GU lock names

[GUMPY]

The other day someone on here said that he had never heard lock 59 refered to a Irishmans lock, I would suspect that it went out of use before my time but nevertheless I do believe that it was once called that.

Now I know that names have changed over the years and are less likely to now but I for one would like to see some of the old names kept in use.

For example who knows where the Nags Head Three are?

So some "old" names that really are in many cases better than the "new" names.

 

Lock 99 - Dock Head

Lock 98 - Kings

Now we jump furthur north, some of these I can remember hearing at some time or another.

 

Lock 70 - Five Paddle

Lock 57 - Bourne End

Lock 56 - Lissimers

Lock 55/54 - Sweeps

Lock 52/51 - Old Neds

Lock 38/37 - Normans

Lock 30 - Neales

 

There are some more however in the list that I have I think the numbering is wrong and I dont have an old guide to cross referance to as its at the cottage

 

And finally Nags Head Three are what is now called Seabrook however I cant see why they were called that unless the house by the bridge below the locks used to be a pub, does anyone know?

Edited November 22, 2012 by idleness

[Keeping Up]

I've always been led to believe that the house by the bridge used to be a pub - but it could be just folklore. Wasn't the lock above you generally known as "Sewerage" Julian? My notes (some of dubious provenance) list these:

 

 

62 as Slaughter's

63 as Fishery

70 as Home Park Mill

71 as Home Park Farm

75/76 as Albert's

77 as Ironbridge

79 as Croxley

80 as Walker's

and

81 as Ricky

 

 

The lock where I moor (Stoke Hammond) was commonly known as "Talbots"

 

The Mikron Theatre Company's song "The Union Run" from their 1984 show "Still Carrying" recalls many of them - as sung by Mark Williams in a glorious Black Country accent. He sings about:

 

Hillmorton, Braunston, Bugby, Stoke,

Castlethorpe, Finny, Talbots, Town Three,

Leighton, Grove, Church, Neale’s,

Pool’s, Corkett’s Two, Nag’s Head Three,

Peter’s Two, Maffers Seven,

Cowroast, Dudswell, Northcurch,

Bushes, Gas Two, Broadwater,

Sweep’s Two, Top Side, Bottom Side.

 

If I can find a recording on Youtube or somewhere I'll post a link to it (or maybe put a copy there myself)

 

 

[GUMPY]

Theres a few there that I had forgotten,

Talbots for one

Peters two are 38/37 if i remember corectly

 

58 was known as sewerage but has migrated to sewer.

57 for me has always been white house

and

56 has always been pink house

However those are just the names I have used no connection in history

Will have to look through some of my other books to see what I can drag up

[BEngo]

Theres a few there that I had forgotten,

Talbots for one

Peters two are 38/37 if i remember corectly

 

58 was known as sewerage but has migrated to sewer.

57 for me has always been white house

and

56 has always been pink house

However those are just the names I have used no connection in history

Will have to look through some of my other books to see what I can drag up

 

 

Eily Gayford lists the GU lock names she was taught/given in Amateur Boatwomen (in the Appendix).

 

 

Peter's Two are/were also known as 'two below Maffas'

 

The three at the MK end of the Jackdaw pound were sometime known as 'Stoke Hammond three'

 

What Idleness (and once BW) now calls 'Pink House' was Top Side, followed by Bottom Side, as in the Mikron song.

 

The 'New Uns' were the ones at Nash Mills (68 and 69?)

 

Five Paddle is above what I know as Hunton Change or Changeline lock (Hunton Chain to EG).

 

Many new lock names appeared after the BW orgy, in 'Call Me Dave' Fletcher's days, of putting up signs at locks because people were not able to tell the emergency services where they were (not that the emergency services were any wiser after the signs went up but hey ho). The Aylesbury Arm locks acquired all sorts of strange and previously unknown names. I think Pink House dates back to this, though the house was not always pink ISTR.

 

N

Edited November 22, 2012 by BEngo

[alan_fincher]

Lock 99 - Dock Head

Lock 98 - Kings

Lock 70 - Five Paddle

Lock 57 - Bourne End

Lock 56 - Lissimers

Lock 55/54 - Sweeps

Lock 52/51 - Old Neds

Lock 38/37 - Normans

Lock 30 - Neales

 

Never heard of Lock 56 - Lissimers - any idea of origins?

51 & 52 have always been "Gas" to me, but I have at least heard of Old Ned's.

50 is definitely "Bushes" as well

38 and 37 are "Peter's Two" to me, but I know it is recorded these often changed depending on the keeper.

