Lock Sizes on the Weaver

[Scholar Gypsy]

A quote from Simon Harding, project manager at CRT said: “Marsh Lock is a large ship lock built in 1895 to link the Weaver Navigation to the Manchester Ship Canal and allow commercial boat traffic at that time to transport salt and all manner of goods to serve industry. To give some idea of the scale of the project, most locks we repair fit one narrowboat at a time - Marsh Lock is big enough to fit in 29!”

 

How can it be 29 - which is a prime number? Perhaps Mr Harding has just divided the area of the lock by the area of a full length narrow boat?

 

Nice photo here: https://www.waterways.org.uk/news_campaigns/bulletins/iwa_bulletin_20170110#weaver

Edited January 11, 2017 by Scholar Gypsy

[David Mack]

A quote from Simon Harding, project manager at CRT said: “Marsh Lock is a large ship lock built in 1895 to link the Weaver Navigation to the Manchester Ship Canal and allow commercial boat traffic at that time to transport salt and all manner of goods to serve industry. To give some idea of the scale of the project, most locks we repair fit one narrowboat at a time - Marsh Lock is big enough to fit in 29!”

 

How can it be 29 - which is a prime number? Perhaps Mr Harding has just divided the area of the lock by the area of a full length narrow boat?

 

Nice photo here: https://www.waterways.org.uk/news_campaigns/bulletins/iwa_bulletin_20170110#weaver

 

That was my thought too. Perhaps the lock is 2030 feet long and 7 feet wide. Or maybe 70 feet long and 203 feet wide.

 

I suppose if it was 203 feet long and 70 feet wide you could get in 29 narrow boats sideways!

[RLWP]

 

That was my thought too. Perhaps the lock is 2030 feet long and 7 feet wide. Or maybe 70 feet long and 203 feet wide.

 

I suppose if it was 203 feet long and 70 feet wide you could get in 29 narrow boats sideways!

 

From passing through it - it is very big.

 

Richard

[Scholar Gypsy]

 

That was my thought too. Perhaps the lock is 2030 feet long and 7 feet wide. Or maybe 70 feet long and 203 feet wide.

 

I suppose if it was 203 feet long and 70 feet wide you could get in 29 narrow boats sideways!

 

very nice, hadn't thought of that,

[Alway Swilby]

Maybe its 550' x 28' so you'd get 28 70 footers in (7 lengthways x 4 widthways) with room for one more diagonally behind?

[RLWP]

Measuring off Google maps, it's about 45' wide and 200' long

 

My guess is that some time in the past, there was a cruise of 29 narrowboats that passed through in one locking

 

Richard

[Sanddancer]

 

From passing through it - it is very big.

 

Richard

I'll second that, Missing the narrow locks

[Scholar Gypsy]

I was tempted to explore this lock on a recent trip - there was plenty of room down the side.

 

[Mac of Cygnet]

I find it very difficult to find exact dimensions. Although 203ft x 36ft is mentioned for the lower Weaver, Marsh lock is not mentioned specifically. I didn't find it particularly huge - less than half the length of some of the Aire & Calder locks, although wider. Now this is what I call a big lock:

 

[Peter X]

Measuring off Google maps, it's about 45' wide and 200' long

 

My guess is that some time in the past, there was a cruise of 29 narrowboats that passed through in one locking

 

Richard

That sounds likely; with those dimensions plus a little more length you'd only (!) get 18 full size narrow boats in.

 

Maybe someone at CRT cut a lot of boat shapes out of cardboard based upon a representative sample of lengths from their licensing database, then fitted them into a scale map of the lock on their desk?

[Naughty Cal]

I find it very difficult to find exact dimensions. Although 203ft x 36ft is mentioned for the lower Weaver, Marsh lock is not mentioned specifically. I didn't find it particularly huge - less than half the length of some of the Aire & Calder locks, although wider. Now this is what I call a big lock:

 

I believe that Ocean Lock at Goole is the largest we have been through at 80ft wide x 375ft long.

[Scholar Gypsy]

I'll raise you King George V, the eastern entrance to the Royal Docks, Woolwich, London. 95 x 760' I think.

[Alway Swilby]

I find it very difficult to find exact dimensions. Although 203ft x 36ft is mentioned for the lower Weaver, Marsh lock is not mentioned specifically. I didn't find it particularly huge - less than half the length of some of the Aire & Calder locks, although wider. Now this is what I call a big lock:

 

Ah! Ferrybridge lock. The one where I offered my lock operating crew a lift to the other end!

