55-724: Bow Locks No. 20 ( grid reference TQ383824 ) is a set of bi-directional locks in Bromley-by-Bow in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Newham . The locks link the tidal Bow Creek to the River Lee Navigation , which is a canalised river. These locks were first built in 1850 and then rebuilt in 1930, at the same time as the Prescott Channel was cut nearby. At high tide, the tide from Bow Creek formerly flowed through Bow Locks, to raise
110-403: A mutual organisation , but no further details were released. BW welcomed the announcement, with the chairman Tony Hales stating that the plan would preserve the canals and their associated infrastructure, and "safeguard against a return to the decline and dereliction which they faced in the last century". It would also "unlock the enormous public support that there is for them." By September of
165-645: A transverse Mercator projection with an origin (the "true" origin) at 49° N , 2° W (an offshore point in the English Channel which lies between the island of Jersey and the French port of St. Malo ). Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight line grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin to eliminate negative numbers, creating a 700 km by 1300 km grid. This false origin
220-468: A better route to the Thames than that through the gates and Bow Creek , and the conversion of flash locks to pound locks . The Limehouse Cut was built, opening in its final form in 1777, but the lock was not altered. A pound lock was eventually constructed between 1851 and 1852, to accommodate barges up to 108 by 20 feet (32.9 by 6.1 m). Use of the river was toll-free, up to the lock at Old Ford, and
275-633: A further hundred are Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). Through its charitable arm The Waterways Trust , British Waterways maintained a museum of its history at the National Waterways Museum 's three sites at Gloucester Docks, Stoke Bruerne and Ellesmere Port . Since the transfer of the assets and responsibilities of British Waterways to the Canal & River Trust, The Waterways Trust in England and Wales has merged with
330-399: A further £14 million through third party contributions. However, operating revenue for the company was at a deficit of £3.7 million, a result of a large cut of 16 per cent in the government grant given to BW, and through the continuing programme of renovation and works costing £92.1 million. British Waterways owned a large canalside property portfolio which made a considerable contribution to
385-504: A grid index where the tens denote the progress from West to East and the units from South to North. In the north of Scotland, the numbering is modified: the 100 km square to the north of 39 is numbered N30; the square to the north of 49 is N40, etc. The grid is based on the OSGB36 datum (Ordnance Survey Great Britain 1936, based on the Airy 1830 ellipsoid ), and was introduced after
440-400: A result, many remainder waterways could face abandonment or transference to the local authority who would contribute to the waterway's upkeep as part of the act. Additionally, many of these remainder waterways were crossed by new roads and motorways without provision for boat navigation. As the century progressed, leisure boating on the canals began to expand, with numbers reaching 20,000 by
495-547: A second set of gates were installed, enabling the lock to be used at all states of the tide and preventing overtopping. Funding for the project was provided by the London Waterway Partnership. In 2004–05, British Waterways refurbished the historic footbridge which crosses the locks. The bridge was originally built as part of the 1930s upgrade to the Bow Back Rivers, and was an early example of
550-632: A standalone public corporation under the trading name Scottish Canals . The British Waterways Board was initially established as a result of the Transport Act 1962 and took control of the inland waterways assets of the British Transport Commission in 1963. By the final years of its existence, British Waterways was sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in England and Wales, and by
605-418: A waterways manager. These regions were: British Waterways was funded through a mixture of commercial activities, government grants and grants and donations from charitable bodies. In 2010/11, BW raised over £103.6 million from their commercial activities, including waterways licensing, received £58.9 million from a government grant, issued via the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs , and gained
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#1732772917134660-467: Is an abbreviated alphanumeric reference where the letters are simply omitted, e.g. 166712 for the summit of Ben Nevis. Unlike the numeric references described above, this abbreviated grid reference is incomplete; it gives the location relative to an OS 100×100 km square, but does not specify which square. It is often used informally when the context identifies the OS 2-letter square. For example, within
715-621: Is called the Helmert datum transformation , which results in a typical 7 m error from true. The definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the Ordnance Survey is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN15. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy. The difference between
770-481: Is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly. In order to minimize the overall scale error, a factor of 2499/2500 is applied. This creates two lines of longitude about 180 km east and west of the central meridian along which the local scale factor equals 1, i.e. map scale is correct. Inside these lines the local scale factor is less than 1, with a minimum of 0.04% too small at the central meridian. Outside these lines
