History
The earliest weir was built in 1789 specifically to divert water to create a deeper channel for navigation. There were several other such weirs locally because of many shoals and flats in the Sunbury area while the river was still tidal here. The first plan for a lock was in 1805 with an ambitious lock cut. A modified scheme in 1809 resulted in the first lock, which was built several hundred yards upstream of the present locks close to the bridge and the original lock house of the same year. The lock cut was created out of an existing channel beside the island and the lock was opened in 1812 The lock had become dilapidated by 1852 and the arrival of water companies planning major water extraction from the section of the river below the lock added an incentive for rebuilding it. It was relocated to its present position with a new lock house and opened in 1856. In 1927 a second lock was added at Sunbury, which was opened by Lord Desborough, then president of the Thames Conservancy.
Read more about this topic: Sunbury Lock
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The principle office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–117)
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)
“Perhaps universal history is the history of the diverse intonation of some metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)