[haggis]

We have been though Marsh lock when we cruised as part of an IWA trip from Ellesmere Port to the Weaver then a few days later onto Salford Quays. It was 2000 or 2002, I think. There were over 100 boats on the trip and we didn't all get through Marsh lock together unlike some of the ones on the MSC when we were about 10 or 12 across and there was still room at the back of the lock. That was fun as even although the boats were all tied to one another across the way and back and front, it was really hard to stop the whole lot moving when the opened the sluices

 

haggis

[Tacet]

Isn't is usual to measure in double-decker buses or number of Wales's?

 

I'll raise you King George V, the eastern entrance to the Royal Docks, Woolwich, London. 95 x 760' I think.

 

Hmm. The pedantic might argue that there is little conceptual difference between a pound (or even a reach) and a lock, which would complicate the argument.

[Jerra]

or number of Wales's?

I thought there was only one Wales just as there is only one Scotland.

[CaptAWOL]

From my notes facts and figures for Marsh lock, max. length of vessel 66.4m (218ft), max. beam 12.19m (40ft), max. draught 3.2m (10ft 6in), other locks on the Weaver will be the same dimensions

[mrsmelly]

Ah! Ferrybridge lock. The one where I offered my lock operating crew a lift to the other end!

 

Yes and a good mooring on the river just in view over to the left. Cromwell lock is a fair old size also. Incidentaly just out of view from this picture is the A1 where a truck once came thro the barrier and ended up in the river!! that would have been some old problem for a passing boat!!

[David Mack]

From my notes facts and figures for Marsh lock, max. length of vessel 66.4m (218ft), max. beam 12.19m (40ft), max. draught 3.2m (10ft 6in), other locks on the Weaver will be the same dimensions

 

Which, in area terms, will accommodate 29 43ft narrow boats, or 18 70ft nbs.

[Scholar Gypsy]

I'll raise you King George V, the eastern entrance to the Royal Docks, Woolwich, London. 95 x 760' I think.

 

 

 

 

Hmm. The pedantic might argue that there is little conceptual difference between a pound (or even a reach) and a lock, which would complicate the argument.

 

That's a fair point. On the River Idle at West Stockwith there are two guillotine sluices, which can be operated like a lock, on the rare occasions when boats pass through. About 1,100 feet long (with a slight kink). Width variable but about 70 foot. Certainly the biggest turf sided lock in the UK, maybe the world?

 

Edited January 11, 2017 by Scholar Gypsy

[Tim Lewis]

This is a big lock!

 

 

West India Dock entrance lock, taken on Monday.

 

Tim

[Tim Lewis]

I'll raise you King George V, the eastern entrance to the Royal Docks, Woolwich, London. 95 x 760' I think.

 

Sharing the KGV lock with a frigate :-)

 

 

Tim

[Tim Lewis]

We have been though Marsh lock when we cruised as part of an IWA trip from Ellesmere Port to the Weaver then a few days later onto Salford Quays. It was 2000 or 2002, I think. There were over 100 boats on the trip and we didn't all get through Marsh lock together unlike some of the ones on the MSC when we were about 10 or 12 across and there was still room at the back of the lock. That was fun as even although the boats were all tied to one another across the way and back and front, it was really hard to stop the whole lot moving when the opened the sluices

 

haggis

 

From the convoy away from the Manchester IWA National Festival in 1988:

 

 

Tim

[Iain_S]

I'll raise you King George V, the eastern entrance to the Royal Docks, Woolwich, London. 95 x 760' I think.

 

Raise you Leith docks entrance lock, 259.1m x 31.6m, which I make 850' x 103'

[churchward]

A quote from Simon Harding, project manager at CRT said: “Marsh Lock is a large ship lock built in 1895 to link the Weaver Navigation to the Manchester Ship Canal and allow commercial boat traffic at that time to transport salt and all manner of goods to serve industry. To give some idea of the scale of the project, most locks we repair fit one narrowboat at a time - Marsh Lock is big enough to fit in 29!”

 

How can it be 29 - which is a prime number? Perhaps Mr Harding has just divided the area of the lock by the area of a full length narrow boat?

 

Nice photo here: https://www.waterways.org.uk/news_campaigns/bulletins/iwa_bulletin_20170110#weaver

perhaps it is not exactly 29 but the chap was rounding the answer up or down?