Canal & River Trust, the charity charged with the care of 2,000 miles of canals in England and Wales, is set to deliver a wide-ranging programme of major maintenance and preservation projects to help keep the nation’s historic canal network navigable, open and alive. This includes the top and bottom end gates on Lock 87 on the Rochdale Canal in Manchester, due to take place between February and March 2026.
It is a vast, multi-million-pound endeavour to upkeep the nation’s 250-year-old man-made canal network. This winter’s essential works will span 45 canals and rivers nationwide, including 137 separate projects at more than 100 locks, 14 bridges, two tunnels and a host of embankments, sluices, culverts and canal walls.
The work, which spans the length and breadth of the country, takes place between November and March when there is less boating traffic. Six of these large-scale lock gate replacement projects are possible thanks to funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
This support enables 20 lock gates, which have reached the end of their 25-year lives, to be removed and replaced with new ones. Each lock gate is individually designed and hand-built at one of the charity’s two specialist workshops by skilled craftspeople using traditional techniques.
Lock 87 gate replacement on Rochdale Canal, Manchester
The old lock gates were lifted out on Tuesday, 17th February, using a 50-tonne city crane and new bespoke oak gates – which weigh around three tonnes each (the average weight of a male Indian elephant, by the way) and are built by hand at a specialist workshop in Yorkshire – were installed at lock 87 on the Rochdale Canal, at the junction of Canal Street and Princess Street on Wednesday, 18th February.
During the process, dams were put in place and approximately 110,000 gallons of water was drained from the lock.
Malcolm Horne, chief infrastructure and programmes officer at Canal & River Trust, said: “Winter is the time of year when the focus for our skilled in-house construction teams turns to delivering the larger maintenance and engineering projects that are essential to keeping our 250-year-old canal network open and alive.
“Canals are centuries-old working heritage and, with rising costs, climate pressures and more extreme weather events, the challenge of keeping them in good condition for navigation has never been greater.
“While millions of people use and visit the canals every week, perhaps they don’t stop to think about what it takes to look after them – or what we would lose if they were gone. Our canals cannot take care of themselves – keeping the nation’s canals open and safe requires millions of pounds. And the reality is, we cannot keep them alive without the support of boaters, our volunteers, supporters, and the wider public.”
Canal & River Trust is calling on people to donate and help safeguard England and Wales’ canals and rivers for the future – you can find out more here.