Which Lock is This?

[mark99]

Ok for the enthusiasts.

 

Which lock is this?

 

A clue - it's on the GUC.

 

 

 

[ChimneyChain]

Cowley.

[mark99]

Cowley.

 

I did start to type out "Chimney Chain is banned from answering" because you know where I've been recently..........

 

You sir, are of course correct. They can use this mid lock sluice to run off water down the Colne I think. You must be as nosey as me!

Edited July 14, 2014 by mark99

[ChimneyChain]

Great what have I won ?

 

Well that's killed that what shall we do now??

Edited July 14, 2014 by ChimneyChain

[mark99]

Great what have I won ?

 

Well that's killed that what shall we do now??

 

 

How about a Hollyhock competition? hang on a mo - just off to VP.

[Darren72]

I know Its at Cowley

[Tam & Di]

 

I did start to type out "Chimney Chain is banned from answering" because you know where I've been recently..........

 

You sir, are of course correct. They can use this mid lock sluice to run off water down the Colne I think. You must be as nosey as me!

 

In the "good old days" if you came down from over the summit you were using canal company water and Cowley lock was emptied into the long pound as at present. If you came from some wharf south of the summit (e.g. Rose's at Boxmoor) you were bringing mill owners' river water down and Cowley lock was emptied back into the Colne via that side sluice.

 

Tam

[WJM]

 

In the "good old days" if you came down from over the summit you were using canal company water and Cowley lock was emptied into the long pound as at present. If you came from some wharf south of the summit (e.g. Rose's at Boxmoor) you were bringing mill owners' river water down and Cowley lock was emptied back into the Colne via that side sluice.

 

Tam

Wow, that is the kind of historical information that needs preserving. Perhaps a plaque by the lock?! Where did the wharves get the water from, did the wharves you refer to have a basin higher than than canal line that they locked down from?

 

Tam and Di, you worked the last boats to Roses (delivering lime juice from Brentford?), did you use that sluice even then?

Edited July 15, 2014 by WJM

[Tam & Di]

 

 

Tam and Di, you worked the last boats to Roses (delivering lime juice from Brentford?), did you use that sluice even then?

 

No, it's use had finished by then. There were mills in existence on the Gade, Chess and Colne prior to the construction of the Grand Junction canal which used these water courses in part, and various protections were built into the Enabling Acts. At Cowley there are two cottages, one for the canal lock keeper and the other was lived in by the person responsible for the river water. Locks such as Uxbridge and Ricky only had ground paddles in order that the level did not drop off and affect the mill stream when the lock was filled.

 

Frank Nurser was the last lock keeper, and still lived there after he retired - lock keepers were no longer employed on the lower GU other than on the Hanwell flight and in the Brentford depot. There were however very good lengthsmen who rode up and down keeping their eyes on everything. Many of the cottages were still lived in by ex-boatmen or at least people who worked for the company. The limjuice traffic was seasonal through the winter; it was a 12 hour run Brentford-Boxmoor so if we got away loaded at 1000 it would be getting dark long before we got to Boxmoor, and many of the occupants would put their outside lights on for us when they heard us a-coming - not part of their job, just because that's what they did.

 

Tam

[Pete & Helen]

Is it in a tunnel or is there a bridge at the entrance that just makes it look like that?

[mark99]

And the River Bulbourne too I guess.

 

I used to buy home made fruit pies from the Lot Mead lock cottage from I assume one of the lady members of the Walker family. This was in the 70's.

Is it in a tunnel or is there a bridge at the entrance that just makes it look like that?

There is a submerged tunnel that you can only see when the lock is empty. Being nosey I bent right down off the counter and took a snap.

[Tam & Di]

And the River Bulbourne too I guess.

 

I used to buy home made fruit pies from the Lot Mead lock cottage from I assume one of the lady members of the Walker family. This was in the 70's.

