Three Thames Locks

Boveney, Romney and Old Windsor

Published in Windlesora 21 (2005)

© WLHG

Looking back 400 years, the non-tidal Thames presented a number of impediments to navigation; they comprised simple fishing weirs, and more substantial mill weirs that maintained a head of water to feed the mill streams. To enable barges to pass up and down the river, the mill weirs were constructed with-a moveable section through which the barges could pass. But each passage was at the expense of passing a large volume of water from the river above the weir to the river below. When the water levels were roughly equal, the barge would pass through the open section of the weir; but this procedure led to altercations between the millers and the bargemasters, the former concerned to maintain the level of the river above their mills, the latter concerned to continue their journey up and down stream. This controversy, and the delays that were incurred, was eventually solved by the building of locks, which used only a fraction of the water that was lost by opening a weir.

The first locks to be built were between Oxford and Burcot, a virtually unnavigable stretch of the river. They were built by the second Oxford-Burcot Commission, and then there followed a period of more than 100 years before further work was done to improve navigation on the river. In 1751 the Thames Navigation Commissioners were formed by an Act of Parliament, and their job was to improve navigation between Cricklade and Staines. But the Commissioners were a nebulous body comprising some 600 members and with little co-ordination of ideas between the groups who had responsibility for the different sections of the river. During their time as administrators they built locks and weirs, though they did not always follow proposals put to them by the civil engineers they engaged to advise them. Towards the latter part of their administration, and before the formation of the Conservators of the River Thames in 1858, the Commissioners constructed Boveney, Romney and Old Windsor locks.

The first to be built was Romney in 1798, though more than twenty years of hesitancy and uncertainty preceded the building of the lock. At first, a lock above Windsor bridge was proposed in order to alter the level of the river, thereby reducing the frequent fouling of the piers of the bridge by barges. But the residents of Windsor were hostile to the proposal and it was not until 1793 that an appeal for a lock was made to avoid the grim conditions that barge horses were subjected to as they forded the river above Windsor bridge, changing from the towing path one side of the river to the other. Finally, the lock was built in a cut below Windsor bridge and parallel to the main stream adjacent to Eton College.

Old Windsor was the next lock to be built in 1822, though again, opposition from local residents delayed the work by more than fifty years. The site finally chosen for the lock is in a cut that by-passes a loop in the river round Ham Fields.

The third lock, Boveney, was built in 1838, even though the lock had first been proposed in 1780. At first it was decided to build the lock in a cut on the opposite side of the river to Surly Hall, but this proposal was later dropped in favour of a site just below the village of Boveney and between what may have been Lady Capel’s ait, and the Buckinghamshire bank of the river. The lock was opened to traffic in a not auspicious fashion, as the first two boats passing through the lock downstream and the one boat going upstream were grounded at each end of the lock and had to be refloated by drawing the weir.

As with all the Thames locks, rebuilding became essential from time to time as limbers rotted and improved methods of construction were devised. In 1898 a new lock was built alongside the original Boveney lock, while the old lock was used as the site for boat rollers, enabling small craft to by-pass the lock. Romney lock was in a poor condition by the mid 1860s and was rebuilt in 1869; and it was at this time that the removal of Old Windsor lock was discussed, though nothing was done and the lock was finally rebuilt in 1889. Almost seventy years later, Old Windsor lock was one of the first locks to change to electrical control of the gates and sluices, a modification that was eventually carried out to all locks below Oxford. But it was Romney lock that underwent the most major reconstruction, which took place during (the winter 1879/80. The lock chamber was enlarged and the traditional sluices in the lock gates were replaced by an arrangement of underfloor culverts and outlets which caused the lock chamber to fill more evenly and without the turbulence that is a characteristic of the former filling arrangement.

The operation of the locks on the river Thames today is under the control of the lock-keepers during normal working hours, though at the time of the Thames Navigation Commissioners, lock-keeping was in its infancy and the keepers worked very long hours for very little pay. It was not until the Conservators of the River Thames took a more serious approach to lock-keeping in the very early twentieth century that it became an accepted profession. Looking back more than 150 years, lock-keepers often had another job and some were not as honest as others. In 1824 the keeper of Old Windsor lock was dismissed because of certain irregularities in the management of his lock, and some years later the replacement keeper fell behind with his accounts, as it was part of the keeper’s job to collect tolls from vessels passing through the lock. And there were fatalities which tended to take place in the winter months when ice made the operation of the locks a dangerous procedure.

Alter the Second World War, naval ratings began to take the position of keeper of some of the locks and this brought about a degree of responsibility and dedication to the job of lock-keeping. But the lock-keepers had to undergo a prolonged battle with the Conservators of the River Thames for better pay and working conditions, and it was not until after the Second World War that the profession of lock-keeper became more stable with long-term prospects

John Kemplay

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