Brades staircase locks
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Brades staircase locks by Jonathan Wilkins as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Brades staircase locks
Image: © Jonathan Wilkins Taken: 25 May 2009
The Brades Locks on the Gower Branch are unique on the Birmingham Canal Navigations because the upper pair are configured as a staircase. This is due to the ground sloping steeply at first, and less so to the North, and there would be no space for two conventional locks between the main road bridge and Bradeshall Junction. Staircase locks have only one set of gates between the adjacent chambers and do not permit passing movements between boats moving up and down. Here the boat is passing between chambers with the intermediary gate open, showing the height of the top lock. You can also see the substantial by-wash which allows excess water to drain from the lower chamber if there has been an error in operating procedure. This has always been our favourite route from Dudley to Birmingham.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.510586
Longitude
-2.033551