825-650: Is now the preferred coordinate reference system across Ireland. ITM is based on the Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system (UTM), used to provide grid references for worldwide locations, and this is the system commonly used for the Channel Islands . European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), or variants of it. The first letter of
880-636: Is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent . These two datums are not both in general use in any one place, but for a point in the English Channel halfway between Dover and Calais , the ED50 longitude lines are about 20 m east of the OSGB36 equivalents, and the ED50 latitude lines are about 150 m south of the OSGB36 ones. British Waterways British Waterways , often shortened to BW,
935-628: Is pedestrian and cycle access via the towpath which also forms part of the Lea Valley Walk . The nearest London Underground stations are Bromley-by-Bow and West Ham . Ordnance Survey National Grid The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system ( OSGB ), also known as British National Grid ( BNG ), is a system of geographic grid references , distinct from latitude and longitude , whereby any location in Great Britain can be described in terms of its distance from
990-580: The British Isles : this article describes the system created solely for Great Britain and its outlying islands (including the Isle of Man ). The Irish grid reference system is a similar system created by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland for the island of Ireland. The Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM) coordinate reference system was adopted in 2001 and
1045-506: The Canal & River Trust . The following waterways and dockland were under British Waterways' ownership and care: The Environment Agency is the navigation authority for the non-tidal River Thames , rivers in the Fens and East Anglia and some other waterways. The Port of London Authority is that for the tidal section of the Thames. The Broads Authority is the navigation authority for
1100-750: The Scottish Government in Scotland. British Waterways managed and maintained 2,200 miles (3,541 km) of canals , rivers and docks within the United Kingdom including the buildings, structures and landscapes alongside these waterways. Half of the United Kingdom population lives within five miles of a canal or river once managed by British Waterways. In addition to the watercourses, British Waterways also cared for and owned 2,555 listed structures including seventy scheduled monuments . A further 800 areas have special designation and
1155-640: The Transport Act 1962 , the British Transport Commission was split into several new organisations, including the British Railways Board and the London Transport Board , with the inland waterways of Britain becoming part of the new British Waterways Board (BWB). In the same year, a remarkably harsh winter saw many boats frozen into their moorings, unable to move for weeks at a time. That was one of
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#17327729171341210-755: The retriangulation of 1936–1962 . It replaced the Cassini Grid which had previously been the standard projection for Ordnance Survey maps. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain; more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the Global Positioning System (the Airy ellipsoid assumes the Earth to be about 1 km smaller in diameter than the GRS80 ellipsoid, and to be slightly less flattened). The British maps adopt
1265-562: The 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of canals and rivers in England and Wales cared for by British Waterways. The new name, the Canal & River Trust , and logo were revealed in October 2011, and the trust was granted charitable status on 5 April 2012. On 2 July 2012 all of British Waterways' responsibilities for waterways in England and Wales were transferred to the Canal & River Trust . The Scottish Government , however, decided that
1320-577: The British National Grid is derived from a larger set of 25 squares of size 500 km by 500 km, labelled A to Z, omitting one letter (I) (refer diagram below), previously used as a military grid. Four of these largest squares contain significant land area within Great Britain: S, T, N and H. The O square contains a tiny area of North Yorkshire , Beast Cliff at OV 0000 , almost all of which lies below mean high tide. For
1375-440: The Canal & River Trust. It continues, however, as an independent charity in Scotland. During the early 20th century, the canal network was in decline because of increasing competition from the railways and road transport. Until the 1950s, freight and other cargo was still carried on the canals, by then owned by the railway companies. When the railways were nationalised in 1948, the canals they owned were also incorporated into
1430-571: The Lea, the City of London appointed a Dutch surveyor to inspect the plans, and a committee to oversee the work. A report by Lord Burghley in 1588 suggests that the gates opened automatically when the level in Bow Creek exceeded the level above the lock, and were shut once the tide started to fall. This arrangement caused complaints in 1581, when neap tides did not reach a level to cause the gates to open, and
1485-588: The OSGB 36 lines in South Cornwall , the difference diminishing to zero in the Scottish Borders , and then increasing to about 50 m north on the north coast of Scotland . (If the lines are further east , then the longitude value of any given point is further west . Similarly, if the lines are further south, the values will give the point a more northerly latitude.) The smallest datum shift
1540-709: The OSGB36 National Grid location for Ben Nevis is at 216600, 771200. Grid references may also be quoted as a pair of numbers: eastings then northings in metres, measured from the southwest corner of the SV square. 13 digits may be required for locations in Orkney and further north. For example, the grid reference for Sullom Voe Oil Terminal in the Shetland islands may be given as HU396753 or 439668,1175316 . Another, distinct, form of all-numeric grid reference
