Wolverhampton canal to get £120,000 revamp

The Birmingham Canal Old Main Line runs through the city as well as other parts of the Black Country.

Now, a new programme of work will see the canal's lock gates replaced and historic brickwork restored.

The works are being carried out by skilled craftsmen and engineers from the Canal and River Trust, the charity that looks after for 2,000 miles of waterways, as part of its annual winter maintenance programme.

The works on the Wolverhampton Flight will see £120,000 invested in new lock gates, repairing brickwork and replacing lock ladders which enable boaters to climb up out of locks.

Work is expected to be completed in early February. In order for the repairs to take place sections of the canal will be drained of water and hundreds of fish rescued and moved to other parts of the canal. The old lock gates can then be lifted out by a crane and new ones fitted.

The new lock gates are hand-crafted using traditional methods in the Trust's specialist workshops at Bradley and Stanley Ferry in Yorkshire. A single lock gate can take up to 20 days to make and has a working life of between 25 and 30 years. In order to be watertight they need to be built very precisely, fitting tightly to the masonry of the lock walls and to each other.

Ian Lane, waterway manager for the Canal and River Trust said: "The Wolverhampton Flight is a real local landmark but people may not realise that there's quite a lot of work needed to look after it. We're investing quite a bit of money into new lock gates and repairing the 200-year-old brickwork.

"It's painstaking, specialised work but the canal is an important part of the region's heritage so it's right that we devote some time and craftsmanship to help continue its restoration and protect it for future generations. The new hand-crafted lock gates will help to conserve water and keep the canal running smoothly so everyone can enjoy it."

The works on the Wolverhampton Flight will include: replacing a lock ladder, replacing the top gates at lock seven as well as repairing stonework within the lock chamber, installing new top and bottom gates and restoring brickwork at lock nine, replacing the bottom gates at lock 12 and repairing the lock walls and ladders, as well as putting new bottom gates in at lock 21.

The Trust will be spending over £45 million to restore around 164 lock gates across the country, as well as carrying out repairs to aqueducts, reservoirs and tunnels.