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Canal Lock Gates Get New Lease Of Life - At Glastonbury Festival Site!

Sets of old lock gates, including several from the famous Caen Hill Flight of Locks, on the Kennet & Avon Canal, will be given a new lease of life at Glastonbury this year.

Twenty old gates, including 12 from the flight of locks that are a scheduled ancient monument, were recently removed from the Kennet & Avon Canal as part of British Waterways’ half-a-million-pound winter maintenance works along the 87-mile waterway. The works are part of an on-going programme to help maintain the historic canal, which in 2010 is celebrating its bicentenary.

The gates had come to the end of their working life in the water, but British Waterways were keen that these gates, weighing approximately two tonnes each, could have another use.

Dale Marshall, British Waterways’ works planner, Kennet & Avon Canal said:

“The Caen Hill Flight of Locks is an iconic structure that makes an impressive mark on the Wiltshire countryside, combining industrial heritage and wildlife. The lock gates that we removed as part of our works programme may have come to the end of their working life in the water, but there’s plenty of life left in them. What better place for them to be used than at another iconic location, Glastonbury.

“British Waterways takes the phrase ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ seriously, and this partnership with the Glastonbury Festival will mean that the wooden gates will help even more people have a great day out. Hopefully visitors to the festival site will be intrigued as to where the gates came from and come and visit their former home, during this the canal’s 200th birthday year.”

Phil Miller, Operations Director, Glastonbury Festival said:

“The lock gates are impressive structures with a great heritage and story to tell. We are delighted that they will be given a new lease of life with us at the festival. The gates are going to be used to build a special bridge in memory of Bella Churchill, who was instrumental in developing the festival.

“It’s great that we can work with British Waterways to ensure that we reuse and recycle materials and make the most of the resources available.”

The gates, all handmade at British Waterways’ lock gate workshops were craned out of the canal by the British Waterways team of engineers and waterway operatives earlier this year. To do this work, and before the new gates could be fitted, the canal was drained, lock pound, at a time, with any fish out of water rescued and re-homed further along the length of the canal. The empty locks were then inspected; repair works to the brick chamber walls made, the lock mechanisms refurbished, oiled and greased ready to be fitted to the new gates.

British Waterways spends £100 million per year on its maintenance programme of Britain’s 2,200-mile inland waterway network. For every £1.00 that British Waterways spends on the waterways, 33p comes from Government grants, 16p from third party funders, 13p from boaters and 38p from the organisation’s other commercial activities such as property and utilities.

British Waterways is the third largest owner of listed buildings in the country. It maintains:

1,654 locks - 54 tunnels - 3,115 bridges - 417 aqueducts - 91 reservoirs