The Pigeons Lock

Reader's Letters & Queries: NarrowBoat, Summer 2023

Thank you for another very fine edition of NB. I greatly enjoyed the features relating to the Oxford Canal, especially that on Oxford Portland Cement Co. May I point out one very small, repeated error which is often to be seen? Lock No 39 is not Pigeon Lock or Pigeon’s Lock. It is The Pigeons Lock named after the pub or ale house that used to be there called The Three Pigeons. I knew it very well in the 1940s and early ’50s when my father’s mother was the landlady. We lived in south London and it was always my favourite place to stay as a small boy. Her father and mother also ran the original Three Pigeons which I understand was further back from the canal. Their name was Keys. Granny Keys, as we called her, was born on the boats although she never worked on them. Her maiden name was Sophia Grantham. The second Three Pigeons is nearer the canal and is a fine building. The back can be seen from the railway line. There was no hedge at the front but there was a triangl…