Now if you were going to build a lock....

[Guest]

would you build one that cuts across a road, meaning you have to have a swing bridge in the middle of it?

 

Sykehouse lock on the New Junction canal which is as long and straight as they come has a swing bridge right across the middle...(not my pic I was too busy operating it...)

 

 

I cannot see any reason why the lock could not have been a few hundred metres either side of the road to avoid the need to have the bridge right through the middle of it.

 

Or did the road come after??? - anybody know the history of this monkey puzzle of a lock?

[Grebe]

Sorry Martin,

 

Not sure of the history, I'll dig out the pre-modernization Nicholson's and see what they say.

 

However when we used it in the early 1990's if you were on your own and had the right boat, you could put your boat in to a suitable point, fill or empty the chamber as required and then tootle out without messing with the bridge. Nowadays you have to have the bridge swung out of the way for the entire lock operation sequence.

[Guest]

Sorry Martin,

 

Not sure of the history, I'll dig out the pre-modernization Nicholson's and see what they say.

 

However when we used it in the early 1990's if you were on your own and had the right boat, you could put your boat in to a suitable point, fill or empty the chamber as required and then tootle out without messing with the bridge. Nowadays you have to have the bridge swung out of the way for the entire lock operation sequence.

 

Cheers - I guess they are now concerned about a boat getting trapped under the bridge as the lock fills, perhaps years ago such possibilities would be written off as simple skipper stupidity...

[magpie patrick]

Cheers - I guess they are now concerned about a boat getting trapped under the bridge as the lock fills, perhaps years ago such possibilities would be written off as simple skipper stupidity...

 

I suppose, in the days when the canal was the important business, and the road just had carts on it, that it saved money to build the swing bridge where the canal was already narrow, and it does only lead to two houses?

 

I'm surprised the emergency services haven't objected if you must open the bridge though, as it is the only access to the houses in question

[Keeping Up]

A lot of locks were built with a swing bridge across them, as this was the cheapest way of building a bridge because all the foundations and so on were already in place for the lock.

[Grebe]

Hi Martin,

 

The old Nicholson shows a swing bridge below the lock. So the modernization must have swallowed the old bridge and a replacement provided.

 

As Magpie Patrick says it is not uncommon to have bridges over locks , Bardney, Naburn and Gardham lock on the Pocklington come to mind.

 

 

Regards

 

Mal

[Guest]

A lot of locks were built with a swing bridge across them, as this was the cheapest way of building a bridge because all the foundations and so on were already in place for the lock.

 

Cheers Alan I can see the logic of that..

[Ray T]

There is similar at Fenny Stratford, but I believe this one has been there a substantial time.

 

 

 

[Keeping Up]

And Fenny Stratford lock is only there temporarily, to raise the level by 9" over a band of extremely hard rock so that they can get the canal open for trade as quickly as possible; it will be removed as soon as they can find the time to come back and blast that seam of rock away, they will then lower the level of the pound to Stoke Hammond by 9".

 

Typical BW, 200 years later and they STILL haven't got around to doing it.