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Lapworth Lock Flight - how many locks?


larrysanders

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15 minutes ago, larrysanders said:

Hi does anyone know how many locks are in the Lapworth flight?   There's conflicting numbers on the net.  In my Pearson's Guide it's also a bit confusing...   18, 24, 26??  

 

Thanks!! 

I suppose that depends on how you define the flight IMO the flight starts at lock 2 and ends at lock 20 or 21 giving a total of 19 locks that you need to pass through to complete the flight  or 20 locks in total. I consider lock 22 and below a different flight. Others may think differently.

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48 minutes ago, larrysanders said:

Hi does anyone know how many locks are in the Lapworth flight?   There's conflicting numbers on the net.  In my Pearson's Guide it's also a bit confusing...   18, 24, 26??  

 

Thanks!! 

Part of the confusion comes from the fact you will never traverse all the Lapworth locks in a single passage since locks 20 and 21 are parallel and on diverging routes.

 

There’s no doubt that lock 2 is the top lock of the Lapworth upper flight and lock 27 is the bottom lock of Lapworth lower flight. So there is a maximum of 26 locks in the flight but as above you would only traverse 25 when travelling the length of the Stratford Canal. We can therefore say that 24 is definitely not correct.

 

To suggest there are only 18 requires lock 20 to be considered as not being part of the Lapworth flight (and that it’s a solitary lock called Kingswood lock). That’s pretty meaningless from a boater’s perspective given it’s proximity to lock 19.

 

So from the boaters’ perspective it’s either 6, 19 or 25 depending on your route but as recently discussed by the handful of remaining active members still interested in discussing canals the designation of flight names probably had more to do with how the canal company managed the flight than it did with the experience of the boater.

 

JP

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My guess is that the Lapworth flight originally included the locks on the northern and southern sections.  When leisure boating started the southern section was unnavigable, and so the guide books of the time referred to the 19 locks then in use (nos. 2 to 20) as the Lapworth flight. And from reopening in 1964 until some time in the 80s the South Stratford was run as a separate entity by the National Trust, and so the distinction would have remained.

Edited by David Mack
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7 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Part of the confusion comes from the fact you will never traverse all the Lapworth locks in a single passage since locks 20 and 21 are parallel and on diverging routes.

 

There’s no doubt that lock 2 is the top lock of the Lapworth upper flight and lock 27 is the bottom lock of Lapworth lower flight. So there is a maximum of 26 locks in the flight but as above you would only traverse 25 when travelling the length of the Stratford Canal. We can therefore say that 24 is definitely not correct.

 

To suggest there are only 18 requires lock 20 to be considered as not being part of the Lapworth flight (and that it’s a solitary lock called Kingswood lock). That’s pretty meaningless from a boater’s perspective given it’s proximity to lock 19.

 

So from the boaters’ perspective it’s either 6, 19 or 25 depending on your route but as recently discussed by the handful of remaining active members still interested in discussing canals the designation of flight names probably had more to do with how the canal company managed the flight than it did with the experience of the boater.

 

JP

There is nothing meaningless about having both Lock 20 and 21, however, as they current arrangement was (re)introduced when it was discovered that the abbreviated arrangement that was in place for a while used more water than the upper Stratford could supply. IIRC it was the lock from the basin to the GU link that was re-opened but made level so gates removed.

 

Lock 1 will not detail you very long as it too is open at both ends being a stop lock. Were it not for the unusual guillotine gates they too would probably have disappeared but the Heritage folk keep requiring them to be re-instated despite the best efforts of local removal agents.

 

But if you are calculating the timing, do allow for the several lift bridges (one of which I think is currently awaiting repair)

 

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25 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Part of the confusion comes from the fact you will never traverse all the Lapworth locks in a single passage since locks 20 and 21 are parallel and on diverging routes.

 

There’s no doubt that lock 2 is the top lock of the Lapworth upper flight and lock 27 is the bottom lock of Lapworth lower flight. So there is a maximum of 26 locks in the flight but as above you would only traverse 25 when travelling the length of the Stratford Canal. We can therefore say that 24 is definitely not correct.

 

To suggest there are only 18 requires lock 20 to be considered as not being part of the Lapworth flight (and that it’s a solitary lock called Kingswood lock). That’s pretty meaningless from a boater’s perspective given it’s proximity to lock 19.

 

So from the boaters’ perspective it’s either 6, 19 or 25 depending on your route but as recently discussed by the handful of remaining active members still interested in discussing canals the designation of flight names probably had more to do with how the canal company managed the flight than it did with the experience of the boater.

 

JP

Hi many thanks for this - so we're sticking to the Stratford - so how many on this route?  25?  

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40 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

There is nothing meaningless about having both Lock 20 and 21, however, as they current arrangement was (re)introduced when it was discovered that the abbreviated arrangement that was in place for a while used more water than the upper Stratford could supply. IIRC it was the lock from the basin to the GU link that was re-opened but made level so gates removed.

 

Lock 1 will not detail you very long as it too is open at both ends being a stop lock. Were it not for the unusual guillotine gates they too would probably have disappeared but the Heritage folk keep requiring them to be re-instated despite the best efforts of local removal agents.

 

But if you are calculating the timing, do allow for the several lift bridges (one of which I think is currently awaiting repair)

 

My point was that it’s meaningless to not consider lock 20 as part of the Lapworth flight. I didn’t question the need for it’s existence.

 

JP

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