Lock Keeper'S House

The house is a lock keeper's house, built in 1779, with 19th-century alterations and an addition. It was likely based on a standard design by Thomas Dadford, Senior, Surveyor and Engineer to the Dudley Canal Company and built to house the keeper of the Delph Locks. The exterior is now rendered on brick, with a tiled roof, a hip over the canted north-western end bay, which faces the canal, and gables at the south-eastern end. Brick ridge and gable end stacks are present, along with a brick dentil eaves cornice. The house is two storeys high, with a single-storey gabled extension at the south-eastern end. The canted bay at the north-western end has a 19th-century cross mullion/transom casement window with bars on the front. A metal plate above is inscribed with the Birmingham Canal Navigation reference number: 151. The first floor has a horned sash window. There were probably windows on the canted sides, but these are now blocked and rendered. The entry is on the south-western side, within a 1930s porch. The north-eastern and south-western sides also have windows similar to those in the north-western bay. The interior was not inspected. The original locks, which were close to the house, were replaced in 1858 with locks 68 metres to the north-west. The building is significant as one of the few surviving canal houses of this type.