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Lock gates rock at Glastonbury festival

26th May 2011

A set of lock gates from the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal will get a second lease of life when they are recycled at the world-famous Glastonbury Festival.

 The two-tonne wooden gates, which need to be replaced, have today been craned out of the canal and transported to the Worthy Farm site in preparation for the festival on 22-26 June.

Michael Eavis, Glastonbury Festival founder, said: “It’s great that British Waterways has donated these wonderful lock gates to us, and even better that they have come from the local area. The gates may have come to the end of their working waterway life but there’s still plenty of use in them for us. From building beautiful bridges to sound-proofing our noisiest circus arena, and with lots more ideas still to come, I guarantee these gates will not be wasted.”

Inventive recycling ideas

This is not the first time that British Waterways’ lock gates have been donated to Glastonbury Festival – a total of nearly 140 tonnes worth of lock gates have been used to build features of the festival site over the years. Most of the gates donated in the last few years have come from the Caen Hill Lock Flight on the Kennet & Avon Canal.

Mark Stephens, British Waterways’ waterway manager said: “Lock gates are a unique feature of the waterways and we are always looking at ways we can reuse and recycle gates once we can no longer use them. Although lock gates are quite large and weigh several tonnes, the festival team at Glastonbury have demonstrated in the past just show how versatile and inventive you can be and have put the gates to good use.”

Local canal centre also benefits

The gates were part of Lower Maunsel Lock, near North Newton in Somerset, and, while the main body of the gates heads to Glastonbury, the black and white balance beams will be staying closer to home. They will be used to create raised flower beds and visitor seating at Maunsel Lock Canal Centre.

The lock gates being replaced at Maunsel Lock are part of BW’s major works programme. Before the works could take place, the lock chamber needed to be drained of water. Maintenance teams then craned out the old lock gates from the canal and replaced them with a set of brand new, specifically made, gates which are constructed from seasoned oak. As every lock is different, the gates are all individually hand made at one of the organisation’s two lock gate workshops. Once made, lock gates are stored underwater until needed to prevent the wood from splitting, and will last around 25 years.

Last updated: 06/06/2011

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