Distance: 0.5 mile Click on an image to view a larger version of the picture in a separate window. The file size of the larger version is given in brackets after the caption. For more pictures of this part of the Navigation see the gallery. |
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Tun Bridge carries Garnier Road over the Navigation and consists of a single concrete arch built in 1926 to replace the original wooden bridge. There is a car park on the east bank just south of the bridge.
 Tun Bridge 16.03.2003 (72.0k) |
 South of Tun Bridge 16.03.2003 (70.2k) |
From here to St Catherine Lock, the path is now restricted to the towing path on the east bank and, in places, is quite narrow although some work has been done very recently to widen the path. The path is backed by a fairly steep bank but above this there is a public bridleway parallel to the canal and a few yards to the east. This is Twyford Lane and is the remains of what was once the road from Winchester to Twyford and Portsmouth. This in turn is backed by the site of the former Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. Before the M3 was constructed, the notorious and busy Winchester Bypass lay beyond the railway. But the road and much of the course of the railway has now been eliminated and the environs of the waterway are reasonably peaceful once more.
Just before reaching St Catherine Lock, there used to be a bridge under the railway and bypass, but this has now been removed opening up a vista of Plague Pits Valley and St Catherine's Hill rising over 200 feet above the canal.
 Navigation at St Catherine's with Winchester in the distance 16.03.2003 (62.2k) |
 Sluice at head of St Catherine Lock 16.03.2003 (97.1k) |
A mile from Blackbridge lies the summit lock of the Itchen Navigation which begins the descent of about 105 feet to the sea. Usually known by the name St Catherine Lock, an Ordnance Survey map of 1870 gives the more prosaic name Lock No 1. Like the majority of locks on the waterway, it was turf-sided which means that the water within the lock chamber was retained by sloping earthen or turf banks rather than the more usual stone or brick walls. Usually, the only brickwork / masonry to be found in such locks is at each end where the lock gates were hung. On the Itchen Navigation, these areas were about 100 feet apart.
A modern sluice has been built across the head of the lock in place of the top gates to retain water in the canal above. The lock is very unusual in that during the middle of the 19th Century, there was a sawmill on the west side of the lock. This mill was powered by a waterwheel that drew water from above the lock gates, discharging it into the lock chamber. The remains of some of the brickwork for the wheelpit can still be seen, on the offside, just downstream of the older brickwork associated with the top gates.
 Chamber of St Catherine Lock 16.03.2003 (111.1k) |
 Masonry to support bottom gates, St Catherine Lock 16.03.2003 (132.9k) |
More pictures of this section of the Navigation.
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Send your comments to the Web Site manager (Peter Oates) Text © Southampton Canal Society 1999 - 2003. Original page covering Winchester to St Catherine Lock created 11 June 1999 - split into two pages 10 April 2003 - last updated 9 May 2004. |
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