 

 

62 as Slaughter's

63 as Fishery

70 as Home Park Mill

71 as Home Park Farm

75/76 as Albert's

77 as Ironbridge

79 as Croxley

80 as Walker's

and

81 as Ricky

The lock where I moor (Stoke Hammond) was commonly known as "Talbots"

 

Yes sounds right - I have commented before on here that I have no idea what prompted 71 to take on it's current signage of "North Grove"

 

 

Peters two are 38/37 if i remember corectly

58 was known as sewerage but has migrated to sewer.

57 for me has always been white house

56 has always been pink house

Yes 37/38 for Peter's Two

56 was always Pink House to us as well, as it happens, but, as you say, I don't think it has any basis in history.

In the 1970s we always knew Dudswell Top (47) as "Clark's Lock", because retired (and often rather unfriendly!) retired local keeper Tom Clark still lived there. But again, I doubt many other people did!

 

I have always gone along with the oft quoted idea that the "Three Locks" were correctly called "Stoke Hammond Three Locks", and that the change to "Soulbury Three Locks" is a modern one. Certainly wartime sources call them "Stoke hammond Three Locks". But I find the Grand Junction distance tables from 1895 (no less!) call them Soulbury Three Locks, so I'll stop campaigning on that one.

 

My current pet hate is BW/CRTs desire to rename the Wolverton Trunk Aqueduct as the Cosgrove Trunk Aqueduct - unless anyone can find historical provenance for that name too.....

 

The Aylesbury Arm locks acquired all sorts of strange and previously unknown names.

Is that where things like "Gudgeon Steam" first originated, then?

 

Mind you, I always think that name has a certain charm!

[GeoffS]

And finally Nags Head Three are what is now called Seabrook however I cant see why they were called that unless the house by the bridge below the locks used to be a pub, does anyone know?

 

The house by Bridge 123 did indeed used to be a pub but it was called (as is the House/B&B there today) The Brownlow. The building has been in the same family for decades so I can check if it was ever called the Nags Head at the weekend.

 

ETA From their website:

The Brownlow at Ivinghoe was built in the early 1800's by Lord Brownlow to serve the newly finished Grand Union Canal. It was also well renowned as been a popular local pub named The Brownlow Arms. The pub closed its doors for the last time in the early 60's and was converted into a family home. The Brownlow has remained in the same family since it was originally built.

Edited November 22, 2012 by GeoffS

[Keeping Up]

I've looked at the official Mikron Theatre website and on their YouTube channel; there is no sign of a copy of this song so, with acknowledgement of copyright to Mikron I have copied my recording of the song "Union Run" onto YouTube

.

[Richard Fairhurst]

I vaguely recall David Blagrove writing a letter about this in an old WW. I don't have the back issues with me to check but the online index suggests May and July 1989, perhaps.

[koukouvagia]

I got to know well an ex-boatwoman, Liza Merchant who worked for FMC in the 20s and 30s. Before she died she wrote down a short memoir of her life and included in it a list of all the locks on her run from "Bernagum" to London She only learnt to read and write very late on in her life. Rather than transcribe the list, I thought people would like to see the original.

 

 

 

 

[alan_fincher]

I got to know well an ex-boatwoman, Liza Merchant who worked for FMC in the 20s and 30s. Before she died she wrote down a short memoir of her life and included in it a list of all the locks on her run from "Bernagum" to London She only learnt to read and write very late on in her life. Rather than transcribe the list, I thought people would like to see the original.

That's absolutely charming!

 

How lovely!

[GUMPY]

Just stunning

Love the lock below cowroast

[alan_fincher]

I wonder how they bypassed the 7th Buckby lock!

[Tuscan]

excellent list. when we used to come down from Marsworth lock 57 was always called "herman the german" as the guy in the white house could be a right little hitler .

[Derek R.]

Lovely list - pure vernacular. I know another who calls the lock below Cow Roast exactly that - 'The lock below Cow Roast'.

 

You sure that's lock 57 you speak of Tuscan? The 'White House' by Bottomside I understood was a Thames Water property. I could name a 'Herman', but that's North of Maffers.

[Richard Fairhurst]

There's a few locks on the Rochdale with names like that, of course: "First Below West Summit Lock" and so on.

[BEngo]

Lovely list - pure vernacular. I know another who calls the lock below Cow Roast exactly that - 'The lock below Cow Roast'.

 

SNIP> I could name a 'Herman', but that's North of Maffers.

 

 

The bottom of Nag's Head three perchance?.

 

N

[Tuscan]

Lovely list - pure vernacular. I know another who calls the lock below Cow Roast exactly that - 'The lock below Cow Roast'.

