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Anybody Recognise This Lock?


alan_fincher

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This picture is doing the rounds on Facebook, where the poster believed it to be in the Berkhamsted area.

Clearly it isn't - or anywhere else on the Grand Union, despite various boaters naming likely locks!
 

My feeling is a river navigation, not a canal.

The top end paddle gear is not something I recognise.  The lock appears to only be able to be crossed by a bridge at the tail end- certainly no foot-way or handrail at the top end.

I thought initially I might be seeing the mast of a sailing vessel just beyond the lock, but I now don't think it s, because it couldn't pass under the bridge.

Can anybody identify it please?

Oh, and if you can - who s the lady?!? ?

Mystery Lock.jpg

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10 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Apart from that paddle gear it looks reminiscent of some of the River Lee locks.

 

1 minute ago, Halsey said:

I have no idea why but I had the same thought...………………………………….

 

I thought the same.

Somebody was sure it was Pickett's, but it is the wrong way around for that - tow-path and cottage both on the wrong ides.

However I have never seen any suggestion of the Lee (or Stort?) ever having addle gear anything like that.

What is consistent with the Lee, I think,  is only being able to cross the lock via a tail end footbridge.

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3 minutes ago, Jo_ said:

Coltishall Lock, Norfolk Broads? I don't know it but this looks exactly like it

Have a greenie.  I'm convinced.

 

Interestingly that suggestion leads to this:

 

Wherry%20at%20Coltishall%20Lock.jpg

https://forum.norfolkbroadsnetwork.com/topic/6896-wherries/?do=findComment&comment=150868

This looks to be one of the small North Rivers wherries. Interestingly she is having her mast used as a crane to lift what looks to be one of the lock gates at Coltishall. Not the best quality original but I hope some of you find it interesting.

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Not only impressive detective work, but impressive work by the long-forgotten (Edwardian?) photographer too. He's chosen an idyllic location, cottage with roses around the door etc., and the figure is positioned in just the right place to add interest and balance to his picture. It must have been taken before 1912, as the lock was apparently destroyed by a flood in that year and never worked again. The cottage was derelict by the late 1960s and has now gone - a great pity. Many people would pay good money for such a dwelling today.

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12 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

This picture is doing the rounds on Facebook, where the poster believed it to be in the Berkhamsted area.

Clearly it isn't - or anywhere else on the Grand Union, despite various boaters naming likely locks!
 

My feeling is a river navigation, not a canal.

The top end paddle gear is not something I recognise.  The lock appears to only be able to be crossed by a bridge at the tail end- certainly no foot-way or handrail at the top end.

I thought initially I might be seeing the mast of a sailing vessel just beyond the lock, but I now don't think it s, because it couldn't pass under the bridge.

Can anybody identify it please?

Oh, and if you can - who s the lady?!? ?

Mystery Lock.jpg

With hindsight, the windlass should have placed this in the broads area.

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11 hours ago, Jo_ said:

Coltishall Lock, Norfolk Broads? I don't know it but this looks exactly like it

coltishall16_lockhouse.jpg

 

Spectacular work, and clearly the correct answer!

 

i'm deeply impressed, and will report back on FaceBook to the person who things it is Berkhamsted on the GU!

 

Are you going to tell us how you were able to work it out, then?

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2 minutes ago, BWM said:

With hindsight, the windlass should have placed this in the broads area.

Although there are plenty of old pictures of the Regents Canal twinned locks with permanently attached windlasses on the padles that are not hugely different.

 

I'm not suggesting it could have been the Regents, but some canals historically had permantly attached windlasses at some stage.

 

It's particularly interesting that it seems that before this lock was destroyed by flooding you could travel further up the Bure than you now can.  It did look an idyllic scene back in that photograph!

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Just now, alan_fincher said:

Although there are plenty of old pictures of the Regents Canal twinned locks with permanently attached windlasses on the padles that are not hugely different.

 

I'm not suggesting it could have been the Regents, but some canals historically had permantly attached windlasses at some stage.

 

It's particularly interesting that it seems that before this lock was destroyed by flooding you could travel further up the Bure than you now can.  It did look an idyllic scene back in that photograph!

It wasn't so much the permanent attachment, but the size and depth of the socket. I became very familiar with the type, having collected a boat from Suffolk without the knowledge or possession of the necessary windlass to work our way over to Northampton! 

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Coltishall Lock was a regular trip for us when we moored at Hoveton.  After moving Grebe to Stalham we had a nostalgic trip there in September 2009. the lock is now a sluice (remote controlled) and you can see the canoe portage point below the lock.

 

 

Bure-Coltishall Lock-b Sep 09.JPG

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13 hours ago, alan_fincher said:


The top end paddle gear is not something I recognise.  The lock appears to only be able to be crossed by a bridge at the tail end- certainly no foot-way or handrail at the top end.

Mystery Lock.jpg

Hat's of to Jo for identifying this! Like others I'd have guessed the Lee but the paddle gear didn't fit. The lee (and the stort) generally have ground paddles at both ends

 

That ground paddle intrigues me - the design must be from a mill sluice or similar with a double rack like that (presumably lifting a single shutter)

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