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Description

Canal lock. C.1793-5. Ashlar in fine large blocks. Cast-iron fittings. The lock chamber is approx. 14 feet wide and 60 feet long (probably built to take Humber Keels, the usual type of boat used on the waterways connecting with the Humber). There are recesses for paddles in the lock sides within the upper gate recesses, with tunnels to take the water around the gates into the chamber. There are no corresponding tunnels at the lower end, the paddles probably being in the missing gates. There are cast-iron brackets at the top of each of the lock pivots, set into the top of the stonework. Some of the square iron surrounds to the the tunnel entrances, against which the paddles would have rubbed, survive. A C20 bridge has been built over the lock with steel joists resting on the chamber walls but this element is not of special architectural interest. HISTORY. The Caistor Canal was built under an Act of Parliment of 1793 following the survey of the engineer William Jessop in 1792. It was disused by 1877. It ran from the River Ancholme Navigation eastward towards the town of Caistor, but only about half was constructed and it reached to the village of Moortown, a distance of about 4.5 miles. C19 OS maps show six locks. The highest of these, near the basin at Moortown, had totally disappeared by the 1960's together with any other remains of a wharf, basin, or buildings there might oince have been at the village end. However the other five locks survive and are complete except for gates and paddle gear. This lock forms a group with the towpath bridge (q.v). The whole series of these locks and bridge is a significant survival of C18 canal enginerring and displays an impressive quality of construction.

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