Oxford Canal - Lock 44 - Duke's Lock - Oxford, UK - Waterway Locks, Planes and Lifts on Waymarking.com

This is lock 44 on the Oxford canal, known as Duke's lock. As with all locks on this canal it is a single width lock of approximately 7' 6". It is just above the junction with Duke's Cut which was built as a link to the Thames. Duke's Cut was built to the north of Oxford as the original entrance cut to the south, Sheepwash Channel, was difficult to negotiate. Duke's Cut had to have a lock too so that was numbered 44A. Sheepwash Channel is by far the most interesting way to enter/leave the Oxford canal as you pass an old railway swingbridge with the tracks still intact. Just imagine how congested things got once the steam railways became popular.

The Oxford canal is in two sections. The North Oxford canal runs from Hawkesbury down to Braunston where it shares the waterway with the Grand Union canal until Napton where it becomes the South Oxford canal until meeting the River Thames at Oxford.

The South Oxford canal is 49 ¼ miles long; the stretch shared with the Grand Union is 5 miles long; the North Oxford canal 27 ¾ miles long.

There are seven locks on the North Oxford and 36 on the South Oxford with none on the stretch shared with the Grand Union.

The Hawkesbury to Banbury stretch was opened in 1778 and from Banbury to Oxford in 1790.


As an early canal the Oxford was built as a contour canal but due to competition from the Grand Union many sections at the northern end were straightened in the 1820s. This meant building embankments and digging cuttings reducing the original length of the North Oxford canal by 14 miles to its current day length.

Waterway Name: Oxford canal Connected Points: The Oxford canal links the River Thames in Oxford to the Coventry canal at Hawkesbury junction north of Coventry. It also has junctions with the Grand Union canal at Napton (to Birmingham) and Braunston (to London). Type: Lock Date Opened: 01/01/1790 Elevation Difference (meters): 2.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   04/16/2013 ntpayne visited it