Wonder of water world rises high
The famous Bingley Five Rise lock celebrates its 250th anniversary next week. Phil Penfold takes a look back at the history of this iconic piece of engineering. Pictures by Simon Hulme.
AGONGOOZLER is a person who enjoys watching activity on the British canals. A bit like a towpath trainspotter, if you like, but instead of just being fascinated by trains and rolling stock, gongoozlers are interested in everything in, on, or by the canal and its people. All of a canal’s many aspects.
The Canal and River Trust looks after around 2,000 miles of the UK’s canals and navigable rivers, and has been doing that since 2012. It’s the largest and finest example of industrial heritage in the world, but it also meanders through some of our finest countryside.
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is the longest of them all, a total of 127 miles, from Neville Street in the heart of Leeds, to Canning Dock, on the West coast. In Yorkshire, the canal flows through Kirkstall, Keighley, Skipton and then on to Bank Newton, where it crosses the border. There are several branches along the way and 91 locks. Construction began in 1770, and it wasn’t completed until 1816.
Strictly speaking, the first sod was cut in Halsall, just north of Liverpool, but the first truly working section was from Skipton to Shipley, in 1774. People of the day could wonder at the beauty of the seven-arch aqueduct over the River Aire at Dowley Gap, but the very best achievement was undoubtedly the eight locks at Bingley – the Three Rise and the “bigger sister”, the famed and Grade I listed, Five Rise.
This month, they celebrate a remarkable 250 years of service. Technically, the Five Rise is five ‘staircase’ locks, connected one to the other without intermediate ‘ponds’, and the lower gate of each ‘chamber’ forms the upper gate of the one below – which means that there are five chambers, and six gates. They are just over 14ft wide. It’s the steepest flight of locks in the UK, with a rise of nearly 60ft over a distance of 320ft.
The intermediate and bottom gates are the tallest in the country, and when it was opened on March 21, 1774, 30,000 people turned up to celebrate. It has been a favourite spot for gongoozlers ever since.
One of today’s volunteer lockkeepers is Philippa Gibbons – she is also Chair