 

 

Yes, I forgot the Bulbourne. We used to buy pies at Lock 80 too. Pete Thompson made a brilliant film of almost a complete round trip which shows Di getting some while we were in the lock and waving her finger to tell me not to go too fast up the pound as she wanted to eat hers before getting back on the bike to lockwheel. Jon's Stores was another essential refueling place. It was useful that the lock was a slow filler, and he would always let boat people to the head of any queue as he knew we had to get along.

 

I think I saw it mentioned on CWDF some while ago, but Lot Mead was always called Lock 80 for some reason, where all the others had either their official name or some boatman name, like "Albert's 2" or "5 paddle".

 

Tam

[mark99]

I'm guessing now but I think Lot Mead is a derivation from meadows divided into individual sections or lots. IIRC that area was watercress ( before that water meadows?) beds like at Cassio.

 

We did at one time consider buying the Cassio water cress site.

 

Yes I remember Jon's Stores too.

Edited July 15, 2014 by mark99

[ChimneyChain]

Tam you should compile a book with all this information that you have .

 

Darren

[Tam & Di]

Tam you should compile a book with all this information that you have .

 

Darren

 

It would be a very slim volume so probably not, but I would very much like to get Pete's film into a marketable form. I just never get around to it.

 

Tam

[magpie patrick]

I'd no idea this existed, either specifically at this location, or in general anywhere. The paddles look both modern and in good condition, but I presume they are no longer used?

 

 

In the "good old days" if you came down from over the summit you were using canal company water and Cowley lock was emptied into the long pound as at present. If you came from some wharf south of the summit (e.g. Rose's at Boxmoor) you were bringing mill owners' river water down and Cowley lock was emptied back into the Colne via that side sluice.

 

Tam

 

Which is a rather crude but very practical way of accounting for the water consumed. presumably there were some intermediate mill owners who lost out of a lockful of water (in theory).

 

In practice the hydrology of water supply is rather more complicated and I suspect the millers below Cowley got rather more water back than they had originally lost but they knew how to score points for sure.

 

Are there any other examples or was this a complete one off? I've seen a similar idea proposed for a restoration scheme but in the end a conventional arrangement was used and no compensation flow was allowed for.

[jeannette smith harrison]

 

It would be a very slim volume so probably not, but I would very much like to get Pete's film into a marketable form. I just never get around to it.

 

Tam

Tam

M y Nan had a saying = Talk about not blowing your own trumpet.

More like a shelf load of volumes is my guess Tam as your Knowledge covers such a wide area.

You are the only one I know with such a wide area of Knowledge,

that's not to say others on here are not Knowledgable but must only cover a chosen area.

As you know whilst you & Di where on the Lime Juice most of the ex Boatmen on the Hanwell thicket where my Relatives ,

I would love to hear more about this era .

Best Wishes to you Both

Jeannette

[Pluto]

Are there any other examples or was this a complete one off? I've seen a similar idea proposed for a restoration scheme but in the end a conventional arrangement was used and no compensation flow was allowed for.

Reservoirs built in the late 19th century could have compensation water clauses included in their permissions to build. For Winterburn (L&LC), there is compensation water required to keep Eshton Beck flowing at a steady rate. In the 1930s, there was some concern nationally that this type of compensation water, used to keep streams supporting wildlife, could adversely affect the type of wildlife. Eshton Beck is what can be described as 'flashy', in that its flow should be variable according to rainfall, and that having a constant flow of compensation water altered the natural balance. However, no legislation followed.

 

The Winterburn compensation water is measured at the base of the reservoir dam based on the reservoir's catchment area, but there is also a second compensation water requirement which was designed to keep the River Aire flowing at a time when Keighley and Leeds sewage was put into the river. This compensation water was based on the much larger catchment area above where Eshton Beck crosses the canal just above Gargrave bottom lock. The brick building on the off side of the canal here still has the measuring weirs to ensure the two compensation water requirements are fulfilled, though it has not been used for around forty years, compensation water now being controlled by paddles.