Record breaking locks

Tuel Lane Lock is the deepest lock on the canal system and is on the Rochdale Canal in Sowerby Bridge. 19ft 8in deep, it just edges out Bath Deep Lock on the Kennet & Avon Canal, which is 19ft 5in. At low tide, locks from canals into tidal rivers can also have an impressive rise and fall. But all pale into insignificance next to the lock at Ardnacrusha Dam, on Ireland’s River Shannon, which has a 100ft rise.

Eastham Lock is the largest lock on a British inland waterway and forms the entrance to the Manchester Ship Canal from the River Mersey. Built to accommodate ocean-going ships and tankers, there are two parallel locks here, of which the largest is a massive 600ft long by 80ft wide. Eighty-eight full-size narrowboats could fit in it with room to spare.

The smallest lock on a main line waterway is the Teddington Skiff Lock on the River Thames. Less than 50ft long, and just 5ft 10in wide, it exists for the benefit of the traditional Thames rowing vessels. Larger cruisers have their own lock alongside.

The longest lock flight is the delightfully rural flight at Tardebigge, on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. The 30 locks here follow immediately after the six at Stoke Prior, making a total of 36 in all.

Bingley Five-Rise Locks on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal is the steepest lock flight and climbs through an impressive one in five gradient - the sort of hill that would cause most car drivers to think twice. They rise 60ft in a space of just over 300ft.