Culham Lock

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Culham Lock
Waterway	River Thames
County	Oxfordshire
Maintained by	Environment Agency
Operation	Hydraulic
First built	1809
Length	130’ 10” (38.87m)
Width	17’ 6” (5.33m)
Fall	7’ 11” (2.41m)
Above Sea Level	161'
Distance to Teddington Lock	82 miles

Culham Lock
legend River Thames weir weir Abingdon Lock & weir Swift Ditch A415 Bridge St, Abingdon River Ock Wilts and Berks Canal Andersey Island marina A415 Abingdon Road Proposed Wilts and Berks link New Wilts and Berks Junction weir Sutton Pools Culham Lock Abingdon Road bridges River Thames

Culham Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England close to Culham,Oxfordshire. It is on a lock cut to the north of the main stream, which approaches the large village of Sutton Courtenay. The lock was built of stone by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1809. According to information at the lock, the lock and the associated Culham cut were built to by-pass a greedy miller who overcharged navigators for the use of his mill-pools.

The associated weirs are on the old course of the river under the massive causeway which separates the millstream from picturesque Sutton Pools. The causeway is very old and was thought to have been built by Saxon labour

Contents 1 Access to the lock 2 Reach above the lock 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Access to the lock

The lock can be reached from the road at Sutton Bridge, Oxfordshire or on foot across the fields from Sutton Courtenay.

[edit] Reach above the lock

The river follows the cut and turns sharply to the right when it rejoins the main course. About halfway along on the eastern bank the Swift Ditch, formerly the main course of the river, rejoins the river. It is crossed by a footbridge and the ancient Culham Bridge. The Swift Ditch creates Andersey Island, one of the largest on the Thames. On the Thamesside this has an attractive piece of parkland before Abingdon Bridge. On the opposite side here is the town of Abingdon and the entrance to the disused Wilts and Berks Canal. There is a rowing club on the reach which is the site of the Abingdon Head race.

The Thames Path follows the eastern bank over Culham Bridge and Andersey Island to Abingdon Lock, where it crosses over to the other side.

The Wilts and Berks Canal is the subject of a restoration project, and a new junction with the River Thames has been constructed almost opposite the top end of Culham Cut. The junction was opened on 30 August 2006, and initially runs for about 150 yd (137m) to a winding hole, but will eventually link to the historic route of the canal to the west of Abingdon.^[1]

[edit] See also

• Locks on the River Thames
• Rowing on the River Thames

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Picture of Culham Lock at geograph.org.uk

Next lock upstream	River Thames	Next lock downstream
Abingdon Lock 2.58 miles	Culham Lock Grid reference: SU507948	Clifton Lock 3.81 miles