Ufton Lock

Ufton Lock is a degated lock on the Kennet and Avon Canal, between Padworth and Sulhamstead, Berkshire, England.

Ufton Lock
The degated lock
51°24′48″N 1°06′48″W
Waterway	Kennet and Avon Canal
Country	England
County	Berkshire
Maintained by	Canal & River Trust
First built	c. 1834
Length	80 feet (24 m)
Width	14 feet (4.3 m)
Fall	0 feet 0 inches (0 m)

History

Ufton Lock was built in c. 1834, making it the last lock on the waterway to be built.^{[nb 1]} It was engineered by John Blackwell, who had dug a new 600-yard (550 m) cut to avoid the meandering River Kennet between Padworth and Sulhamstead.^[1] The lock's depth was just 1 foot 9 inches (0.53 m),^[2] which was to improve the head of water at Towney Lock, 0.6 miles (0.97 km) upstream.^[1] When the waterway was restored in the 1960s, restoring the shallow lock was deemed unpractical and instead the rebuilt Towney Lock was deepened to cater for the difference in level.^[3] The lock gates were removed, although the chamber masonry and bollards have been retained as a landing stage for the adjacent swing bridge.^[4]

The canal is now administered by the Canal & River Trust.^[5]

Footnotes

1. Many locks were rebuilt during the canal's restoration (some of which, such as Towney and Burghfield, were restored directly up- or downstream of their original chamber). County Lock was moved to the opposite riverbank in the 1880s.