Old Windsor Lock
Telephone: +44 (0)1753 861822
Postcode: SL4 2JZ
Click the link below for a map and a list of facilities at the lock.
Location and facilities for Old Windsor Lock
There are records of a fishery here at Old Windsor, possibly a predecessor to the flash lock. Around these times, the lock was called mysteriously, Top of Caps. But it wasn't until 1822 that a wooden pound lock was built here.
Records tell us that the lock cost £2,476 to build, and the first lock keeper was paid the princely sum of £3.10s a month.
During a later rebuild, the lock was banked on both sides with rows of stone steps, giving it the unusual, but attractive appearance of an amphitheatre. Later still, the old oak manual operating beams were removed to make way for electric controls. However, these were found to be inefficient and they were changed in 1965 to a hydraulic system.
Lock Keeper
The lock keeper here is Martin Wilson, who took over five years ago. He went straight from college into lock keeping as a summer assistant, working his way up the ladder as a district relief and then area relief before taking up residency at Old Windsor.
He says of his early years, 'I have lived in this area all my life, and held out for this lock for a long time.' Martin first became interested in lock keeping when a friend suggested he call Thames Water (then the Thames authority), who kept his name on file. 'And it came up,' he says, 'so I'm now living and working in this oasis of tranquillity - a wonderful place.' Tranquillity, he adds, which is broken only by low-flying aircraft on their way to and from Heathrow.
Did you know?
Jerome K Jerome, in his 1889 book Three Men in a Boat, writes, 'From Picnic Point [near Runnymede] to Old Windsor Lock is a delightful bit of the river'.