In message <[email protected]>, Bru <[email protected]> writes >It isn't a question of authoritative sources, it's a simple matter of logic >and engineering > >The dictionary definition of 'Pound', as related to canals, is that it is >the stretch of water impounded between two locks
But isn't it also the lock chamber itself (as in 'pound lock', as opposed to earlier flash locks)? > >Thus the stretch of water to the side of each of the Foxton locks is, by the >dictionary definition, a pound since it is a stretch of water impounded >between two locks > >The side ponds used to save water at a single lock are not pounds since >the >water is not impounded between two locks > >However, in everyday use the terms pond and pound are somewhat >interchangeable in that whilst I've never heard a water saving side pond >called a pound, I have, albeit not as often as I've heard 'pond'. >it is quite common for side pounds at lock flights to be >called ponds. I'm struggling slightly with the notion of 'quite common' when they only exist at (to my knowledge) five flights, one of which is derelict and probably used a Welsh name. Unless you're including the things at Devizes, Farmers Bridge etc which I don't really think of in themselves as pounds or ponds either - more as extensions or widenings of the pounds between the locks. > >In any case, it isn't what they are called that is particularly the point at >issue, it's the claim made by Adrian that Foxton's side ponds/pounds are >fundamentally different from those at Caen Hill, Bratch etc. and that the >side lakes ( :-) ) at Foxton are, technically speaking, related to the water >saving side ponds to be found beside some locks on the GU etc. > I fully understand the distinction that you're making - the widenings of the pounds at Caen Hill are equivalent to the separate pools the other side of the towpath at Bratch, and the things at Foxton and Watford are the logical extension of this in that they completely replace rather than supplement the inter-lock pound. Whereas the economiser ponds beside individual locks (whether single or staircase) are a completely different matter. But however logical it might be to refer to the first as 'pounds' and the second as 'ponds', (a) your previous posting seemed (to me) to be suggesting something a little more authoritative and (b) I'm not convinced that logic has ever played a great part in canal terminology. -- Martin Ludgate
