Hail to the Hive!

We are now traveling along the Llangollan Canal on our way to Wales and have encountered quite a few of these ‘Swing Bridges’ that we have previously not encountered.

This one is used by a footpath and as the mechanism to lift them is only used by boaters and only located on one side it must be put back down after use so that the pedestrians can continue along the footpath on the other side of the canal.

So the bridge should always be down when canal boats are not passing through.

So how is this achieved?

It’s easy enough to raise and lower though. We just use our ‘Windlass’ which is the crank key we use to operate the canal locks. On the swing bridge it allows us to crank the bridge up with the hydraulic asistance of the bridge mechanism.

Once raised chug the narrowboat through

And then wind it back down again

Simple!