Hillmorton Duplicate Locks 175th Anniversary

[c c]

Hillmorton Canal Heritage Society plan to hold an event to mark the 175th anniversary of the creation of the duplicate locks at Hillmorton (or Morton Flight as it used to be called) . What we have not found is the exact date in 1840 that the locks were opened. Do any of you canal historians out there have details?

[c c]

For the 77 of you who viewed this item. The answer comes from the written observations in his journal of a study of the Oxford Canal of one F.Wood - quote "The 3 new locks at Hillmorton were completed and opened to the trade on 25 August 1840"

So we have a fair old time to plan the celebration..

[Athy]

Perhaps somebody could compose doggerel and hack it into the balance beams. That would be sure to cheer the place up a bit.

[roland elsdon]

Can the celebration include burning the current balance beams once replaced with correct ones without graffiti on them. The author could be placed in an appropriate location.

[Laurence Hogg]

At the very least during preparation's can someone pop out with a quantity of wood filler and paint and dispose of the grand unsightly graffiti which CRT assumes (in their parlous mental state) enhances the scene. Never, ever have I seen a rural view so ruined by ill thought out utter degrading rubbish.

[magpie patrick]

On a more constructive note, this is an interesting and unusual piece of history, and it would be a good opportunity to promote and explore the wider history of the Oxford improvements, and also interpret the difference between the old and new locks at this location. I'm not fully au fait with all the straigtenings by any means for example.

 

Good luck, I'm not a great one for gatherings*, but there can be a lot more to this than just a gathering.

 

*although Toyah Wilcox playing an acoustic gig at Crick is almost enough to get me there!

[c c]

Whatever your opinion of the carved balance beams, they do seem to make a nonsense of the Conservation Area status in which they live. and as for the good thought that there can be a lot more to this than just a gathering, we are already working on more detail of the Oxford Canal 1840 "modernisation". .

[Laurence Hogg]

The latest version of Google earth is superb for viewing the lost cut off sections of the oxford. It is truly amazing how much can still be seen from the air. Good for wasting a few hours on and very intuitive as to what is still there, quite amazing how hedgerows survive giving you just enough to see the line.

[matty40s]

because of the high water tables and rainfall, this winter has seen stretches in water that havn't seen water for a long time.

It has been quite interesting seeing the old Braunston loop from the puddlebanks end, the loop above willoughby, even the stretch through the field on th the east side of the old cutting was partially in water this december.

[IanM]

The latest version of Google earth is superb for viewing the lost cut off sections of the oxford. It is truly amazing how much can still be seen from the air. Good for wasting a few hours on and very intuitive as to what is still there, quite amazing how hedgerows survive giving you just enough to see the line.

Been there, done that. Then you waste a few more hours when you come across an abandoned railway and follow that for hours too

[lydfordcastle]

Been there, done that. Then you waste a few more hours when you come across an abandoned railway and follow that for hours too

 

I wonder if anyone has ever done any metal detecting along these lost sections. When I consider all the bits and pieces I've lost overboard over the years I guess there is probably a fair cache of 18th and 19th century metalwork to be found in the dried up canal beds around Rugby and Brinklow.

[roland elsdon]

There's several joshers sunk in the.......that was a late 80s rumour. Time to resurrect again.

[lydfordcastle]

There's several joshers sunk in the.......that was a late 80s rumour. Time to resurrect again.

 

If you go down to the offside lock landing below Hillmorton bottom lock and continue along the side of the canal away from the lock, through the undergrowth and over a raised strip of ground into the well hidden remains of one of the Oxford Canal's cut-off loops, you'll find the half buried remains of an old boat. I don't know anything about old canal boats so I couldn't tell you what it is.

[c c]

 

you'll find the half buried remains of an old boat. I don't know anything about old canal boats so I couldn't tell you what it is.

Are you referring to the one that was dragged out a couple of years ago or is there one still there?

[ditchcrawler]

The latest version of Google earth is superb for viewing the lost cut off sections of the oxford. It is truly amazing how much can still be seen from the air. Good for wasting a few hours on and very intuitive as to what is still there, quite amazing how hedgerows survive giving you just enough to see the line.

We walked from Braunston to Wolfhamcote Church this week and passed a bridge in the old railway line with a wide bit of water in it. I didn't think the old line came through just here.

 

[lydfordcastle]

Are you referring to the one that was dragged out a couple of years ago or is there one still there?

 

I don't know. I "found" this one about 15 years ago when on an exploration of the old Oxford routes cut off in the 1829 straightening. As I said, the boat was (is?) half buried and lies a good 20 yards or so from the existing offside bank. This section of dried up bed is particularly deep and appears to be a sharply angled section of the original route bypassed by the existing route past the water points. It's directly in line with the bottom lock and only a hop skip and a jump from your bistro so you could nip down and have a look and tell us if it's still there.

[IanM]

We walked from Braunston to Wolfhamcote Church this week and passed a bridge in the old railway line with a wide bit of water in it. I didn't think the old line came through just here.

 

 

Looking on Google Maps satellite view I can't see any bridges in the railway embankment over the course of the old line in that area, only over a stream or two.

[lydfordcastle]

We walked from Braunston to Wolfhamcote Church this week and passed a bridge in the old railway line with a wide bit of water in it. I didn't think the old line came through just here.

 

 

Isn't that the River Leam passing beneath the Weedon to Leamington railway formation between Braunston and Wolfhamcote Church?

 

The original route of the Oxford canal is crossed by the Weedon to Leamington railway line about halfway between Braunston and Wolfhamcote church and then again (after about a mile of wiggles south of the railway) to the west of the church before passing beneath the abandoned Wolfhamcote village is a short tunnel and then rejoining the existing cut just to the east of the site of the Great Central railway bridge. I'm not aware that any of the bridges in the LNWR railway embankment in that area were built to take the railway line over the old canal line as they would have been unneccessary, the canal having been closed and bypassed almost sixty years before the railway was built.

Edited April 11, 2014 by lydfordcastle

[c c]

 

I don't know. I "found" this one about 15 years ago when on an exploration of the old Oxford routes cut off in the 1829 straightening. As I said, the boat was (is?) half buried and lies a good 20 yards or so from the existing offside bank. This section of dried up bed is particularly deep and appears to be a sharply angled section of the original route bypassed by the existing route past the water points. It's directly in line with the bottom lock and only a hop skip and a jump from your bistro so you could nip down and have a look and tell us if it's still there.

That one is not there any more.

[ditchcrawler]

 

Isn't that the River Leam passing beneath the Weedon to Leamington railway formation between Braunston and Wolfhamcote Church?

I did wonder that, but why have white around the edge if its not a navigation?

[lydfordcastle]

That one is not there any more.

 

Any idea what happened to it? It couldn't have been an easy job to move it unless it was cut up on site.

[Laurence Hogg]

 

Any idea what happened to it? It couldn't have been an easy job to move it unless it was cut up on site.

 

If its the iron boat I know of, its now at the Black Country Living Museum and known as "Flying Scot". Only short and quite shallow, it came from Hillmorton old line.

[lydfordcastle]

 

. Only short and quite shallow, it came from Hillmorton old line.

 

Sounds like the one Laurence. Thanks for the info.

[IanM]

I did wonder that, but why have white around the edge if its not a navigation?

I think that's just water washing the minerals out of the brickwork, etc leaving the white marks around the arch.

[Athy]

It also has no towpath going through it. I realise that some canal bridges (e.g. on the Stratford Canal) don't have towpaths, but the vast majority do, and certainly I can't think of a bridge on the Oxford which hasn't got one.