Day's Lock

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Day's Lock
Day's Lock and Weir
Waterway	River Thames
County	Oxfordshire
Maintained by	Environment Agency
Operation	Hyrdaulic
First built	1789
Latest built	1925
Length	154’ 10” (46.93m)
Width	21’ 2” (6.45m)
Fall	5’ 2” (1.58m)
Above Sea Level	149'
Distance to Teddington Lock	76 miles

Day's Lock

legend

River Thames

weir

Long Wittenham

Clifton Lock

Clifton Hampden Bridge

Day's Lock

Little Wittenham Bridge

River Thames

Day's Lock is a lock on the River Thames near Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England on the Dorchester side of the river.

The lock is across the river from the small village of Little Wittenham and is overlooked from the south by the hills of Wittenham Clumps, with a particularly good view from Round Hill. During the 16th century, there was a flash lock here. The first pound lock was built here in 1789 by the Thames Navigation Commissioner. The name Day's Lock comes from the Day family, local Catholic yeomen since the 17th century.

The weir runs straight across the river from the other side of the lock island.

Day's Lock is the main gauging station for the measurement of the water flow in the River Thames.

The World Poohsticks Championships, on behalf of the RNLI, have taken place annually here since 1983.

1 Access to the lock
2 Reach above the lock
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Access to the lock

A short way downstream of the lock is Little Wittenham Bridge which spans the river in two sections with an island between. Using this, the lock is a short walk from Little Wittenham where is a car park near St Peter's Church. The lock is a little further to walk to from Dorchester.

[edit] Reach above the lock

On the eastern bank to the north-east is the historic town of Dorchester with its ancient Abbey. The river follows a long bend round to Clifton Hampden. Here it goes under Clifton Hampden Bridge and past the historic Barley Mow public house, as mentioned in the book, Three Men in a Boat. Before Clifton Lock, the old stream separates, leading to Long Wittenham.

There are navigation transit markers upstream of the lock to allow boats to check their speed. A powered boat should take more than one minute to pass between the markers.

The Thames Path follows the western/southern bank to Clifton Hampden Bridge, where it crosses to the opposite northern bank to continue to Clifton Lock.