County Lock

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

County Lock, looking upstream.

The lower lock gates, with the river in a state of flood. The old brewery stable block can be seen.

County Lock is a lock on the River Kennet in Reading town centre in the English county of Berkshire. It was built between 1718 and 1723 under the supervision of the engineer John Hore of Newbury, and this stretch of the river is now administered by British Waterways and known as the Kennet Navigation.

County Lock has the lowest rise of the locks on the Kennet, as boats only rise or fall about 30 cm (1 foot) in the lock. The main stream of the Kennet flows down the weir on the far side of the lock, while another arm of the Kennet disappears under the Bridge Street Roundabout.^[1]

The land on both sides of the river adjacent to County Lock was formerly part of the site of Simonds' Brewery. Most of the brewery buildings in this area have been demolished and replaced by a mixture of apartments and offices. However the brewery's attractive old stable building, which overlooks the lock, has been preserved and is now occupied by a Loch Fyne restaurant.

Downstream from the lock is Brewery Gut, a particularly fast flowing, narrow and twisty stretch of the river which formerly flowed through the brewery. Here the brewery has been replaced by The Oracle shopping centre, and boats can be seen navigating through the middle of the Riverside Level of that complex, lined on both sides by restaurants and pubs.