New gates for Burnt Mill

BURNT Mill lock on the Stort at Harlow has had its gates craned out for refurbishment as part of the winter maintenance programme.

The gates were craned out last Friday, at which members of the public were invited to see the work, and that created great interest.

Five weeks

The work will take five weeks, during which time the gates will be taken to British Waterways workshops to be completely refurbished, and then craned back into position later in the month.

The cost of the project is £80,000, with the gates scheduled to be replaced on Wednesday 30th November.

Lock gates get replaced approximately every 20 to 25 years as they come to the end of their working lives. These particular gates were last changed in 1989 making the gates 22 years old. To replace the lock gates, a 40 tonne crane was used in order to handle the sheer weight and size of the gates.

Steel construction

These gates are predominantly of steel construction, with heel and mitre posts being made from British oak at British Waterways' specialist lock gate workshops.

Burnt Mill Lock was first built between 1776 and 1779, as a turf sided lock. It was then rebuilt in brick and concrete in 1913, but the origin of its name however remains a mystery, though a mill was burnt down on the same location around 1580, that could be the reason.