Bingley Five-rise Locks: Famous 250-year-old locks which are one of the 'seven wonders of the waterways'

Described by the Canal & River Trust as among “the seven wonders of the waterways”, this staircase of locks is the most famous of all the 92 locks on the 127-mile-long Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

It is also a regular feature on Yorkshire calendars.

The locks are situated on a slightly elevated contour above Bingley in the Aire Valley and opened to traffic in 1774 as part of a stretch of canal from Skipton to just below its junction with the Bradford Canal near Shipley.

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At the same time work on the smaller Bingley Three-rise Locks was completed.

Bingley Five-rise LocksBingley Five-rise Locks
Bingley Five-rise Locks

Five-rise constitute the steepest flight of locks on UK waterways with a gradient of one in five, enabling boats to climb 60 feet over a distance of 320 feet.

Designed by John Longbotham of Halifax, the first engineer to work on the Leeds & Liverpool, the grand opening of both sets of locks is said to have attracted a crowd of 30,000.

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A report in the Leeds Intelligencer, forerunner of the Yorkshire Post, stated that the first barge to pass through the Five-rise took 29 minutes to complete the journey “to the amazement and delight of the spectators.”

It added: “This joyful and much wished-for event was welcomed with ringing of Bingley bells, a band of music, the firing of guns by the neighbouring militia”.

Horses hauled cargo boats which were shorter than today’s narrowboats.

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Steam powered boats were introduced in 1858 and diesel engines were first used in 1920, but horses continued to pull some commercial loads as late as 1961.

Today only pleasure craft ply the canal, and the complexity of navigating the Five-rise still requires the services of a lock keeper to guide users through the process and regulate the flow of water.

The locks celebrated their 250th anniversary in March.

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