Old Lock Gates?

[Drayke]

Does anyone know what these old gate recesses would have been for, as they would have closed in different directions? These are at Pewsey Bridge No 114 & 113 on the K & A. They could not have been locks but maybe stop gates.

[StephenA]

Pretty sure its stop gates ... its a longish pound there so having stop gates in the middle of it makes a lot of sense.

[Rob-M]

My understanding is if there was a breach the surge of water through the bridge would suck the gates closed stopping the long pound from being drained. There are quite a few locations that have gates like this.

[sharpness]

There's a similar arrangement at Junction Bridge on the G&S and the gates are there but chained back so I shouldn't think any breach surge would suck the gates closed but they could be shut fairly quickly whichever side the breach was. The G&S is one 16mile long pound, Junction Bridge is halfway.

Steve

[WJM]

In London, gates like these were installed on the longer pounds during the Second World War. During the Blitz the gates were shut each night so that a breach would not drain the pound. They are quite rotted away now but still visible.  These K&A examples may not be wartime but they probably serve the same purpose. The Pewsey pound is fourteen miles long so a breach would release a lot of water.

 

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, WJM said:

In London, gates like these were installed on the longer pounds during the Second World War. During the Blitz the gates were shut each night so that a breach would not drain the pound. They are quite rotted away now but still visible.  These K&A examples may not be wartime but they probably serve the same purpose. The Pewsey pound is fourteen miles long so a breach would release a lot of water.

 

The Bridgewater has brand new ones

[X Alan W]

The slot in the coping nearest to the bridge is to take stop planks belt & braces set up

[Mike Todd]

Don't forget that the K&A was an important defense line in WW2 - hence all the pillboxes.

[magpie patrick]

33 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

Don't forget that the K&A was an important defense line in WW2 - hence all the pillboxes.

It was indeed. However the gate recesses on the K&A generally date back to the time of construction, it was a "modern" canal and many lessons in good practice had already been learned. Also it seems to have been a somewhat "gold plated" construction with fine bridges and some splendid aqueducts.  

 

The K&A also had some stop gates that folded into the canal floor. This wasn't such a bright idea as they got buried in silt

[Ray T]

My memory is failing at the moment but Brindley or Telford? designed either one or two gates which lay on the bed of the canal, if two, hinges together. If there was a breech the water flow would cause the gate to lift and hence stem the flow. The bridge at Weedon has the inset where the gate would have arced through. See the far RHS of the bridge at water level

ETA - Brindley Gates or rising gates, see NarrowBoat Spring 2010. Another example is on the Basingstoke Canal.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Ray T

[Drayke]

Thanks for all the replies, so looks like they were stop gates.