Like Tednambury lock (No.4 in this series), Feakes lock sits surrounded by country-side. Even more isolated, this lock has no town or mill associated to it.
It is named Feakes Lock after Samuel Feake, Governor of Fort William in Bengal and Chairman of the East India Company in the 1700s, who owned much of the riverside land in the area and lived at nearby Durrington House.
1844 plan of Fort William in Calcutta.
Fort William is an impressive lotus flower shaped fort built in Calcutta on the eastern banks of the River Hooghly, a major distributary of the River Ganges, and was used during the early years of the Bengal Presidency of British India. This is the only lock on the Navigation named after a person.
Other properties of note that back onto the river near Feakes lock are Phisobury Manor and the in-famous "Beckingham Palace", otherwise known as Rowneybury House.
Beckham’s ex-country pile is nearby!
The former is a manor dating back to 1144 which now includes a public park, the latter is a 1930s Georgian style Grade II listed house.
The Lock
As with most of the locks on the river Stort, it was originally built as a turf-sided lock in 1769, and rebuilt in brick and concrete in the post World War I improvements to the navigation. There is some wharfing nearby that was used by the railway company for the off-loading of materials in the construction of the nearby train track circa 1842.
There was no lock-keeper or cottage for this lock but as you can see from the 1909 postcard (pictured), a shed stood by the top gate, and bore a sign over the door that said; "Notice. The Punishment for Tampering with these Works is Transportation". A sign bearing this inscription was also found at South Mill Lock. (No.1 in this series).
You may also notice a red and a green circle at the top of the lock gates. These are called ‘lateral marks’, and are used in maritime navigation to mark out the edges of a channel. They are often seen as buoys or lights at the entrances to harbours, and it is a good idea to steer your boat between them! It’s a bit more obvious where you need to steer your boat in this case.