Hillmorton Locks: The Busiest Locks of the Oxford Canal and the Entire Canal Network, Ep 42

[@neilmurfet3392]

You vlogs complement the 'cruising' vlogs with information and history....Thanks. All the best, Tricia and Neil..

[@idocanals]

Thanks Tricia & Neil. We cannot wait until we cruising and vlogging. Not to far away now.

[@hillmortonlocks]

Hi Simon and Karen, We like to see videos of our locks on KZbin and like the drone footage in this one. Hopefully the following will answer some of the questions raised. You seemed to get a bit confused by which lock was which (2:13, 6:52, 8:20 and 9:10) The even numbered locks are all on the towing path side through the flight. It is simple to identify which are the “new” locks by looking at the paddle gear. The 1840 locks have the very distinctive cast Iron ground paddles at both top and bottom, where the others have paddle gear similar to what can be seen elsewhere on the North Oxford. This is confirmed by engineering drawings from the period held at the Warwickshire County Records Office. The new locks are not always on the same side. They had to be squeezed in where there was space. For example, there used to be a cottage close to the towing path at lock 4. Only the 1840 locks had cast iron gates, not all six. Otherwise, all six locks would have ground paddles. The date carved into lock 3 (12:45) is in fact 1898. The poetry carved into the beams of locks 4 & 5 is part of a bigger work to commemorate the inaugural year (2012) of Canal & River Trust. The other locations are:- The Leeds and Liverpool Canal - Gargrave Lock 30, Manchester and Pennine, Huddersfield Narrow Canal - Milnsbridge 9E and the Birmingham Fazeley - Farmers Bridge Lock 8. Roy Fisher wrote the lines for Hillmorton which were shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in 2012. He also wrote the lines for Farmers bridge Lock while Jo Bell wrote lines for Milnsbridge Lock and Ian McMillan for Gargrave Lock. The sculptor was Peter Coates. More details including the complete work can be found on our website www.hillmortonlocks.co.uk/p/locklines.html The old gates were not “dumped” below bottom lock they were saved from being scrapped and now form a display within the context of the setting from where the came. Sadly, at the time of your filming they were not looking their best due to circumstances outside of our control. The ‘S’ shape of stones is nothing more than a picnic area again not looking their best at time of filming. We hope you find this useful information and if you wish to feature Hillmorton Locks in a future video we would be glad to help with the historical and factual information. With kind regards Hillmorton Locks

[@idocanals]

Happy to let you have a copy. I have several recordings. The one you see in our channel is just a small section. Email me your address and I will send you a download link. Email address in 'About'

[@louisjamescarroll2173]

The top gates at middle lock are put of a poem by Ian fisher for the first year of the crt.

[@idocanals]

That's amazing, thank you so much for your comment.

[@tonycollins7965]

It is a pity that you didn't speak to Lesley or Iain at the bistro in the bottom pound. They would have been able to tell you so much more about Hillmorton Locks. The last surviving iron lock gate is not just 'dumped' there, it was fought for hard by the local civic group simply because it would otherwise have been scrapped. There are a number of details that could have been included. But thank you anyway for taking an interest in our local industrial heritage.

[@tonycollins7965]

Just as a note the carving on the middle lock beams was done by CRT who have little money and even less sense in order to "beautify" the area.

[@idocanals]

Thank you for your comment' Lesley and Iain were literally leaving as we arrived. It's an interesting fact about the Cast Iron Gate. It's fact like that, that are sometimes difficult to learn about unless you just happen to meet the right person. Anyhow, it's information learned. We'll pass through Hillmorton again in the future, so a second video is possible. We'd like to include the old working Boat Badsey and a mention of Barnes too amongst others.