Ryeford Double Lock

Ryeford Double Lock is a 19th-century structure made of red brick with limestone and granite dressings. It features a double lock design with widening entrances at both the west and east ends, divided into two chambers by a central pair of gates, making it a double lock without a separating pound.

The retaining walls of the chambers are constructed from brick and topped with large limestone ashlar coping stones. Part of the offside (north) wall was rebuilt after flood damage in the 1980s. Granite dressings are present at the gate positions, and the iron restraining straps that once attached to the timber gate posts are still in place. There are some paddle windlasses, although those on the offside have been replaced. The original pairs of gates are now missing, but traces of ground paddles can be seen above where the middle and upper gates used to be. On the south side of the lock, there is a flight of stone steps leading from the lower to the middle level, and some of the setts for one of the quadrants remain visible.