Hatton Locks, Flight of locks on a canal in Warwickshire, England
Hatton Locks is a flight of 21 canal locks on the Grand Union Canal near Warwick, in Warwickshire, England. The flight climbs around 100 feet (30 meters) in total, making it one of the longest lock flights on the English canal network.
The canal was authorized by an Act of Parliament in 1793 and opened for trade in 1800, carrying goods between Birmingham and Warwick. In the 1930s, wider locks were built alongside the original ones, and the older chambers were converted into weirs.
A towpath runs the full length of the flight, making it easy to walk from top to bottom and back, which takes around two hours at a comfortable pace. There is a cafe with toilets near the top lock, and car parks are available on both sides of the flight.
The flight is locally nicknamed the 'Stairway to Heaven' because, from the bottom, the long row of lock gates appears to rise straight into the sky. Each time a boat passes through a single lock, it uses around 275,000 liters of water drawn from nearby reservoirs.
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