Bath Locks
A series of locks on the Kennet & Avon Canal near the centre of Bath.
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Rossiter Road, Bath, Avon BA2 4JP
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This is a series of locks situated on the Kennet & Avon Canal in Bath.
Bath Bottom Lock, which is numbered as No 7 on the canal is the meeting point with the River Avon just south of Pulteney Bridge. Alongside the lock is a side pond and pumping station which pumps water up the locks to replace that used each time a lock is opened.
The next stage is Bath Deep Lock numbered 8/9 as two locks were combined when the canal was restored in 1976. A road constructed while the canal was in a state of disrepair passes over the original site of the lower lock. The new chamber has a depth of 6 m (19ft 5ins), making it Britain's second deepest canal lock.
Just above the 'deep lock' is an area of water enabling the lock to refill and above this is Wash House Lock (number 10). This is followed and by Abbey View Lock (number 11), a grade II listed building, by which there is another pumping station and in quick succession Pulteney Lock (12) and Bath Top Lock (13).
Above the top lock the canal passes through Sydney Gardens where it passes through two tunnels and under two cast iron footbridges dating from 1800. Cleveland tunnel is 53 m (173 ft.) long and runs under Cleveland House, the former headquarters of the Kennet & Avon Canal Company. A trap-door in the tunnel roof was employed to exchange paperwork between clerks above and bargees below. This is now a Grade II* Listed Building.
By road: Off A36, Rossiter Road near the Pulteney Bridge.
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English Heritage - Images of England, Abbey View Lock
English Heritage - Images of England, Bath Bottom Lock
English Heritage - Images of England, Top Lock
English Heritage - Images of England, Wash House Lock