The Lock that Moved

My Brother-in-law is always keen to photograph waterfalls and cascades, but sadly these are few and far between in SE England. However he found images of this weir at Papercourt Lock near Guildford on the internet , and wondered if I had been there, and if it was worth visiting.  To my shame I hadn't, even more so as it is only half mile or so along the Wey Navigations from Newark Lock near where I park for a walk along the canal; I always go the other way!

So today I rectified that, and yes I can report back to him that it is worth a visit.

Papercourt Lock was built in 1766, but was moved for some unknown reason in the 1780's. The lock keeper's cottage was also "moved" in the 1920's when it was being rebuilt. Legend has it that the lock keeper, a Mr Wye who was one of 4 generations of family working on the Navigation, was dis-satisfied with the proposed location of his new cottage, so one night moved all the surveyor's stakes to a preferrable location. The builders followed the relocated stakes to give Mr Wye the cottage where he wanted with a better view of the canal traffic.