Construction of the 3 river locks
Luckily for us, a passing architect, Thomas Surbey, called in to Stamford on his way to York and made a sketch of what he found. This plan and cross-section shows its construction.
Because of the force of the flowing water, the 3 river locks needed to be quite substantial, and to save water they needed to be as leak proof as possible. By constructing them in stone the job was done once and done well. It was just the lock gates that were wooden and needed to be made solidly to withstand the pressure. With two gates coming together at a point it used that pressure to keep them closed for boats to rise and fall.
This diagram shows the operation of a lock - still the same today!
Luckily, Top Lock was documented in the early days. High Lock is easily visible alongside the road and the Low Lock area is at the end of a footpath.
The Stamford Canal << The earliest proper canal in England? <<
