Our historic waterways are in safe hands and carpenter Russell Clark has a certificate to prove it.

The 50-year-old, of Silsden, is the first carpenter in the country to get a level 3 NVQ in Heritage Skills.

Mr Clark, who gave up his own joinery business three years ago to work for British Waterways, is one of 20 staff who got top marks on the Craven College course, funded by the Government’s flagship Train to Gain programme.

Working with heavy lock gates and solid green oak is a big change from fitting kitchen units, said Mr Clark who last year helped replace the oak floor beneath the Three Rise Locks at Bingley and is about to finish off restoring a bridge crossing farmland in Gargrave.

“The old bridge was hundreds of years old and we’ve got to put it back as it was. It’s an incredible job I do. It’s become a way of life for me,” he said.

“The lock floors I put down will last a long time, longer than me no doubt. It’s rewarding to know I’m doing my bit to preserve heritage like this.”

He added: “What we can do with a team of seven and a crane putting in lock gates used to be done by probably 600 men using horses, maybe 60 lives would be lost putting them in. Thankfully it’s a lot safer now.

“It’s the same techniques we do but just with better equipment. In my workshop I look round at all the old tools and think how on earth did they ever manage.”

Judy Jones, British Waterways heritage advisor for the north, said the waterways are “a working heritage”.

To keep the 18th and 19th century locks, sluices, watercourses and reservoirs working, British Waterways has already been running its own craft skills courses for jobs like using lime mortar and doing masonry repairs so traditional methods are kept up.