A timelss view at Allington on the River Medway

I keep changing my mind about today's shot. This wasn't my original upload, then I replaced it with another one from the same place and decided to go back to my original choice but this time in black and white. The reason for my dithering was experimentation with black and white following Monoman's blips. I have to confess when I took this shot I hadn't found the B and W setting on the camera so I have manipulated it on the computer.

We needed some more decaff coffee beans from Waitrose but Waitrose is the other side of town from Bearsted and we don't like getting the car out for this sort of journey. So we decided to cycle into town, leave the bikes there, walk out along the River Medway to Allington Lock, cross the river there and walk up to Waitrose, purchase the coffee, walk back to town via Homebase to get a few things for the garden and car before cycling home.

Allington Lock is the first (or last) lock on the Medway and separates the tidal river from the rest of the river. There's a pub there called The Malta which is looking a bit run down now but is a popular watering hole alongside the river. A few house barges are moored alongside the towpath here and I thought that the back and white view captured how the scene may have looked early in the 20th Century. There's not much evidence of modern life, unless you spot the street lights in the trees.

It must have been a couple of years since we walked this way, new disabled access has been provided to help cross the river and the lock now appears to be power assisted - no more shoving on the lock arms it seems.

The sluice gates at Allington Locks were opened in 1937 with the hope of regulating river flow and preventing floods in and around Maidstone. They were opened by Agriculture Minister Mr W. S. Morrison.

The regulation of the river in this way had the effect of stopping the Medway at Maidstone being a tidal stretch of river. I've seen the effects of the sluice gates being open once in Maidstone, showing what it must have looked like before their opening!