Wootton Rivers Lock
canal lock in Wiltshire, England
Wootton Rivers Lock, also called Wootton Rivers Bottom Lock, is a lock on the Kennet and Avon Canal at Wootton Rivers, Wiltshire, England. It was built between 1804 and 1810, as the Pewsey to Great Bedwyn was the last section of the canal to be built. It was dependant for its water supply on Crofton Pumping Station, at the eastern end of the summit level.
The lock became dry in 1958 after demolition of part of the chimney at Crofton Pumping Station prevented the steam engines from operating. Water supplies were restored in 1989, just prior to the full reopening of the canal after years of restoration. Water for the canal to the west of the nearby summit level is largely supplied from the River Avon at Claverton by backpumping systems, and the final one to pump water from below the lock to the summit pound at Wootton Top Lock was installed in 1998, paid for by a Heritage Lottery grant.
History
The Kennet and Avon Canal was built in three stages. The first was the canalisation of the River Kennet from Reading to Newbury, which was built between 1718 and 1723. Next to be constructed was the canalisation of the River Avon between Bath and Bristol, which was built between 1725 and 1727. After a long break, a canal between Newbury and Bath was authorised by the Kennet and Avon Canal Act 1794 (34 Geo.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wootton Rivers Lock” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.