Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - Report upon Penarth Dock - 1984 . . .

The sluicing arrangements at the inner gates are the only ones clearly documented, however, it is reasonable to suppose that those at the outer gates were no different.

The inlets to the sluices followed the usual practice of being positioned at the base of the gate recesses so as to prevent the recesses from becoming clogged with silt and preventing the gates from closing properly.

These inlets consisted of six inlets with each inlet being approximately 3 feet wide and 5 feet high. These converged behind the gate recesses to form a single sluiceway on either side of the lock. Each sluiceway terminated in two adjacent outlets, each approximately 3 feet wide and 7 feet high.

The flow of water through the sluiceways was controlled by sluice gates built into each sluiceway. These sluice gates were probably made of iron and were probably raised and lowered by hand via a screw mechanism. There were in fact two sluice gates in each sluiceway and this allowed one gate to be always available in case the other was being replaced or maintained.

The sluiceways at the inner pair of gates were used to fill the lock chamber from the main dock and clear silt from the floor of the invert and the bottom of the inner gate recesses. The sluiceways at the outer gates had their inlets at the base of the outer gate recesses and their outlets on the apron. These were used to empty the lock chamber into the basin and to clear silt from the base of the outer gate recesses and the outer apron.

Figure 16 shows a plan of the lock showing the sluiceways and sluice gates. Figures 17 and 18 show cross-sections of the lock walls near the invert and behind the gate recesses respectfully.

Figure 16 - Plan of main details from lock at Penarth Dock.