Weston Lock

WESTON CUT 656-1/35/1856 Weston Lock 11/08/72 II

Canal lock with gates. Early C18, the Avon Navigation was opened in 1727. Engineer, John Padmore; promoters Ralph Allen and John Wood the Elder. Ashlar or dressed limestone block, some rubble, wooden gates, some cast iron detail. Two pairs of original-form heavy gates have the beams contained on the north side by an arc of stone curbing set in the rising embankment. The long lock basin walls extend approximately 55m, and are brought to flush rounded copings in heavy stone; at the upstream end the walls flare out to quadrant returns, and at the downstream end the south wall has a flight of eleven very steep steps, against a set back retaining wall stopped to C20 sheet piling. The north wall also has a steep set of ten steps to a narrow landing, carried to a retaining wall which returns to a quadrant, with a further run of approximately 35m of high retaining wall in ashlar with rounded coping, brought above the path level. This lock remains mostly unaltered. It was built on a short length of canal, sometimes known as Locksbrook Cut, to by-pass a bend and weir in the River Avon.

Listing NGR: ST7247064912