Visits to Stanley Lock Dock Flight, Vauxhall, Liverpool, L5 9RG and Sefton area.
Connecting the cities of Liverpool and Leeds together, the Leeds & Liverpool Canal is the longest canal in Britain built as a single waterway.
In 1768, James Brindley, the famous canal engineer, surveyed the route of the proposed Leeds & Liverpool Canal. The canal took 46 years to complete and it cost five times more than the original budget! It finally opened in 1816.
This system of four locks was completed in 1848, finally connecting the canal to Liverpool's dock system for the first time since its opening in 1774. The locks were designed by Jesse Hartley, who also built Stanley Dock and Albert Dock.
Our volunteers will demonstrate one of the locks and explain how it works. If you're lucky you might even see a boat going through the lock!
Learn about local history on a guided walk around Stanley Dock Lock Flight. We’ve partnered with the volunteers from the Docklands Trail (https://docklandstrail.co.uk/) to offer a morning of activities at Collingwood Dock and an afternoon at Stanley Dock Lock Flight. The morning activities include a Build a Canal workshop to learn how and why the Leeds & Liverpool Canal was built and a trail around Collingwood Dock to learn how Northern Liverpool and Bootle docks supported Britain's ongoing industrial revolution. Visits available on Wednesdays.
Learn about the local history and spot the surprisingly wide variety of water birds on a guided canal walk in Sefton. Our Explorers team love researching and planning walks in new locations. There's always a fascinating local story to tell, so please contact us if you would like a guided walk near your school. If you are concerned about safety – don't worry – our volunteers are always willing to give a water safety assembly in your school before your walk, and we always teach the children how to be safe near water before we set off.
Poet Levi Tafari was commissioned to create a poem celebrating this stretch of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, a poem which has now been transformed into a poetry trail. You can find the poetry trail installed verse by verse at between Fleetwood’s Lane Bridge and Netherton Swing Bridge in Sefton. Join our volunteers for a guided walk with activities linked to each verse of the poem – colours, emotions of nature, modern day canal, life of a boatman, creatures and rhyme.
Coach drop off for Stanley Dock Lock Flight: Eldonian Village Hall, L3 6LG
Coach parking and toilet available at Collingwood Dock, Regent Road, Liverpool, L3 0AH
Pre-visits and example risk assessments available.
Visits to Liverpool and Sefton are FREE!
Find out more about this accreditation from the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom
