HUDDERSFIELD locks are to get a half a million pound overhaul in time for winter.

The essential works along Huddersfield Narrow Canal will take place over the next few weeks.

Costing £445,000, the work is part of British Waterway’s annual maintenance programme.

It includes the replacement of lock leaves on six lock gates along the canal.

Repairs will also be made to the breach of the ground paddle culvert and leakage through the lock wall at Ramsden’s Lock.

British Waterways staff will fit the new lock gates, which have been made at the organisation’s Stanley Ferry Workshop in Wakefield.

The old lock gates will be recycled and reused for other projects.

Lock gates are constructed with tremendous strength as they have to control huge water pressures and withstand the thousands of boats using them each year.

The gates are expected to survive for a long time underwater.

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

David Baldacchino, the Manchester and Pennine region waterways manager for British Waterways, said: “Lock gate making and fitting is an extremely skilled and traditional trade and one that remains essential to our waterways.

“My staff put a huge amount of planning and dedicated work in to ensure that the canals stay open, accessible and in good working order and lock replacements such as this are a prime example of that.

“The waterways have experienced an amazing renaissance in recent years and are now used by more people than ever, so it’s vitally important that we preserve them for the future.”

The towpath, which is currently used by hundreds of locals and visitors for walking, running and cycling, will have diversions in place throughout the project.

The Huddersfield Narrow Canal runs for 20 miles and is home to 74 locks plus Standedge Tunnel, the longest, deepest and highest canal tunnel in the country.

It was opened to navigation in 1811, but never achieved great commercial success and traffic had dried up by the early 20th century.

The campaign to restore the canal took off in 1974 when Huddersfield Canal Society was formed.