1595-606: The canals to users other than boaters, BW set up the Waterscape website in 2003 to be an official information and leisure resource for UK inland waterways. The website worked alongside the Environment Agency and the Broads Authority and covered all canals, rivers and waterways in England, Scotland and Wales. The Waterscape website was taken down on 3 July 2012 and was replaced by the new website of
1650-584: The chairman (in the final phase of operations, Tony Hales), and appointed by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Scottish Government (eight by the former and two by the latter). In addition, there were nine executive directors led by Robin Evans, the Chief Executive. At a regional level, British Waterways was divided into thirteen regional waterways; each appointed
1705-429: The cill was lowered by the mill owners, following recommendations by George Succold, and the work was overseen by a surveyor appointed by the City of London. The conflicting interests of bargees and millers continued. As the river was important for trade, the engineer John Smeaton was asked to recommend improvements in 1765. He produced a report in 1766, in which he suggested a cut from Bow Locks to Limehouse, to provide
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1760-483: The conservation of historic structures". However, by the late 1990s the canal network and British Waterways were flourishing; revenues generated for canal maintenance reached £100 million for the first time in 1998, large grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund allowed the canal network to expand again by restoring former canals and additional funding was announced for British Waterways in 1999 by
1815-433: The context of a location known to be on OS Landranger sheet 41 (which extends from NN000500 in the south-west to NN400900 in the north-east) the abbreviated grid reference 166712 is equivalent to NN166712. If working with more than one Landranger sheet, this may also be given as 41/166712. Alternatively, sometimes numbers instead of the two-letter combinations are used for the 100×100 km squares. The numbering follows
1870-570: The coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB 36 are the same as for WGS 84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall , the WGS 84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB 36 equivalents, this value rising gradually to about 120 m east on the east coast of East Anglia . The WGS 84 latitude lines are about 70 m south of
1925-466: The digits is for the first coordinate and the second half for the other. The most common usage is the six figure grid reference , employing three digits in each coordinate to determine a 100 m square. For example, the grid reference of the 100 m square containing the summit of Ben Nevis is NN 166 712 . (Grid references may be written with or without spaces; e.g., also NN166712.) NN has an easting of 200 km and northing of 700 km, so
1980-404: The early 1980s. Additionally, the work of voluntary restoration groups succeeded in restoring some waterways to their former condition. However, despite this steady progress throughout the 1970s and 1980s, organisations such as English Heritage criticised the newly named British Waterways for failing to provide "adequate training or access to professional advice [for British Waterways officers] on
2035-437: The funding of the waterway network. This amounted to £130m in the five years prior to 2008. As of 2008, a HM Treasury team was reviewing the management of this portfolio in terms of public sector savings and efficiencies. Another source of revenue contemplated by BW in October 2008 was the installation of 50 wind turbines on waterside land, generating around 100 megawatts. As part of British Waterways' commitment to promote
2090-591: The level of the canals, such as the Limehouse Cut . In 2000, these locks were modified to keep the tide out, to reduce silting in the canal system. Bow Locks has a long history, as the first recorded mention of a water control structure at the site was during the reign of Edward I , when Henry de Bedyk, the prior at Halliwell Priory and owner of the nearby tide mills. He erected a structure some time before 1307. Despite juries ruling in 1345 and 1362 that it should be removed, it remained in place, and its existence
2145-473: The local scale factor is greater than 1, and is about 0.04% too large near the east and west coasts. Grid north and true north are only aligned on the central meridian (400 km easting) of the grid which is 2° W (OSGB36) and approx. 2° 0′ 5″ W ( WGS 84 ). A geodetic transformation between OSGB 36 and other terrestrial reference systems (like ITRF2000 , ETRS89 , or WGS 84 ) can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation
2200-400: The lock keeper would not open them because the water was used by the mills. The use of flashboards was again recorded in the 1660s, but shortly after 1713, the cill of the structure was raised, and a pair of gates were installed. This improved water levels for the millers, but again caused problems for navigation, with bargees complaining that the gates could not be opened at neap tides. In 1721,
2255-459: The nationalised waterways into three distinct categories as specified by BWB: British Waterways Board was required under the Act to keep commercial and cruising waterways fit for their respective traffic and use. However, these obligations were subject to the caveat of being by the most economical means and BWB had no requirement to maintain remainder waterways or keep them in a navigable condition. As
Bow Locks - Misplaced Pages Continue
