Bob Wood wrote:
> Mike Stevens wrote:
>
>> mjrus1945 wrote:
>
>>> What is a stop lock? Does it serve a different purpose to the locks
>>> that go from one level to another?
>>
>> Stop locks occur typically where one canal joins another at the same
>> level. Their original purpose was so that, in the days when the
>> canals were owned by separate companies, then if there was a dispute
>> between the companies about how much water one was taking from the
>> other, the junction could be closed by the aggrieved party.
>
>
> I don't think that is quite correct. As far as I am aware, when a
> new canal company wanted to join up with an existing canal, it was
> sometimes required to join at a higher level so that any water that
> 'escaped', did so in the direction of the established canal. It was
> in the interest of the new company that they lost the least possible
> amount of water so where possible they arranged for the drop to be a
> foot or less.
>
> If the new company didn't join at a higher level, it didn't get the
> connection.
That certainly happened in some cases, but not all. Examples of locks of
the kind you describe occur at Dutton Stop Lock (Trent & Mersey/Bridgewater)
and at Hall Green (Macclesfield Canal/Hall Green Branch of the T&M). That
last one is particularly interesting as there were originally two locks
end-to-end, one built by each company. Another interesting example is the
junction of the Middlewich Branch with the Trent & Mersey, where the T&M
insisted on building and owning the last lock on the Branch, this creating
the Wardle Lock Branch, or Wardle Lock Canal, which is the shortest canal in
the country being just a few yards longer than the lock.
The level junction I know best is the junction of the Paddington Arm and the
Regent's Canal. But that one just had a pair of stop gates rather than a
stop lock. Another, slightly different, example is the stop lock at King's
Norton, where the Stratford-on-Avon canal meets the Worcester & Birmingham.
This was built with guillotine gates both ends so that it could be used if
there was a difference in level either way. Since nationalisation, with
both canals in the same ownership, the lock has both guillotines permanently
open.
The lock at Hawkesbury Junction (Sutton's Stop) is not quite one thing nor
the other. The Coventry and Oxford Canals were originally designed to meet
on the level, but there was a six inch error in the surveyed levels, which
required a lock.
Other "stops" which didn't actually have locks were in fact narrows for
gauging the boats in order to assess the tolls they were due to pay. Lots
of examples of these on the BCN, plus Paddington Stop at Little Venice,
Stretton Stop on the North Oxford, and,I guess, very many others. And
there's Braunston Stop on the original main line of the Oxford Canal (which
later became the Braunston Branch). I'm not sure whether that was built to
guage boats moving between the Oxford Canal and the Grand Junction Canal, or
whether it pre-dated the GJC and was originally simply an Oxford Canal
gauging stop.
Mike Stevens
nb Felis Catus III - now at Thrupp
web-site www.mike-stevens.co.uk
No man is an island. So is Man.
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