Dean Locks, Gathurst

The Dean locks at Gathurst were built in 1774 broad enough to fit river barges from both the Mersey and Humber, although it was to be forty years before that trans Pennine route was complete. They are close to the start of the long climb that takes the Leeds and Liverpool Canal off the Lancashire Plain and over the Pennines into Yorkshire, 92 locks in all. The modern girder bridge is the six span Gathurst Viaduct, completed in 1963, carrying the M6 motorway soaring over the Douglas Valley, into which are crammed the River Douglas, the canal, and the Wigan to Southport railway line.

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