Frederick at Denham Deep Lock

Picturing the Past: NarrowBoat, Autumn 2017

We examine the details of an early 20th-century image showing a horse-drawn narrowboat Frederick on the Grand Junction Canal near Uxbridge

As its name suggests, Denham Deep Lock was the deepest on the Grand Junction Canal, and this view shows the reconstruction work that had recently been completed in around 1904 when new bottom gates were installed. The old brickwork has been strewn over the approaches and part of the bank nearest the camera has been backfilled with brick retaining walls, with stone copings laid. But the main focus is the horse-drawn boat Frederick, owned by Charles Nelson & Company Ltd of Stockton. This replaced an earlier craft, also called Frederick, dating from the summer of 1853, and was one of several named after Nelson family members. The Frederick shown here was built much later and had a long and complicated history involving many owners. It first appears in the records in the spring of 1897 when it was built for Griffin & Company of the Blue Lias Lime Works, Stockton. This was an old family business of lime manufacturers and farmers, with the trading name of Griffin & Company bei…