tarboat's photos with the keyword: navigation

As the light fades a northbound London Northwestern service crosses Dutton Viaduct over the River Weaver.

Hoby Bridge over the River Wreake. This river formed part of the Melton Mowbray Navigation which from 1797 brought barges to Melton from the River Soar via twelve broad locks. Initially very profitable the navigation declined with the building of railways in the locality and was abandoned in 1877. There is an active society campaigning to preserve what remains and with a long term aim of restoring navigation to Melton Mowbray and even onwards to Oakham. This bridge has seen extensive restoration and is now in good condition.

Sutton Weaver swing bridge on the Weaver Navigation. Completed in 1926 and much neglected and rusty of late. It is now undergoing a major refurbishment.

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.

Office of the éclusier at Monceau-sur-Sambre.

Calamanco Lock at Flixton was one of the original eight locks constructed on the Mersey & Irwell Navigation in the 1720s. The site was already weired to provide a head for an existing mill and the rise of the lock was 3ft 3ins. The original lock 68 feet long by 16 feet 4 inches wide to accommodate Mersey Flats. It was rebuilt in 1820 and extended to 72 feet 8 inches long as seen here. All was swept away in the early 1890s with the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal. This image features in Bosdin Leech's history of the Manchester Ship Canal and was found with all the other illustrations dumped in a skip having been detached from the book at some time.

This fine crane survives out of use at the Calder Wharf in Ravensthorpe on the Calder and Hebble Navigation. Sadly the adjacent warehouses are now derelict and when I last looked were roofless.

Until the opening of the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric power station in 1929, the navigation of the Shannon passed through O'briensbridge. For many years there was no towpath under the bridge and the navigation arch was the fourth one out from the Clare bank. To enable boats to safely negotiate the bridge whilst coming upstream a capstan was provided on a pier in the river and boats were hauled through on a rope. Later modifications to the bridge reduced the number of arches and also created a towpath. The surviving capstan is aligned with the towpath arch and was still in use until O'briensbridge was cut off from through navigation in 1929. More detail about the capstans can be found on this interesting site run by Brian Goggin.