Victoria Locks

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A substantial single chamber measuring 58.5m between the gate emplacements and 15.25m wide (192 ft x 50 ft). Walls of vee-jointed ashlar limestone (from Carlingford), and gate emplacements faced with granite ashlar. Half way between the top and bottom emplacements is an identical third emplacement set into both walls (as if for a third set of gates, but never installed). There are two vertical metal ladders down the E wall inside the chamber and a masonry stairway just above the upper gates on the opposite side. There are also depth indicators (calibrated in feet and six inch divisions) incised in the stonework at three points along the E wall. There are timber and granite bollards along both edges of the chamber as well as a modern chainlink fence along the W side.

Both sets of lock gates are slightly bulbous, hollow and sheeted with riveted metal (the wall emplacements are similarly profiled). The footboards across the tops of the gates have a chainlink fence along their outside edges. The bottom set of gates has two hand-operated vertical sluices in each leaf. Both sets are opened and closed by means of steel cables attached to hand-operated winches protected by metal covers.

Just below the upper gates, on the seaward side, are four vertical sluice gates set into the bank. There were probably used to fill the chamber more rapidly, thus reducing the delay for boats. There are also drainage culverts on each wall towards the bottom end of the chamber. These were used in addition to the sluices in the lower gates to drain the chamber more rapidly. The gate controlling the culvert on the landward side is visible just below these gates; this channel discharged beneath the concrete wharf to the south of the lock.

There is also underground bypass channel on the landward side of the chamber. It was probably associated with the early 20th century pump house (now gone) which raised water from the river to the canal at times of shortage. It is visible as a culvert above the water line immediately NW of the upper gates. The hand-operated winch directly above it is functionally connected. There is also a concrete sluice emplacement with three counterweighted vertical concrete gates just above the upper gates on the seaward side. This channel is probably associated with the single concrete sluice emplacement on the sea wall of the embankment halfway down the lock chamber. It was probably used to drain the canal.

A metal post stands at the NW end of the complex. This probably displayed a signal, raised and lowered by a rack and pinion mechanism, to advise boats of the state of the water in the chamber. Old photographs show a second standard on the seaward side but this has been removed. The embankment to the river is faced with ashlar limestone, rounded at its S end, with stone steps down to the tidal stretch of the Newry River. The canal bank immediately NW of the upper gates is pitched with stone to form a small quay and boat waiting area; there are mooring posts along its edge. The area to W side of the chamber has been paved and tarmaced to form a public amenity and carpark. The site is separated from the road by a timber fence and rendered wall at the entrance.

At the south end of the lock, on the landward approach are the substantial remains of a piled reinforced-concrete quay (with two metal bollards associated). Nearby are the derelict remains of a metal barge.

There is now no trace of the former water pumping station, erected c.1905 by Newry Port & Harbour Trust on landward side of lock chamber to raise water from the river into the ship canal, nor of the former lock keeper’s house.

Historical information

Because of recurrent problems in the tidal Newry River in the vicinity of the first sea lock at Lower Fathom, the Newry Navigation Company commissioned Sir John Rennie to extend the ship canal by some 2.5km and build a new lock here at Doyle’s Hole, Upper Fathom. This work was carried out between 1842 and 1850 and also involved the deepening of the original ship canal and the riverbed above Warrenpoint. Originally there were to be two separate locks, but only one was built. It measured 67m long by 15.2m wide (220ft x 50ft).

The original timber gates were replaced with metal sheeted ones during the canal’s refurbishment in the early 1930s. The filling sluices and canal drainage sluices may also have been installed at this time. The two drainage culverts were not installed until the early 1950s. The canal was abandoned in the 1970s. However, the locks were refurbished in the 1990s by Newry & Mourne District Council for use by pleasure craft.

The concrete quay was designed by Ferguson and McIlveen and erected by P J Walls & Bros Ltd in 1953. Working drawings show it to be 186ft long by 37ft 2 in wide. The construction of two sluicing culverts also formed part of this contract.

Primary sources:
1. E.R.R. Green (1963), The Industrial Archaeology of Co Down: 68 (Belfast: HMSO).
2. For drawings of wharf and sluicing culverts, see PRONI, D 934/20/39B/1.
3. Proposed alterations to lock house (PRONI, D 934/20/58/1).

Secondary sources:
1. Report to EHS by F. W. Hamond on Scheduling of Newry Canal, 1999.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is the largest single lock chamber in N. Ireland. Its size reflects the importance of maritime trade to Newry. Not only is it significant in relation to Newry's trade and commerce, but also has associations with Sir John Rennie.