 

You sure that's lock 57 you speak of Tuscan? The 'White House' by Bottomside I understood was a Thames Water property. I could name a 'Herman', but that's North of Maffers.

 

 

 

 

apologies you are quite right - my lock number memory is not good - I meant lock 34 Seabrook. I expect this is the same one.

[181]

That handwritten list (above) is much as I remember the names we used late 1960s / early 1970s for locks on the Junction (there were also vernacular names for locks on the Warwick section). We trainees picked the names up from the boatmen; very few were still boating when I was on the boats but many of them worked on maintenance for BW.

 

With respect to the post above, I'm not entirely convinced that a theatre company song is the most definitive source.

 

It's also worth noting that the vernacular names changed over time. For example, a lock might be referred to by a long-serving keeper's name for decades but that name would evolve as a new keep established length of service.

 

As an aside, the boatmen usually lumped the locks below Norwood together as 'Brentford locks' (as in the handwritten list above). However, there were individual names within that catch-all - I can't remember all of them but they included: Top Lock (or Norwood Top); (we called the next one Caleb's but I think that was a comparatively recent coinage adopted because Caleb Lane lived in the house there); Top o' the Thick; Asylum Lock; Bottom o' the Thick; Ozzley (also, IIRC, Osbournes); Kings; Dockhead.

 

I can never remember anyone colloquially referring to Junction locks by their numbers. To this day I have only a hazy idea of the lock numbers - I know the bottom of Braunston is Lock 1 but that's about as far as I can get from memory.

However, there was one notable exception - we almost always referred to Walkers (also known as Moor Lock) by the name Lock Eighty.

 

OK, here's a teaser. Where was Molly Lump's? Where were Sarah's Two? Where were Storkie's Two?

[181]

Just remembered (or, rather, forgot) another name -Gregory's. But I'm b*ggered if I can remember where that was. Anyone?

[Keeping Up]

With respect to the post above, I'm not entirely convinced that a theatre company song is the most definitive source.

 

Nor am I - I never posted it with that intention - but sometimes things only get remembered through the words of songs and suchlike.

[Admiral]

I got to know well an ex-boatwoman, Liza Merchant who worked for FMC in the 20s and 30s. Before she died she wrote down a short memoir of her life and included in it a list of all the locks on her run from "Bernagum" to London She only learnt to read and write very late on in her life. Rather than transcribe the list, I thought people would like to see the original.

 

 

 

 

 

I am looking at this and cant work out what is says for the 7 before before Wigrams? I am sure it does not say Stockton?

[Blossom]

I think it says Hicinton (Itchington 7)

[Admiral]

I think it says Hicinton (Itchington 7)

 

I think thats right..

[181]

I think it says Hicinton (Itchington 7)

Yup, Itchington. The list has several phonetic spellings - as the OP explained, the boatwoman only learned to write late in life.

 

A bit of a puzzle there as she has definitely put '8' against Radford and '7' against Itchington. Those collective groups are the Radford Ten and the Itchington Ten.

 

The others listed for the Warwick cut is more or less as they were still known into the 1970s: Camp Hill (sometimes called Bordesley); Knowle; Hatton (there were individual names for several of the locks in the flight); Warwick Two (sometimes called Cape Two and very occasionally referred to as Doris's), Radford Ten, Itchington Ten; and Wigrams.

 

From memory, the Radford Ten individually were: Bascote rising lock; middle lock Bascote; bottom of Bascote; Welsh Road; Billy Mill's (occasionally referred to as Wood Lock); Fosse top; Fosse middle; Fosse bottom; Radford bottom.

 

The Itchington Ten used to have a BW sign naming 'Stockton Locks' but I never heard them called that. I suspect, however, that 'Stockton' was an official name as the cast quoins of the former narrow locks are identified with the letter 'S'. At all events, they were invariably the Itchington Ten to boatmen. There were fewer individual names for specific locks among the ten - well, fewer that I heard. Again from (fallible) memory the named ones were Itchington top, Limkiln lock (the third or fourth one down, can't remember which), bottom of the thick; Shop lock and Itchington bottom.

 

...I never posted it with that intention

Sorry, I wasn't suggesting you did.

 

I accept your point about folk song and story being an engine of preservation up to a point.

[Derek R.]

I don't know Gregory's though for some reason it sounds sort of familiar - only from passing conversation most like.

 

Albert's two in the park I've also heard call Mary's two, though only from one source. Personal names might well have come from the families and characters living alongside. I wonder if Albert and Mary were a couple and the women chose 'Mary' over Albert! Just a passing fancy.