2310-770: The new British Transport Commission . The Commission focused on encouraging commercial traffic to the waterways, but with the construction of motorways in the 1950s, and legislation such as the Clean Air Act 1956 affecting the coal carriers using the waterways, that policy could not be sustained. The last regular coal long-distance narrow-boat-carrying contract, from Atherstone to the Kearley and Tonge jam factory at Southall near London, ended in October 1970, although lime juice continued to be carried by narrow boat from Brentford to Boxmoor until 1981, and aggregate from Thurmaston to Syston from 1976 until 1988. Under
2365-572: The origin (0, 0), which lies to the west of the Isles of Scilly . The Ordnance Survey (OS) devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in its survey data, and in maps based on those surveys, whether published by the Ordnance Survey or by commercial map producers. Grid references are also commonly quoted in other publications and data sources, such as guide books and government planning documents. A number of different systems exist that can provide grid references for locations within
2420-473: The potential for volunteers on the waterways, allowing the waterways community to play a greater role. Its plans involved moving to become a charitable trust , in charge of the current canal systems in addition to acquiring other waterways, such as those operated by the Environment Agency . In March 2010, the plans were given a boost when the government announced in the Budget that it intended to turn BW into
2475-414: The principle was maintained by a clause in the enabling Act of Parliament. However, the trustees imposed a toll for using the lock once it had been built, which was unpopular with the bargees. A compromise was reached, where use of the lock required the payment of a toll, but use of the adjacent flood gates, which could only be used at certain states of the tide, did not. A clause to formalise this arrangement
2530-459: The reasons given for the decision by the BWB to formally cease most of its commercial narrow boat traffic on the canals. By that time, the canal network had shrunk to just 2,000 miles (3,200 km), half the size it was at its peak in the early 19th century. However, the basic network was still intact, with many of the closures affecting duplicate routes or branches. The Transport Act 1968 classified
2585-449: The same year, the proposals seemed likely to be enacted; a leaked list of quangos that were due to be abolished was acquired by the BBC , including British Waterways, with the note: "Abolish as a non-departmental public body and mutualise". The following month saw an official announcement from British Waterways confirming the leaked list, and that a new charity would be established to tend
2640-440: The second letter, each 500 km square is subdivided into 25 squares of size 100 km by 100 km, each with a letter code from A to Z (again omitting I) starting with A in the north-west corner to Z in the south-east corner. These squares are outlined in light grey on the "100km squares" map, with those containing land lettered. The central (2° W) meridian is shown in red. Within each square, eastings and northings from
2695-412: The south west corner of the square are given numerically. For example, NH0325 means a 1 km square whose south-west corner is 3 km east and 25 km north from the south-west corner of square NH. A location can be indicated to varying resolutions numerically, usually from two digits in each coordinate (for a 1 km square) through to five (for a 1 m square); in each case the first half of
2750-427: The then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott . By the early 2000s, boating numbers had overtaken the previous industrial revolution high and the canal network was officially classed as 'safe' following the completion of all outstanding safety works. By 2009, British Waterways was looking for a means of gaining a larger and more secure supply of funding in order to plug a £30m shortfall in its budget, while utilising
2805-423: The use of reinforced concrete to achieve a slender design. Work included replacing some defective concrete with new, replacement of the handrails, installing a new surface to the walkway, and the application of a protective coating to the structure. The work cost £3.3 million, and required a complex arrangement of scaffolding, to allow boats to continue to use the lock during the bridge's 6-month refurbishment. There
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#17327729171342860-510: The waterways in Scotland would not be part of the new charity, and that British Waterways Scotland would remain a state-owned entity, operating as Scottish Canals . British Waterways operated from headquarters in Watford , with additional administrative offices in Leeds and thirteen regional waterway offices. At the strategic level, there were ten non-executive board members, who were led by
2915-452: Was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom . It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks in England, Scotland and Wales . On 2 July 2012, all of British Waterways' assets and responsibilities in England and Wales were transferred to the newly founded charity the Canal & River Trust . In Scotland, British Waterways continues to operate as
2970-465: Was not contested when commissioners were appointed in 1551. A description of its operation in 1416 indicates that it was similar to a flash lock , consisting of a dam with a navigable channel through it. The channel was 18 feet (5.5 m) wide, and could be closed off using flashboards, to maintain water levels above it. The owners of the mills rebuilt the structure, referred to as a lock, in 1573. In order to ensure that navigation would be maintained on
3025-477: Was removed by Parliament from a subsequent Act in 1868, but the practice of free passage through the gates but not the lock continued. The lock was rebuilt in 1900, when its length was reduced to 93.5 feet (28.5 m), and a second lock of the same size was built next to it in 1931. Extreme high tides continued to flow over the top of the lock, inundating the Limehouse Cut until 2000, when a flood wall and
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