Lock Chains

[Bob Blues]

I have noticed that many locks have a groove running down then with a Chain in.

Some locks the chain is missing or they have a few feet missing.

What is this for? Keeping the wall from falling in?

 

BobB

[Iain_S]

A boat can be held at the side of the lock with a rope passed behind the chain.

 

Iain

[alan_fincher]

A boat can be held at the side of the lock with a rope passed behind the chain.

 

Iain

I have a gut feeling that Bob is probably on the Grand Union, and talking about chains that hang in grooves in the lock-sides, but are attached at the top only, with the rest of the chain hanging loose ?

 

I must admit that after years of association with the GU, I have often wondered about these. Whilst it is to a degree possible to use one to pull a boat to the side, (if you are on the boat and can reach one!), they are inevitably covered in green slime, and not nice to grab.

 

They pre-date the lock ladders on this canal, (which certainly have all been added within the last 40 years, or less), so whether they were ever intended to be something you could hang on to if you fell in, until rescued, I really have no idea, (remembering that few working boatmen could actually swim....)

 

OK...... If you haven't worked it out be now, I also have no idea what their originally intended purpose was!

[rrt2]

Just a thought but if the chains are slightly proud of the groove could it be to protect the brick/stone work

[Dovetail]

Just a thought but if the chains are slightly proud of the groove could it be to protect the brick/stone work

 

 

I dont think so as this would cause more damage than protection

Edited April 7, 2011 by Dovetail

[NB Alnwick]

As the chains were provided in double width locks (probably when they were built), they were probably intended as an aid to holding a narrow boat close to the lock side.

[john6767]

I wish they were all in groves. The ones on the widened section of the GU are not in groves, and as far as I can see their main purpose is to remove blacking.

Edited April 7, 2011 by john6767

[Tiny]

I thought they were for people in rowing boats to hang onto but have never met anyone in a rowing boat on the Grand Union doing this. So maybe they are to protect the walls from boats.

[Proper Job]

Similar chains are employed on Thames locks.

 

These are used by small boats to grab hold of when in the lock or, large boats to grab hold of and pull themselves in when they've 'cocked it up'.

[alan_fincher]

On the lower GU, I can't recall ever seeing one that wasn't in a groove, so none project out, and hence they can't protect lock walls.

 

GU locks generally have, (or had!) "rubbing stones", stones set into the lock side that project slightly beyond the line of the brickwork, so boats rub on the much harder stone, (although modification and lack of understanding over the years has messed a lot of them about).

 

There were no row boats typically in these locks, and I feel sure they pre-date significant leisure use.

 

It is still hard to see that they were ever more than slimy bits of chain that someone could grab, though hard to imagine working boatmen needed to do this.

[Tiny]

On the lower GU, I can't recall ever seeing one that wasn't in a groove, so none project out, and hence they can't protect lock walls.

 

GU locks generally have, (or had!) "rubbing stones", stones set into the lock side that project slightly beyond the line of the brickwork, so boats rub on the much harder stone, (although modification and lack of understanding over the years has messed a lot of them about).

 

There were no row boats typically in these locks, and I feel sure they pre-date significant leisure use.

 

It is still hard to see that they were ever more than slimy bits of chain that someone could grab, though hard to imagine working boatmen needed to do this.

 

For a couple of years when they started putting ladders in Bw had one unique one at Filance lock on the Staffs and Worcs. This involved a new ladder ending below the top 2' of lockside and a chain attached to a staple so you could clamber up the ladder then haul yourself over the edge. A few single handers said they prefered to climb the gate as it was safer! Filance is still a mess to this day but the ladder now is OK - though less exciting.

[Sunset Rising]

I thought these were the canal version of yellow lines on the road. ie, there to keep the elephamts away. They seem to work very well.

[NB Alnwick]

On the lower GU, I can't recall ever seeing one that wasn't in a groove, so none project out, and hence they can't protect lock walls.

 

GU locks generally have, (or had!) "rubbing stones", stones set into the lock side that project slightly beyond the line of the brickwork, so boats rub on the much harder stone, (although modification and lack of understanding over the years has messed a lot of them about).

 

There were no row boats typically in these locks, and I feel sure they pre-date significant leisure use.

 

It is still hard to see that they were ever more than slimy bits of chain that someone could grab, though hard to imagine working boatmen needed to do this.

 

Nevertheless some well meaning person, with responsibility for such decisions, clearly thought otherwise and the fact that they were never (or hardly ever) used for their intended purpose doesn't alter the fact.

 

Similar chains or steel cables are provided on wide locks elsewhere (such as on the River Thames, River Severn and River Trent) and I have no doubt that these are provided to enable narrower craft to be held fast at the lock side.

[Bob Blues]

Thanks to all, always wondered what these chains were for.

 

The theory about using them to grab hold of fits with what I was told today. Although one person along the route said a plug was attached to the end and when BW wanted to drain the lock they pulled the chains and the locked emptied right down. Yea….

 

Bob B

[alan_fincher]

Similar chains are employed on Thames locks.

 

These are used by small boats to grab hold of when in the lock or, large boats to grab hold of and pull themselves in when they've 'cocked it up'.

 

Nevertheless some well meaning person, with responsibility for such decisions, clearly thought otherwise and the fact that they were never (or hardly ever) used for their intended purpose doesn't alter the fact.

 

Similar chains or steel cables are provided on wide locks elsewhere (such as on the River Thames, River Severn and River Trent) and I have no doubt that these are provided to enable narrower craft to be held fast at the lock side.

 

OK then you Oxford canal residents.......

 

Why then are there similar chains in the narrow locks on the Oxford. I didn't notice them further up, but certainly on the single gated locks below Banbury, a large number have them, (most probably, but I'm not counting!).

 

They can be in a lock only a couple of feet deep, or equally in one like Somerton.

 

They are in well channelled out vertical grooves in the brickwork, so certainly not protecting the lock sides.

 

But you have no need to pull a 7 foot boat to either side in a lock that is only slightly wider. I can't imagine working boatmen using them either to draw a boat backwards or forwards, or stop forward/aft movement, (particularly in a lock where they are never going to be high enough above the boat sides to grab). They are in the middle of a lock, not near either end of a boat, the only place the crew might possibly want to reach them from.

 

I really don't think that explanation works for an Oxford lock. So why exactly ? I'm almost inclined to believe to give someone who has gone in something to hold on to, until someone can get them out ?

[NB Alnwick]

Small boats (mostly canoes these days) have been a feature of the Oxford Canal for many years. Nevertheless, if they were designed in at the original build stage - who knows what the architect had in mind . . .

[magpie patrick]

Small boats (mostly canoes these days) have been a feature of the Oxford Canal for many years. Nevertheless, if they were designed in at the original build stage - who knows what the architect had in mind . . .

 

Not original, chains in 1790 were not that well developed

 

They were present on the Mon and Brec in the 1970's and we used them for holding our car top dinghy in place when filling and emptying the locks. It was commented how much better this was than our system elsewhere, a 20 foot line passed round a bollard.

 

But canoeing and dinghy cruising never caught on... sadly...