Inside a Lock

Day 2 of our spring cruise with Solace.

This is a view I very rarely see usually I am ashore operating the lock paddles - my favourite part of canal cruising. CC is usually fully occupied, feeding the crew, keeping a good supply of tea going and keeping FredaH company. Recently she has felt she needs to be able to do all the jobs entailed in cruising. So she was operating the paddles opening the lock gates etc. for this lock near Stoke on Trent.

Locks are an impressive piece of engineering considering the principle was developed in the 18th century. However the bats then were wooden and only horse powered and so didn't result in quite so much wear in the gates as constantly coming into contact with large metal objects pushed along by big diesel engines. The result you see before you - leaking lock gates.

As I rarely see the inside of a lock from this angle I took the opportunity to capture the patterns created by the water and a little of the movement.

Back blipped into the period when I was a guest my blipping started 17.12.13