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Marple lock ground paddles


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I do sometimes find it difficult to look positively on our listing system, but hydraulic paddles are part of the history of some canal locks, and reflect the thinking about canals by BW at the time they were installed. The real question which should be asked is what we are trying to conserve. On the L&LC, I have suggested that some locks are conserved as they were at a specific date so that people can understand the changes, such as the introduction of upper gate paddles to speed traffic when railway competition began. On the L&LC, there are also differences in the paddle gear used by different workshops along the canal.

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14 hours ago, Ian Mac said:

Listing is an interesting problem!
The one example I am aware of is lock 15 on the Ashton Canal which is listed, unfortunately this is as restored in 1974, and not as original, 1956 would have been great! So the silly hydraulic paddle gear and the metal balance beam without a strapping post had to be restored. I meet the guy enforcing this, from the council, and played hell with him, and said it was a total mockery of history, his reply was that all he has to go on is the listing statement, and pictures which accompany it. If we want to challenge this we have to go though a very long formal process. This is basically to stop developers taking the piss from the system.

I remember the late Tim Leech saying he had to keep his listed house painted black and white, as that was the colour BW had painted it before it was listed, despite documentary evidence that it had been painted red ochre for most of its life.

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@Pluto and I tend to take a similar view on conservation, things change over time and that should be recorded and reflected. I also suspect that there are many features of canals as built (or lack of features!) that we don't really want replicated today - a lot of locks started their life with ground paddles that required the operator to push the windlass towards the canal, asking to go in head first in front of an open paddle if the windlass slips, and many items such as lock landings and lock ladders are modern additions.

 

For listed structures the items are to be conserved "as listed" which of course means that alterations since original construction are also listed, if you think about it this makes sense, otherwise the owner of a listed house might have to take all the draught-proofing out and remove the central heating - however an item that is badly degraded, e.g. a lock chamber largely rebuilt in concrete,  will not normally merit a listing

 

 

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