Cotswold Canals in Pictures

Beale's Lock, Brimscombe

Beale's Bridge is at the tail of the lock.

As can be seen from the most recent photos, nature is taking over, especially on the offside.

Construction: Beale’s Lock is the westernmost of those on the Thames & Severn Canal designed solely to take craft up to the standard dimensions of the Thames barges. It is a little over 90 feet long and about 13 feet wide. It had a rise of 8 feet. The chamber is brick lined with a substantial stone coping.

There were ground paddles in the side walls above the top gates and traces of their winding apparatus survive.

There are also surviving traces of ironwork associated with the gate hangings, and some fragments of lock gates as well. The lock is heavily overgrown, especially on the off-side (where there is apparently a spill weir), but the lock chamber seems to be substantially intact. A concrete dam has been built above the sill across the top of the lock to hold back water in the partially restored channel.  

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Beale's Lock, Brimscombe
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe (2016)
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe - gradually being reclaimed by nature
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe (2013)
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe (2013)
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe
Beale's Lock, Brimscombe in 2009 with offside clear of undergrowth