A Lock keeper, or lock operator looks after a canal or river lock

Lock (water transport)

A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...

, operating it and if necessary maintaining it or organizing its maintenance. Traditionally, the lock keeper lived on-site, often in a small purpose-built cottage. The occupation is dying out. Many previously manned locks are now unmanned.

The Kentucky River Museum

Kentucky River Museum

The Kentucky River Museum is located in Boonesborough, Kentucky, in Fort Boonesborough State Park.Established in 2002, the museum occupies the former lock operator's home and storage and maintenance building for Lock 10, one of fourteen locks on the Kentucky River which were originally built by the...

 is located in a former lock operator's dwelling.

Quotations

The floral tastes of the lock-keeper generally make Sonning Lock

Sonning Lock

Sonning Lock is a lock and associated weir situated on the River Thames at the village of Sonning near Reading, Berkshire, England. The first lock was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1773 and it has been rebuilt three times since then....

 very bright and gay.

— Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 (1812–1870)

Is there a spot more lovely than the rest,

By art improved, by nature truly blest?

A noble river at its base running,

It is a little village known as Sonning.

— James Sadler, Sonning

Sonning

Sonning, occasionally called Sonning-on-Thames is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham in the English county of Berkshire, a few miles east of Reading. The village is situated on the River Thames and was described by Jerome K...

 lock keeper (1845–1885).

External links

• Lock Keepers at Gloucester
• Lock-keeper's house, Newforge from the BBC
  BBC
  The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
  
  
• The Queen and the lock keeper, Coventry Canal
  Coventry Canal
  The Coventry Canal is a navigable narrow canal in the Midlands of England.It starts in Coventry and ends 38 miles north at Fradley Junction, just north of Lichfield, where it joins the Trent and Mersey Canal...
  
  , 23 August 2005