Wigan Album

It's a pity that big bloke is leaning on the top of the paddle gear and obscuring it. It's of a very different type from what's on the gates now, with the wind-up ratchets. It apppears to be some kind of lever system. The man on the right looks as if he has a wooden leg. Do you know who the people are?

What brilliant photos of our social history, thanks for putting them on Allan

Brilliant photo's, certainly looked better back then.

The 'Paddle gear' used to be referred to as the hoistings, because that is what they were. They were operated by a rachet mechanism, which is obscured by the big man. at the end of the metal link was a large wooden door which was 'hoisted' up to let the water into the lock.

I've not heard the term 'hoistings' before - I'll have to ask others in the waterways community if they have. The two gates appear to have different mechanisms - that on the right being all exposed, whereas the rod down to the paddle on the left-hand side emerges from the woodwork. The curved blocks are there, I assume, to stop tow ropes being snagged by the mechanism. It would be good to see what kind of ratchet mechanism was employed to raise the paddle.

The mechanism on both sides was the same if you look closely. There was also another mechanism for letting water into the locks. I can't remember what is was called and you can't see it on this picture (it may be on another picture), but this was a big wooden lever which was pulled upwards. This moved the 'paddle' to open up a large passageway from the bottom of the canal (i.e the bottom of the lock gate level) and allowed water to flow into the bottom of the lock. This was always used first, as using the 'hoistings' first might have been a bit dangerous.

Re-mechanisms. Look at the picture entitled 'Canal fun' and you will see the other mechanism that I referred to.