Bingley 5-Rise

View down the Bingley 5-rise

A late start this morning because we didnt want to disrupt the school run by opening the next swing bridge which would have blocked the road to much of Riddlesden.

We arrived at the top of the Bingley 5-rise locks at 11:00 where we met up with my brother's family again. They and the resident lock-keepers helped us down both the 5 staircase locks and the subsequent 3 staircase locks.

A staircase lock is one in which the bottom gate of one lock is also the top gate of the next lock, each lock directly feeding the next. They can be complex to operate as the levels in each lock must be such that filling/emptying one lock does not overflow or drain the next lock - hence the need for permanent lock-keepers.

The Bingley 5-rise is one of the largest staircase locks in the country where the canals falls 60 feet in the 5 double width locks.

On the way out of Bingley

We stopped in Bingley to shop and have lunch, we then moved on to a wooded area just outside the town on the lock-keeper's recommendation.