Guillotine Stop Lock, King's Norton Canal

I haven’t been down the canals in quite a while. The other day, I walked home from work (Stirchley), along the river and eventually the canal. At the Kings Norton Junction, I stood on a bridge and watched some narrowboats doing bazillion-point-turns to get around the corner, and then I eyeballed the guillotine lock. I must’ve known about it, but had probably filed it in some dark recess of my mind. I had a stroll down the tow path to take some photos of it. I also had company in the form of some ducklings who followed me along the path, and then in the water. Also, the narrowboat that was doing the bazillion point turn, it was carrying coal! A proper working barge. But then it got stuck in the guillotine lock and started to list. Naturally, I stood and took photos…

The guillotine lock, I have discovered, is a Grade II Listed building, and is the only gate of this form on the canal. It was built in the late 1800s, and is no longer used and so is permanently open. The engineering geek in me quite enjoyed staring at it for a while! You can read some more about it here.

And the mommy duck with babbies :-)

L x

Pics were taken by me, on June 24th. Feel free to nick 'em. More are up on the Flickr page. Click for bigger!