File:Savick Brook; Ribble Link - geograph.org.uk - 949587.jpg

English: Savick Brook; Ribble Link, near to Lea Town, Lancashire, Great Britain. The North End of the Lancaster Canal, between Preston and Kendal, was only ever connected to the rest of England's canal network by a tramway, the intended aqueduct across the River Ribble in Preston never being constructed. The tramway was closed in 1879, since when the canal has been completely isolated, although there is a connection to the Irish Sea at Glasson Dock at the mouth of the River Lune. Using lottery funds from the Millennium Commission, the Savick Brook, a small tributary of the Ribble west of Preston that flowed under the canal, was made navigable with a series of locks and opened in 2002. The Ribble is tidal at this point and the final lock is a navigation weir, seen in the middle of the photograph. A gate rotating about a horizontal axle holds back enough water so that boats descending from the canal 5km distant can stay afloat at pontoons while awaiting the flood tide. When the incoming tide makes a level at the weir the gate can be lowered to the bed of the brook and boats can pass over it into the Ribble. Two miles downstream they can enter the River Douglas and thence the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and the rest of England.