The Regent’s Canal in London’s East London is being drained to allow repairs to ageing lock gates that are being eroded with time.
The 200-year-old solid oak gates at Mile End Lock are being restored after becoming worn from hundreds of boats that pass through each year.
Conservation engineers from the Canal & River Trust are also taking a look over the next two weeks at the mechanisms first installed in the 1790s that allow the locks to fill up and drain, to make sure they’re in working order.
“Many canal locks, buildings and structures are listed monuments,” explained the trust’s Eddie Quinn. “The waterway network is one of the finest living references to Britain’s industrial past.”
The trust is spending £50 million on conservation work along 2,000 miles of waterways up and down the country, which involves replacing 173 lock gates.
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