Busy Easter at Kilnhurst Lock

1948

South Yorkshire Times March 4, 1948

Canal repair hustle

Busy Easter at Kilnhurst Lock

Work started promptly at Kilnhurst Flood Lock, where advantage was taken of the Easter weekend to carry out repairs on Saturday, and before midday preparations were complete the actual repair to the gates to begin.

It was intended that the lock should be closed from March 27 (Saturday) to April 2, while the 37-year-old gates at the Swinton end of the lock were replaced by new ones. At the same time, a 200 year old stone bridge at the other end of the lock, was to be dismantled and rebuilt in one modern lines

First Operation

The first, and one of the most important operations, was the inspection of the underwater parts of the gauge by divers, and diver Jim Gravel, of Thorne, in steel helmet copper rubber suit and heavy weighted boobs, lost no time in going down to the bottom of the lock.

His friend, Georg Ramsey who is also a diver for the Sheffield and South Yorkshire section of the British Waterways did not enter the water on Saturday but assisted from the bank. Both men started diving when 14 years of age. Jim has been at the job for 25 and George for 23 years.

The divers’ principal function was to clear the lock bed so that dams could be erected at each end. Once this had been done some of the 50 men engaged on the whole job began work on the dams, and soon the canal was blocked by a wall of heavy timber baulks. The dams were not complete, however, until they had been well packed with clay to make them watertight.

While this work was in progress, the other men had dismantled the old bridge.Standing in a flat bottomed boat in the lock itself. were several other men, strengthening the lock walls.

Directing all these operations, from a vantage point, high on the lock side, was MrC. Hanby, an inspector of the British Waterways. He told a ‘South Yorkshire Times” reporter, that he expected work to be finished by Thursday, but added “You never know with these jobs. We don’t know what’s down there until we start.

Hive of Industry

The area certainly looked a hive of industry with men swarming all over the lock side Two cranes, one mobile, and the other erected specially for the job, together with a large calibre pump, all contributed to make the scene even busier.

A tug boat, with smoking funnel filled the canal below the lock gates.

Almost dwarfing the little house of Mr Smith, lock keeper, were huge piles of timber and the massive sections of the new lock gates, on the opposite side of the lock.