lockkeeper

It is one of the grittier jobs lockkeepers have to carry out, but a vital one to make sure the canals remain clean, and for boats to be able to travel freely along the waterways.

Thus under the head of pay of lockkeepers, it appears by abstract that the amount paid in 1845 was $627, whereas by reference to the accounts of the company it is found that the whole amount properly chargeable under this head is $7,801.00.

Redrow have a new deal available at their Lockkeepers Wynd development in Falkirk.

Lockkeepers Wynd in Falkirk, by Redrow Homes, has a peaceful canalside location and is only minutes from the town centre and a major retail park.

By the end of our journey in Le Mas d'Agenais after five days of glorious sunshine, we'd met French lockkeepers, British couples, a Dutch family, a touring cricket team from the Channel island of Alderney and a voluptuous French singer.

The canals of France are different to ours, they are wider and they often join the local rivers; the locks are lighter and most have lockkeepers, often women.

'Building houses is something we do all the time, but not new canalside lockkeepers' cottages.'

Everyone knows, for example, about the "water-level route" that invited New York to build the Erie Canal, but who knows where to find the detailed profile of that route, the lift of each lock, the revenue from tolls for a single year, expenses for lockkeepers (oil for locks!) or the number of barrels of flour shipped out on the canal?

Locals are hopeful that it can beat off competition from the Playhouse in Derry and the Lockkeepers Cottage in Belfast to win through to the UK finals where it has a chance of picking up pounds 3.5m to restore the gaol.