NEW craftsmen-inspired lock gates, inscribed with poetry, are to be installed at Milnsbridge.

The new gates at Lock 9E on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal will be put in place as part of essential maintenance work currently underway.

The works are being carried out by the Canal and River Trust, which took over the canals from the former British Waterways last year.

The new gate will have poetry by Jo Bell carved into it by sculptor Peter Coates as part of a celebration to mark the creation of the Canal and River Trust.

It is part of a project between the trust and Arts Council England which aims to attract more visitors to Britain’s historic waterways.

This winter the trust is spending £50m on conservation and maintenance works across 2,000 miles of waterways in England and Wales, replacing 104 lock gates and undertaking other essential repairs.

Along the Huddersfield Narrow Canal four other lock gate replacements and two repairs will be taking place.

That means in the past three years more than half the locks on the canal have been replaced or repaired.

The Milnsbridge lock, which was constructed between 1794 and 1798 and was designed by renowned canal pioneer Benjamin Outram, has seen Peter carve Jo’s verse into the lock beam to create an artwork that continues the tradition of craftsmanship on the canals.

Arts development manager Tim Eastop said: “There is a long-standing link between arts and the waterways, indeed, the canal locks we use today are based on Leonardo da Vinci’s design for a lock at San Marco in Milan in 1497.

“Art in all its forms has a fantastic capacity to surprise, delight and challenge and we are exploring a whole range of projects which we hope will encourage people to visit and support the waterways.

“We hope that this project, called ‘Locklines’ makes people smile and take a moment to stop and think about the wonderful canals that are on their doorsteps.”

Lock gate making and fitting is an extremely skilled and traditional trade and one that remains essential to the waterways.

Lock gates are constructed with tremendous strength as they have to control huge water pressures, take the hard usage they get from the thousands of boats which use them each year and survive for a long time underwater and at the mercy of the elements.

In order to be waterproof they also need to be built very precisely, fitting tightly to the masonry of the lock walls and to each other.

Vince Moran, the Canal and River Trust operations director, said: “Repairing, maintaining and caring for the canal and river infrastructure underpins the cause of the trust.

“The winter stoppage programme is essential to enable the canal and river network to be used by boaters, canoeists, cyclists, anglers and walkers.

“We spend around £50m every winter on lock gate repairs and replacements, brickwork repairs to lock chambers as well as embankment maintenance, essential works on reservoirs and many other activities.”