Lock Keepers Cottage

Lock Keeper's Cottage

A former canal lock keeper's cottage, now a private dwelling, dating from the mid-nineteenth century with minor late twentieth-century alterations. The building stands on Ravens Lane in Berkhamsted, positioned parallel to the adjacent canal lock it was built to serve.

The cottage is constructed of painted brick beneath a hipped roof covered in plain tiles. It follows a linear plan with a single aspect facing the canal lock chamber to the north-east. The building is a symmetrical, single-storey structure of five bays, aligned north-west to south-east.

The main entrance is set within a shallow projecting entrance bay with canted sides and a hipped roof. The doorway has a shallow segmental-arched head and a twentieth-century half-glazed door. Flanking this advanced bay are small canted bay windows, each supported on shaped wooden brackets and set beneath gablets that rise from the eaves to intersect with the main roof structure at mid-slope. Each bay window contains a 2 over 2 pane sash frame with glazing bars.

To the outer side of each bay window are secondary doorways with 4-panel doors; only the righthand door and opening survive, while the left opening has been blocked. Beyond these door positions are wide window openings with arched heads matching those of the doors. All window openings throughout the front elevation contain sash frames with glazing bars: the wide openings have 3 over 3 pane frames, while flanking narrow openings are undivided sashes. The rear elevation and north-west gable are devoid of openings.

The interior comprises a series of five rooms linked by doors adjacent to the front wall. Three rooms, positioned in bays 3, 4 and 5 in the right-hand section, contain hearths.

The Grand Union Canal section from Brentford to Berkhamsted was completed in 1798, with the link to Birmingham opening in 1805. The waterway had considerable impact on Berkhamsted's development, particularly through Castle Wharf to the north-west, which became known as 'the Port of Berkhamsted'. The canal remained in commercial operation until the 1960s. Notably, Berkhamsted was the home of Francis Edgerton, Duke of Bridgewater, often referred to as 'the Father of the Inland Waterway system'.

The cottage stands alongside the lock chamber of one of two operational locks leading to Castle Wharf. The lock retains wooden gates of traditional design at both ends, with brick-lined sides below massive stone copings. The lock itself is not separately listed.