Brunel Lock and the Feeder Cut: Two Unsuccessful Attempts at Re-Opening John Powell

BIAS JOURNAL No 17 1984 Brunel lock and the Feeder cut: Two unsuccessful attempts at re-opening John Powell A lengthy search of Bristol Docks Committee Minutes, and In late 1881 or early 1882, a vessel apparently became other records in connection with an article which appeared jammed in the lock of the Old Dock in Newport. The in BIAS Journal 121 revealed separate attempts to re-open Bristol Docks Committee, fearing that a similar occurrence two locks in the City Docks which had long since been could have serious consequences in Bristol Docks, immedi- closed. Though the details are far from complete, the con- ately instructed Thomas Howard, the Docks Engineer, to tinued and deepening interest in the history of the docks produce a report on ‘regulations to be observed in locking makes both incidents worth recounting. vessels at Cumberland Basin’ and ‘also upon the condition of Brunel's Lock and Gates, and the cost of putting them in such a state of repair as would enable them to be used in 3 Brunel Lock case of necessity’ . Many BIAS members will be very familiar with Brunel Lock Howard's lengthy report is dated 20 February 1882, and it in Cumberland Basin, being aware that it is a re-build of makes very interesting reading. He starts by reminding the Jessop’s original Southern Entrance Lock and that it is of committee that Brunel Lock had been kept open against semi-oval cross section. Perhaps fewer will be familiar with his advice in 1873 at the behest of the captains of the Irish exactly how the gates were constructed and how they steamers, who said that they might wish to lock out Via operated, and that the best description, together with an Brunel Lock whilst other vessels were coming in via the new illustration (Fig 1), is to be found in Isambard Brunel's Northern Entrance Lock. Howard adds that ‘the result has biography of his father2. To summarise very briefly, the been that from that time to this, not one of the Irish Steamers wrought-iron hinged gates contained an air-chamber to or any other vessel has been passed through this lock; and provide buoyancy, which could be partly flooded as owing to its never being used the lock chamber rapidly filled necessary, and there were also wheels at the bottom on each to a considerable depth with a deposit of stiff tidal clay’. gate. The timber used for the watertight seals was Honduras This emphatic evidence of total disuse from such an early mahogany. date is somewhat surprising. Page No. 12 BIAS JOURNAL No 17 1984 The masonry of the lock chamber is reported as being the renovated lock, the cost of regular mud clearing and the ‘generally in a sound condition’. Howard then gives his fact that modern Irish steamers would be too large to use description of how the gates operated, the colours referring it anyway. As a parting shot, Howard even offers to re- to a model which he had made for the purpose:- build it as a conventional lock as a cheaper alternative to re-opening. Each gate is divided into three horizontal compartments, the bottom chamber (in the model coloured blue) is kept always It is not known what the response of the Docks Committee full of water or ballast; - the middle (coloured white) called was to Howard's report, but the fact that Brunel Lock has the air chamber kept tight and intended to be balanced by retained its unique profile and had its gates removed around having more or less water admitted, according as the tide is 4 higher or lower; - and the top chamber (coloured yellow) the turn of the century suggest that no action was taken. into which the tide freely flows and ebbs, according to its height. As the large bulk of the lower part of the gate displaces a considerable volume of water, it will be obvious that if from any neglect the balance water in the air chamber The Feeder Cut is not properly increased, as the tides rise from neaps to springs there will be a tendency in the gate to capsize and The other re-opening attempt occurred at the other float. This catastrophe has happened on two or three extremity of the City Docks system some eleven years occasions, when, one or the other of the gates, from the earlier in 1871. The Feeder Cut was a short channel con- buoyancy in the air chamber at a high tide has torn itself from its hinges and floated up. taining a lock which left the Feeder Canal just to the west of Netham Lock and met the River Avon just below Netham The great problem with operating such a delicate system, Weir, thus forming the bottom side of a triangle of water channels. Despite its appearance in Jessop's plans5 and however, was the mud which has remained so troublesome 6 in the City Docks to this day:- some Ordnance Survey maps , there seems to have been some doubt - even by later City Docks Engineers! - as to Another circumstance which renders these balanced gates whether it had ever actually been built. It would have formed specially disadvantageous at this Port, is the great quantity of a fifth entry point to the City Docks system, the others mud contained in the tidal water. In clear water the gates if being Netham Lock, Totterdown Lock, Bathurst Basin and worked with care and attention, could be balanced in accordance Cumberland Basin. with the theory, but here from every influx of tidal water there rises a considerable quantity of mud which soon makess Mention of the Feeder Cut first appears the previous year, them heavy in working and upsets the calculations. The in 1870, when on the 11 July it was recorded that:- clearing out of this mud is also a constant source of expense. The Committee took into further consideration the application Of the gates themselves Howard says that ‘ . the plate made some time since by Mr F F Fox to rent the disused ironwork forming the outer skin is generally in a pretty good Lock near Netham Dam for the purpose of converting it into condition . [with]. the plating . better preserved in a Warehouse and thereupon it was resolved that in the opinion the lower part than above water’. The major defect is repor- of this Committee it was not desirable to alienate any ted as corrosion to the iron bolts which fasten the gates to portion of the Works under their control.7 the wooden ‘fits’ abutting against the masonry. This not only affects the strength of the whole, but also allows water Mr Fox was obviously not satisfied with this judgement, to leak through bolt holes into the balance chamber. The however, for at the Docks Committee meeting on 17 July, timber ‘fits’ and the stone sills are said to ‘ . require a letter which he had written from his Little George Street considerable repair. .' The wheels and carriages at the address was read out in full:- bottom of the gates appear to Howard to be sound, but he says that he has no way of knowing without removing the Gentlemen, I beg to acknowledge your note of the 11th instant. gates. This had proved very difficult in the past:- Although you refused ‘my application for the disused lock near Netham, I venture to ask your permission to land my benzoline at the quay wall adjoining the lock whence it shall On former occasions there has been found considerable be hauled promptly away to this address. Your present difficulty in removing and getting these gates to a place of tenants will grant me the necessary leave for hauling, landing repair. Before they can be removed all leaks have to be stopped etc and I really am unable to find any other convenient or so that they may float which after all they do in a very awkward suitable landing place outside the Floating Harbour. My position form. On one occasion one of them was sunk in the basin for in the petroleum trade as against the London, Liverpool and some time. All former repairs have been done by beaching [ ?] firms so vitally depends upon being able to compete in them on the bank of the river; and workmen going to and this important branch of it, that I venture again to importune from the shops added much to the cost of repair. l think we you upon the subject, and remain your obedt. servant Francis can now get them on the patent slip in our yard by which much F. Fox. waste of labour would be saved. This did the trick, as Fox's acknowledgement of permission He is also against it on grounds of cost, quoting £400 per being granted was read out at the meeting on 25 July. He gate and referring back to an incredibly expensive incident did not lose interest in the lock itself, however, for the some 28 years earlier:- ‘Looking at the past dock accounts minutes of 31 December record him as saying:- ‘The old l find that when one of the gates broke off in 1854 the lock was and is still what attracts me to the spot, and the cost of repairing the gate and the anchorages in the possible possession of it at some future day was the chief masonry amounted to £2433’. His overall lack of inducement to make the outlay upon the wharf’. enthusiasm becomes clear as he adds further disincentives such as the cost of four extra lockmen needed to operate An appendix to the Committee minutes for January 23 Page No.

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