tarboat's photos with the keyword: aire & calder

The Canal & River Trust held an open day today at Bullholme Lock, Castleford, on the Aire & Calder Navigation. The lock has had two new sets of gates fitted and now awaits the new cills. Stairways had been erected to allow visitors to descend to the bottom of the lock chamber to see the work close-up. These two craftsmen were answering questions about fitting the gates and the various techniques necessary to make everything fit and to keep the seals watertight. It can be a heavy, cold and dirty job and they deserve recognition for their work. Thanks lads for answering all my questions so patiently and thoroughly.

The open day at Bullholme Lock, Castleford, proved very popular with many people taking the opportunity to descend into the drained chamber and inspect the gate replacement works close-up. The lock is about 460ft long although there are intermediate gates at the point I was standing which allow just 200ft of the chamber to be used when a 700-tonne Euro-barge standard vessel is passing. The longer chamber was used when trains of compartment boats were passing through.