To solve the transport problems of industrial Yorkshire, artificial waterways, or canals, were cut into the landscape. With the Pennines being so hilly, locks had to be introduced to raise or lower the level of the canal. Bingley Five Rise lock, which alters the height of the water by just over 59 ft, is the most impressive in Britain.
The lock is part of the Leeds-Liverpool canal, which took 46 years to complete from the time work started in 1770. The line of the canal, over 108 miles long, was laid out along the Aire valley by James Brindley, one of the greatest of the canal builders, who also designed the Five Rise lock.