Sutton level locks Cheshire Aug 10

[El Supremo]

These paired locks had double sets of gates to control the tidal flow up from the Mersey is well as the downhill water from the navigation level above it. After the building of the Manchester Ship Canal across the entrance to the Weaver, the lower water level became much more controlled and Sutton Locks became virtually redundant. They stood open both ways for most of the time, an awkward anachronistic constriction to traffic. In the 1950s a new deep cutting by-passed them altogether and the locks and their approach waterways became a boat graveyard, the last resting place for dozens of redundant carrying craft as canal and river traffic dwindle.
Dredgings have now been dumped over many of the up- river wrecks and it is possible to walk out from the towpath to the island on the offside of the locks, created when the by-pass navigation was cut.
Thanks to Tony Lewery whose excellent article @ www.canaljunction.com/news/info12.htm i have shamelessly copied and pasted.

A great place for a mooch especially if like me encumbered with chimps on school holidays. A pair of wellies would allow access to more of the hulks, as would a machete!:

 

[night crawler]

Well done mate, and after reading the link I think I would be going back in the winter when the vegitation had died down.

 

[El Supremo]

Cheers amigo, good idea about winter visit, bulrushes were good 7ft tall. Not much fun as i am 'borderline midget' :

 

[Foxylady]

Fabulous find, El. Love seeing stuff amongst the undergrowth like this. Lovely pics...no 3 is a stunner.

 

[El Supremo]

.Apologies from a sad newb Still learning howto use everything

 

[El Supremo]

Learned a valuable lesson last night- don't go on the site "blitzed".
Tried to thank Foxylady for her encouraging comments, left a thanks, then thought i'd left it under my own pics (and felt a bit of a tit) and tried to edit it off. Hope this explains my incoherent last message!
Still learning, yours in the cause
El