Navigation
ceased in 1934 and it has been used for land drainage ever since. It is
believed there were originally 4 locks of a similar design to those on the
Stour with a wooden lintel above the gates. A fifth, Town Lock, was built
later in Halesworth by Patrick Stead, to allow him to get the wherries
which plied these waters to his maltings, less than a
quarter of a mile above is the original terminus basin. The brickwork
of this Lock and Halesworth lock, which is about half a mile East of the
town, still stands.
Town
Lock, The canal ended a quarter of a mile above this point.
Early
this year the Halesworth Millennium Green Society contacted Chard the
Ipswich IWA Chairman to ask
for advice on restoring Halesworth Lock. They had received a sum of money
to carry out this work from the EU, which unfortunately has to be spent
before June 2002. To discuss things further a site meeting was
arranged for Saturday March 17 2002.
It was a cold wet morning on the Saturday
when Chard, Colin, Diana and myself met Richard and Judith from the
Halesworth Millennium Green Society at their house in Halesworth, where we
looked at various references before walking down to the Navigation.
Some
of the Ipswich IWA and Halesworth Millennium Green members at Halesworth
Lock
A
modern concrete bridge with no head room
Due
to the recent heavy rains the Navigation was in flood with very fast
flowing deep water. We looked around the town lock and then followed the
footpath/towpath downstream along the New Cut to the first bridge which
has now had a flat concrete deck fitted. From here The Halesworth
Millennium Green Society owns all the marsh land to the South of the New
Cut We continued on to where the Cut passes under the Norwich to Ipswich
railway line. This looks to be quite a new bridge and not in keeping with
the rest of the railway architecture. Here the footpath/towpath leaves the
waters edge to pass under the railway line in its own tunnel and then
crossed the Town River by a wooden foot bridge to continue down to
Halesworth Lock. Here the path changes to the North side of the Cut via a
wooden pedestrian bridge that is presently set across the middle of the
lock.
The
brickwork of Halesworth Lock is in remarkably good condition for it’s
age and the walls are very slightly concave and faced with a local yellow
brick. It has a few trees growing out through its walls with bad damage to
the tail wall on the South side. The amount of water flowing through the
lock resulted in quite a high water level which made it impossible to see
very far down into the lock.
After getting thoroughly cold through we went back to Judith and Richard’s for some hot refreshments and to discuss the way ahead. Colin agreed to contact Roy Sutton to see if he would come to survey the lock as he had done on the Gipping and it was suggested that I should sit on a sub committee for restoration of the navigation of the Halesworth Millennium Green Society. We advised Richard not to spend money on materials as he could well end up buying things that were not suitable as they get further into the project, but he could well spend some of the money on tools and equipment etc. but Roy would be able to advise him further.
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