Cleeve Lock
The Cleeve Lock is a lock on the River Thames , in Oxfordshire , England . It is upstream on the west side of the river like Streatley . The place Cleeve is located on the eastern side of the river.
The first lock was built in 1787 by the Thames Navigation Commission . At 0.69 m, it has the smallest height difference in the course of the Thames. The section of the river above the lock is the longest and the section below the lock is the shortest between two locks in the area of the river that is not influenced by the tides.
The weir connects to an island below the lock. There are other weirs on islands downstream.
history
A lock was mentioned at this point as early as the 16th century. A lock was built from oak in 1787 . Originally the lock was supposed to be called Streatley Lock , but it got its name from Cleeve on the other side of the river. Until 1869 the Cleeve Lock and the Goring Lock were operated by the same lock keeper. The lock was rebuilt in stone in 1874.
The river above the lock
There used to be two ferries on this section, one at Little Stoke and the other at Chalmore Hole near Wallingford. The towpath changed banks in both places . The Moulsford Railway Bridge , built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel , crosses the river at Moulsford , where there used to be a lock. The Winter Brook Bridge , a new road bridge is found downstream from Wallingford . It serves as a relief for the historic Wallingford Bridge .
Both the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University have rowing boathouses near Wallingford.
The Thames Path runs in this area on the western side of the river. As a replacement for the places where the old towpath changed banks, the path now leads away from the river at Moulsford and follows the road before returning to the river. A small detour also takes place in Wallingford. The path then stays on the bank until it reaches Benson Lock . On the other side of the river, the Ridgeway runs parallel to the Thames Path to Winterbrook Bridge.
Mention in the literature
In Jerome K. Jerome's novel Three Men in a Boat there is an episode in which a long, fearful journey to Cleeve Lock is described because an outdated map shows a lock at Wallingford. This is based on facts. The Chalmore Lock on Chalmore Hole was built in 1838 and served as a summer lock at low water. As it became increasingly dilapidated, the Wallingford residents campaigned for its preservation in 1873. It was eliminated in 1883 according to a report by John Hawkshaw .
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Fred S. Thacker: The Thames Highway. Volume II: Locks and Weirs. 1920 - 1968 reissued, David & Charles, Newton Abbot.
- ↑ Paul Goldsack: River Thames. In the Footsteps of the Famous. English Heritage / Bradt, Bucks 2003, ISBN 1-84162-044-0 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 31 '55.3 " N , 1 ° 8' 7.8" W.