Wednesday, October 07, 2009

ABC Wednesday - L is for Lock 84


Here I am looking down at lock 84 on the Rochdale Canal from Dale Street in the heart of Manchester. Ahead is the Piccadilly Basin. One narrowboat has already entered the lock.


There are now two boats in the lock and the men are opening the lock gates.


As the water fills the lock, the two boats rise up to the next level.


The boats continue on their way and the lock gates are closed behind them.



These boats are heading out of Manchester towards Rochdale. Their next lock is #83 followed by Lock 82.

They have already negotiated locks 92-84 (known as the Rochdale Nine) from the start of the canal where it leaves the Bridgewater Canal.

For more information about the Rochdale Canal visit Pennine Waterways.

For more L posts visit ABC Wednesday.

11 comments:

  1. Nice series of shots showing how the locks work.

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  2. Locks are an amazing process, and I would think very time consuming for the boats. I hope they're not in any hurry!
    Thanks for the photos and explanation of how locks work.

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  3. I remember seeing the locks at the Soo Canal in Michigan many years ago and being fascinated by how they worked. We don't have any canals here in the heart of the Midwest:)Thanks for a very interesting post!

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  4. Wonderful shots. I've seen several of these locks before but these photos are excellent!

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  5. Great photos and text. Thank you for sharing this information.

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  6. It's always extraordinary to me that canals might run through cities - there surely couldn't be a greater contrast between the quiet, ordered life of a canal boat and the busy metropolis.

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  7. Gerald, I was reading an old copy of Harrier News this morning and stumbled across a race result that might interest you and perhaps some of your Ackworth visitors -
    Ackworth Half Marathon 16Mar2008
    1st. D Bannister (Shaftesbury Harriers) 66m24s (667 finishers)
    Is he, as one might suspect, any relation to arguably the world's most famous runner Roger Bannister the first man to run under 4 mins for the mile? That's almost putting Ackworth on the world map. You'll be wanting now to go back East :)
    All the best,
    Gwilym

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  8. Great series of photographs. Canals are wonderful engineering constructions and I like the fact there are two seats by this lock so it is possible to take your ease while watching all the action.

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  9. What a process. I have not seen the whole operation before, thanks for sharing.

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