Lyra's Travels

Cath getting soaked in lock 14, Marple Flight

Marple railway viaduct

Waiting for the lock to open

Looking down from lock 15, Marple Flight

Samuel Oldknows warehouse on Marple Flight

On Friday we moved back as far as Marple and moored at the top of the lock flight.
This morning we set off to  tackle the 16 locks of Marple Flight. These locks are fairly deep, the 16 locks dropping the canal 214 ft. Because of the depth this makes the lock gear on the lower gates very heavy to operate. Half way down we caught up with another boat. It was a single hander and he was struggling. Locks are difficult enough when you're alone, but here there was an added problem that there are no proper mooring for him to tie his boat to while operating the lock, so he had to bang a pin in at every lock. Lock 3 was real stinker. One of the bottom paddles was broken and the leakage from the upper gate was so much it took both of us to push the bottom gates open. Finally all 16 done and I was ready for pint and rest. We then moved on as far as Romily where we'll stay tonight.
One of the pictures is of Cath getting very wet in lock 14.