Bath Deep Lock (8/9)

The Bath Deep Lock carries a vertical drop of nineteen feet, six inches, making it the deepest lock on the Kennet and Avon Canal. It replaced an original flight of three smaller locks that once stood here to overcome the steep incline of the Widcombe hill. In eighteen twenty-seven, engineer John Rennie built this massive stone chamber to speed up transit. Barges passed through here carrying coal and stone, and sometimes, desperate horses lost their footing on the towpath above the churning water.