At Beeston Stone Lock at least one of the paddle gear spindles has a hole through it. I don't recall seeing this anywhere else: I presume it's to enable the mechanism to be padlocked.
Another interesting thing here, and at many of the locks in this vicinity, is the round building at the lockside. According to other writers it's an old lengthsman's hut, but I haven't been able to discover much about it.
2 comments:
What's a lengthsman, Halfie? The building would look more in place in Africa! As always, nice pics.
A lengthsman is the person responsible for patrolling a particular stretch of canal, usually on foot or bicycle, keeping an eye on its condition and alerting the canal company to any defects. At least, that's how it used to be. I don't know if British Waterways employs anyone specifically as a lengthsman these days.
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