Which lock is this?

rosssavage said:
Yup, cookham. Actually a really awkward lock to use!! Easiest lock in my mind is Hambledon, worst marlow. Sorry, thread drift.. :)
Click to expand...

I don't understand your Cookham problem.
Nice shallow lock, bollards well placed.
OK the middle gates structure can be a pain when placing the boat. But we can get our lines up high to those bollards - you certainly can with you huge height...

Another plus is the very nice, pleasant, helpful resident lockie!
(I'm interested in your challenges, not being confrontational)

Now for an awkward lock you can't beat Goring - specially designed with bollards set well back and raised flower beds to throw one's lines back at you over the top of the bollards.

Another awkward one is Culham with stuff obstructing the bollards.
 
Lockie is great, ice cream / mini gift shop is nice, lock well maintained. But I always, always, always end up alongside the middle gates with the horrible bollards with no tops! Cue difficulty getting lines on (after clambering over the gates and handrails) and the rope always slipping off the top of the bollards on the way up!

Hambledon is huuuuuge, side sluices and perfect bollard placement.

Marlow is like being inside a washing machine, if you can get in (going up).
 
It certainly is Cookham, which for the record is very nearly the same size as Hambleden... about 20 foot longer at Hambleden and 4 inches wider!
Incidendally, being across the middle gates at Cookham Lock is considered VIP position... all that lovely wood to sit alongside instead of concrete.... and your lines will not come off the bollards if you put a turn on them!
Hambleden actually has a bottom-filling system (which may sound painful to some and no doubt appealing to others) but it does do a very convincing impression of a side-filling lock.
 
O Gawd !

O woe and tribulation and a warning to all on the fiendish and terrifying challenges awaiting the unwary upon the that most treacherous of waters...The Thames.
Round the world yachtsmen your real nemisis flows through the heart of Berkshire and not a hot pastie for miles by all accounts:)
 
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shades said:
It certainly is Cookham, which for the record is very nearly the same size as Hambleden... about 20 foot longer at Hambleden and 4 inches wider!
Incidendally, being across the middle gates at Cookham Lock is considered VIP position... all that lovely wood to sit alongside instead of concrete.... and your lines will not come off the bollards if you put a turn on them!
Hambleden actually has a bottom-filling system (which may sound painful to some and no doubt appealing to others) but it does do a very convincing impression of a side-filling lock.
Click to expand...

One's perception is strange, "Lower Henley Lock" always looks ginormous, but Coockham appears comfortably compact. Must be something to do with the blasted heath appearance of the former and woodland glade of the latter.

I thought it was infra dig to take a turn; several lock-persons have snuck alongside me and taken them off pointedly

That's bacause the previous incumbent always said it was a side filling lock....
(Drat I should have made an effort to view it last year when it was empty)
 
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Marlow lock used to cause us problems.

We used to hire out slipper launches from Townsends at Bourne End, one slipper was a bitch called 'Pal O Mine' built by Alfred Burgoyne.

Pal O Mine was a thing of beauty compared with slab sided Meakes slippers as she had huge flare, more like an aircraft carrier. However we had to ban this boat from going through Marlow lock, because all too frequently on the way back down hirer would catch the edge of the deck on the lock wall and hang the boat up.

One Sundy lock keeper spotted Pal O Mine tilting at a crazy angle with family oblivious to what was happening until with a ripping and tearing the deck lifted and the boat slipped back into the fast draining lock. Lock keeper shut the sluces and re-filled the lock to let the terrified familiy off the boat.

I was sent to Marlow in another boat, recovered the errant no Pal O Mine as well as the family, dad was still getting an earful by the time I got there, poor guy.

Happy days

After nearly 50 years the memory is not so sharp, just remembered that he errant slipper was Western Isles not the poor old Pal O Mine...............
 
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ProDave said:
Can I ask the obvious dumb question, that is, what is the purpose of that extra set of middle gates?

Surely it's not a staircase lock is it?
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'Tis not a dumb question!
Advice from a local source said it was done as a water conservation measure, which I accepted as it came from A Man Who Knows.
To my mind it may be a a bit more involved; the lock was rebuilt in the 1920's and I wonder wthether it was merely extended and refurbished, leaving the old top gates in place. Then the above explanation would be correct. I've never seen them used as a water saving measure, but they are certainly useful when the top gate 'leccy has a problem.

All the Thames locks are weird; different dimensions, different drop, different equipment controlling them and suchlike.

They (as well as the variability of lockies) makes The River such an interesting place to cruise and watch.
 
Cookham Lock was in fact rebuilt in the late 1950's (1957 IIRC)
It was electrically operated (as opposed to hydraulic) and had a middle set of gates to enable a shorter lock to be used to save time/water.
It was possible to use any 2 out of the 3 sets of gates, giving the choice of a small lock (head and middle), a medium sized lock (middle and tail), or a big lock (head and tail).
Three sets of gates is not a new idea, Boulters Lock had a middle set of gates until the rebuild in the early 80's when they were removed. If you look towards the road from the lock, you can work out where the middle gates were, by the layout of the steps.
Cookham Lock Office was like an old junction box, with a series of levers in it for operating the various gates and sluices, hence the much larger office building. The gates could also be operated from the front room of the lock house, this room was later converted into the infamous Lock Shop operated by the legendary Faye Andrews.
The electric system was replaced with hydraulics in the late 60's inline with the rest of the local locks.
The middle gates were kept for experimenting with new hydraulic operating systems. The middle pedestal is actually the early prototype for the Sulby system now in use at Boulters and below Windsor. Boaters were able to use the middle gates under public power and then only had to wind the other end. This often led to boats entering at both ends, with only the middle gates closed, they would then wind the set of gates closed that was behind them before spotting the other boat/s! (really funny to watch!!)
 
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shades said:
Cookham Lock was in fact rebuilt in the late 1950's (1957 IIRC)
It was electrically operated (as opposed to hydraulic) and had a middle set of gates to enable a shorter lock to be used to save time/water.
It was possible to use any 2 out of the 3 sets of gates, giving the choice of a small lock (head and middle), a medium sized lock (middle and tail), or a big lock (head and tail).
Three sets of gates is not a new idea, Boulters Lock had a middle set of gates until the rebuild in the early 80's when they were removed. If you look towards the road from the lock, you can work out where the middle gates were, by the layout of the steps.
Cookham Lock Office was like an old junction box, with a series of levers in it for operating the various gates and sluices, hence the much larger office building. The gates could also be operated from the front room of the lock house, this room was later converted into the infamous Lock Shop operated by the legendary Faye Andrews.
The electric system was replaced with hydraulics in the late 60's inline with the rest of the local locks.
The middle gates were kept for experimenting with new hydraulic operating systems. The middle pedestal is actually the early prototype for the Sulby system now in use at Boulters and below Windsor. Boaters were able to use the middle gates under public power and then only had to wind the other end. This often led to boats entering at both ends, with only the middle gates closed, they would then wind the set of gates closed that was behind them before spotting the other boat/s! (really funny to watch!!)
Click to expand...

Thanks Shades, very interesting.:)
 
The lock at Allington has double gates.Normally only smaller top chamber is used unless very busy during river festival periods or perhaps barge transiting ,when all lock is used.
 
"Boaters were able to use the middle gates under public power and then only had to wind the other end."
I remember often using the middle gates before the days of public power use, I thought Jim Andrews had left them on for those "in the know" (much like Brian Webb did at Hurley) but interested to see it was a policy.
 
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