The Gipping Navigation - photos and a question

[magpie patrick]

I've just walked part of the Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation, between Baylham and Bosmere Locks. Pictures below. About 3 miles each way. 

 

Question, Creeting Lock has a blind arch in the upper gate recess. None of the other three I saw have this feature. It is suggested that ground paddles were originally fitted here but were found unsatisfactory and blocked off. This seems an odd thing to do? Could there be any structural benefit in the blind arch? It is possible the other locks had this feature but it has been lost when the locks were rebuilt. 

More pics of the navigation below 

The bottom picture is Bosmere lock - no arch but has been rebuilt at some point 

[ditchcrawler]

7 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

I've just walked part of the Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation, between Baylham and Bosmere Locks. Pictures below. About 3 miles each way. 

 

Question, Creeting Lock has a blind arch in the upper gate recess. None of the other three I saw have this feature. It is suggested that ground paddles were originally fitted here but were found unsatisfactory and blocked off. This seems an odd thing to do? Could there be any structural benefit in the blind arch? It is possible the other locks had this feature but it has been lost when the locks were rebuilt. 

More pics of the navigation below 

 

 

 

 

The bottom picture is Bosmere lock - no arch but has been rebuilt at some point 

You are correct, they did originally have paddles and culverts, 

Edited April 20, 2022 by ditchcrawler

[David Mack]

No structural benefit. Looks to me as if that brickwork has recently been rebuilt and a little inexpertly, since the bricks at the top of the arch are not radial to the arch, just parallel to the ones below.

 

Yup. Restored 1997-2004 by IWA and WRG. More info at https://rivergippingtrust.org.uk/creeting-restoration#. The presentation on that page shows the arched opening on the other side during the rebuild. Does indeed look like a ground paddle hole.

[ditchcrawler]

1 minute ago, David Mack said:

No structural benefit. Looks to me as if that brickwork has recently been rebuilt and a little inexpertly, since the bricks at the top of the arch are not radial to the arch, just parallel to the ones below.

 

Yup. Restored 1997-2004 by IWA and WRG. More info at https://rivergippingtrust.org.uk/creeting-restoration#. The presentation on that page shows the arched opening on the other side during the rebuild. Does indeed look like a ground paddle hole.

It was a disused ground paddle, disused long before the restoration by inexpert volunteers who are doing their best to save the disused waterway 

[David Mack]

1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

It was a disused ground paddle, disused long before the restoration by inexpert volunteers who are doing their best to save the disused waterway 

Yes. Not criticising the restoration. One of the problems of relying on volunteers is that some are more skilled than others. The same presentation shows that the brickwork on the rebuilt bridge over the lock tail is well done.

[magpie patrick]

10 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

It was a disused ground paddle, disused long before the restoration by inexpert volunteers who are doing their best to save the disused waterway 

 

Like David, I have absolutely no criticism of the volunteers who are stopping the navigation sliding into oblivion - I'm curious as to why ground paddles would be dispensed with once built. I can see the case for not building them in the first place, but removing them once built seems an odd thing to do and is not something I've encountered elsewhere on my (extensive) travels around the canals of Britain and elsewhere

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, magpie patrick said:

 

Like David, I have absolutely no criticism of the volunteers who are stopping the navigation sliding into oblivion - I'm curious as to why ground paddles would be dispensed with once built. I can see the case for not building them in the first place, but removing them once built seems an odd thing to do and is not something I've encountered elsewhere on my (extensive) travels around the canals of Britain and elsewhere

I will have a word and see if there is any record of when it was done, but I have never heard a date mentioned.

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

Yes. Not criticising the restoration. One of the problems of relying on volunteers is that some are more skilled than others. The same presentation shows that the brickwork on the rebuilt bridge over the lock tail is well done.

I think Martin Ludgate may have done the bridge bit

[David Mack]

2 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I will have a word and see if there is any record of when it was done, but I have never heard a date mentioned.

I think Martin Ludgate may have done the bridge bit

He is pictured there.

[Pluto]

1 hour ago, magpie patrick said:

 

Like David, I have absolutely no criticism of the volunteers who are stopping the navigation sliding into oblivion - I'm curious as to why ground paddles would be dispensed with once built. I can see the case for not building them in the first place, but removing them once built seems an odd thing to do and is not something I've encountered elsewhere on my (extensive) travels around the canals of Britain and elsewhere

There are several which have been closed by stonework on the L&LC. The first ground paddles in the UK were on the Newry Canal, and removed about fifty years after it opened because of problems with stability - they seem to have been wood lined. The forces within a culvert can be pretty 'corrosive'.

[magpie patrick]

32 minutes ago, Pluto said:

There are several which have been closed by stonework on the L&LC. The first ground paddles in the UK were on the Newry Canal, and removed about fifty years after it opened because of problems with stability - they seem to have been wood lined. The forces within a culvert can be pretty 'corrosive'.

Ah yes, of course, a lot of bottom ground paddles have gone, ad indeed I've discussed the fate of them on this forum! Top ground paddles not so much, but I guess if the fall of the lock is not great then repairing the culvert might not be a priority 

 

 

Here's a picture of Stowupland Lock in 1871, just after the adjacent gun-cotton works had exploded, and a view of the site today.

 

By today I mean "now" - I'm standing next to it as I type 

Edited April 20, 2022 by magpie patrick

[magpie patrick]

52 minutes ago, Pluto said:

The first ground paddles in the UK were on the Newry Canal, and removed about fifty years after it opened because of problems with stability - they seem to have been wood lined.

 Just to add - I know the Newry Canal quite well and I hadn't twigged that the ground paddles are missing, I know there aren't any and I knew it was built with them, but hadn't put two and two together. 

[Pluto]

Not a lot of information survives from the pre-1800 period of Irish inland waterways, which is unfortunate as they were ahead of England in building canals. I suspect that much material was lost when the Irish National Archive was destroyed by fire in 1921. Fortunately, the Office of Public Works books have survived, which does give pretty full coverage post 1801, when Ireland came back under Westminster rule. I have copied quite a bit of the early canal-related material, including the outline report into rebuilding the Newry. It is on my list for transcription, but am trying to get my L&LC collection sorted out first.

[magpie patrick]

All interesting stuff @Pluto, so the very rough "back of a fag packet" conclusion is that some early ground paddle culverts didn't stand the test of time and were blocked off, top paddles on the Newry and the Gipping (and possibly elsewhere) and bottom paddles on some L&L locks 

 

At Marple the bottom ground paddles were mostly removed post restoration (I think nearly all locks started their restored life with at least one) presumably because they were unusual and gate paddles were easier to maintain. 

 

Later ground paddle culverts were presumably more robust.  

[Tim Lewis]

15 hours ago, David Mack said:

Yes. Not criticising the restoration. One of the problems of relying on volunteers is that some are more skilled than others. The same presentation shows that the brickwork on the rebuilt bridge over the lock tail is well done.

there is one lock restoration that even in WRG circles the brickwork is described as “a series of learning curves” 🙂
 

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Tim Lewis

[ditchcrawler]

I have spoken to people closely connected with the restoration and as far as they know there are no records of when the ground paddles were taken out of use on the Gipping

[ditchcrawler]

On 22/04/2022 at 21:33, ditchcrawler said:

I have spoken to people closely connected with the restoration and as far as they know there are no records of when the ground paddles were taken out of use on the Gipping

There is also more than one with the old culverts