Lock Keepers are similar to Light House keepers. They live in a remote place away from civilisation, and care for boats.

Lock Keepers also sell ice creams and post cards in the summer , and appear to compete with other Lock Keepers to have the best display of busy lizzies.

High water and flooding can be a problem. In 1947, the Lock Keeper at Abingdon had to get another high-water mark sign fitted to show that it had been almost the equal of 1894. That was before this cottage was build by The Thames Conservancy.

This is the little shack from where the Lock keeper sells ice-cream and post cards to us land lubbers. He serves the boating fraternity by keeping a water point, refuse disposal, elsan/sewage disposal and maps and information.

The Lock makes this boat and the swans, passing through, look small. But it is a much smaller lock than Iffley upstream. The current Lock was rebuilt by Thames Conservancy in 1905

Here the swans float out, with the boat, towards Abingdon a half mile away. The day generally begins at 9, and ends at about 6 for the Lock Keeper. Most boats have moored for their evening meal by then.

The Lock machinery is hydraulic and does not need brute strength anymore.

Not far away, in swift ditch ,are the walls of one of the earliest chamber locks on the Thames – built in the 1600s. Perhaps the earliest surviving remnant of a chamber lock in Europe.