later, the flight is still in daily use providing access to 16 miles of lock-free cruising on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in the glorious scenery of the Yorkshire Dales.

The staircase locks are slow to operate since all five must be 'set' before beginning passage. For a journey upwards, the bottom lock must be empty, with all the others full: the reverse is the case for a boat descending. It can take up to 90 minutes for a boat to work through the flight.

A Cafe and store are open (at the top of the lock system) from April to September 10:30-17:00. Weekend opening only from October to March.

Links

How a canal lock works Thanks to Haworth Website

Maps of Area

Day Trips

Pennine Waterways

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Pictures of Bingley locks

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gallery

Pictures of Bingley stocks

Pictures of Bingley barrels to follow :)