Itchen Navigation: Tun Bridge - St Catherine Lock

Itchen Navigation: A Portrait

Tun Bridge - St Catherine Lock

Distance: 0.5 mile (0.8 km)

Tun Bridge

Tun Bridge carries Garnier Road (formerly known as Bull Drove) over the Navigation. 1926 saw an earlier wooden bridge replaced by a single concrete arch. In February 2024, a rebuilt bridge was opened to traffic. A report on the Navigation in 1863 called the wooden bridge here “Tunbridge Bridge”.

In September 2019, the Handlebar Café was opened adjacent to the car park and caters for bikers and walkers.

Painting of Tun Bridge and barge — Tun Bridge and barge
A painting showing Tun Bridge and a barge pulled by two horses. Two people can be seen in the hold and there is a canvas shelter at the stern. A towing mast can also be seen near the bow. Painted by Frederick Waters Watts.
Image date: 1843. NG Ref: SU483280. WGS84: 51° 02′ 58″ N, 1° 18′ 42″ W.

Tun Bridge c1875
Tun Bridge in about 1875 viewed from the south-east.
Image date: c1875. Image: Hampshire Cultural Trust. NG Ref: SU483280. WGS84: 51° 02′ 58″ N, 1° 18′ 41″ W.

Tun Bridge dating from 1926
The 1926 Tun Bridge seen from the south side.
Image date: 16 Mar 2003. © 2003 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU483280. WGS84: 51° 02′ 58″ N, 1° 18′ 42″ W.

Rowing on the Navigation
A Winchester College ‘eight’ heading south from Tun Bridge.
Image date: May 2015. © 2024 Google. Image from Google Street View. NG Ref: SU483280. WGS84: 51° 02′ 59″ N, 1° 18′ 41″ W.

Tun Bridge undergoing reconstruction — Tun Bridge being rebuilt
Tun Bridge, seen from the south side, undergoing a rebuild which was due to complete in November 2023 but reopening was delayed until February 2024.
Image date: May 2023. © 2023 Kieran Gillingham. NG Ref: SU483280. WGS84: 51° 02′ 58″ N, 1° 18′ 42″ W.

The latest Tun Bridge
The new Tun Bridge, seen from the south side, was opened in February 2024.
Image date: Feb 2024. © 2024 Hampshire County Council. NG Ref: SU483280. WGS84: 51° 02′ 58″ N, 1° 18′ 42″ W.

Rower at Tun Bridge
Oarsman approaching Tun Bridge from the south.
Image date: 25 Sep 2009. © 2010 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU483280. WGS84: 51° 02′ 58″ N, 1° 18′ 42″ W.

Tun Bridge in the 1860s
Seen from St Catherine’s Hill, Tun Bridge and the water meadows before the coming of the railway and when the Navigation was still in use.
Image date: 1860s. Approx NG Ref: SU483278. Approx WGS84: 51° 02′ 51″ N, 1° 18′ 41″ W.

Tun Bridge in the 1899 — Tun Bridge in 1899
Seen from St Catherine’s Hill, Tun Bridge and the water meadows with the new railway (in its original position) at bottom right.
Image date: 1899. © 2021 The Francis Frith Collection. Approx NG Ref: SU482277. Approx WGS84: 51° 02′ 49″ N, 1° 18′ 44″ W.

Train crossing Garnier Road bridge — Train at Garnier Road
Seen from St Catherine’s Hill, a southbound train crosses the Garnier Road bridge with the Navigation beyond it.
Image date: 1950s. © 2002 Ian Allen. Approx NG Ref: SU482277. Approx WGS84: 51° 02′ 49″ N, 1° 18′ 44″ W.

The trees are taking over — The view to Winchester in 2010
The Navigation is starting to be hidden and the meadows becoming woodland.
Image date: 4 Mar 2010. © Peter Trimming (cc-by-sa/2.0). Image from www.geograph.org.uk. NG Ref: SU483277. WGS84: 51° 02′ 50″ N, 1° 18′ 41″ W.

Handlebar Café at Tun Bridge
The Handlebar Café sits on the old railway embankment by the car park just south of Garnier Road.
Image date: 29 Sep 2019. © 2019 www.pulse8.uk.com/. NG Ref: SU483280. WGS84: 51° 02′ 59″ N, 1° 18′ 40″ W.

Tun Bridge to St Catherine’s Cottage

From here to St Catherine Lock, the way south is now restricted to the towing path on the east bank and, in places, it is quite narrow although some work has been done in recent years to widen the path. The path is backed by a fairly steep bank but above this there is a public bridleway parallel to the canal and a few yards to the east. This is Twyford Lane and is the remains of what was once the road from Winchester to Twyford and Portsmouth. It is now part of the long distance path called the Itchen Way which runs from the source of the River Itchen south of Cheriton to Southampton Water. This in turn is backed by the site of the former Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. Before the M3 was constructed, the notorious and busy Winchester Bypass lay beyond the railway.

The Winchester Bypass was constructed during the 1930’s and was one of the first fully dual carriageway bypasses in the country and opened fully to traffic on 1st February 1940. In February 1937, the railway and Twyford Lane were moved westwards up to about 60 feet (18 metres) nearer to the Navigation to accommodate the new bypass as it passed below St Catherine’s Hill. It was probably at this time that the towing path was narrowed a bit. But with the completion of the M3 in 1994, the bypass and some of the course of the railway have been eliminated and the environs of the waterway are peaceful once more.

From Tun Bridge to the M3 at Hockley, as part of National Cycle Route 23 from Reading to Southampton and the Isle of Wight, Twyford Lane has now been tarmaced and is shared by cyclists and walkers.

About half way along Twyford Lane between Tun Bridge and the lock is a sculpture of a barge. This is called “The Pausing Place”, was designed by artist Abigail Downer and was unveiled in August 2011 to give walkers a place to stop, sit and rest. Three metres long, it’s carved from Portland stone and bears the names of some of the bargemen who worked on the Navigation between 1710 and 1869. It is not, however, right beside the Navigation.

Train south of Garnier Road — The railway in use
Seen from the side of St Catherine’s Hill, the Navigation lies beyond the bypass and the railway. The train was a railtour starting from Winchester Chesil station running to Southampton Ocean Terminal.
Image date: 9 Mar 1963. © 2014 Kevin Robertson. Approx NG Ref: SU483278. Approx WGS84: 51° 02′ 53″ N, 1° 18′ 41″ W.

Looking south near Tun Bridge
Looking south from near Tun Bridge.
Image date: 16 Mar 2003. © 2003 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU483279. WGS84: 51° 02′ 57″ N, 1° 18′ 44″ W.

The Navigation partially drained
The Navigation in the process of being drained in connection with dredging to facilitate rowing by Winchester College.
Image date: 4 Jul 2015. © Christine Johnstone (cc-by-sa/2.0). Image from www.geograph.org.uk. NG Ref: SU482278. WGS84: 51° 02′ 53″ N, 1° 18′ 47″ W.

St Catherine’s Cottage to St Catherine Lock

Today there are no buildings on the west bank of the Navigation - just views over the water meadows towards St Cross. However, there once was a modest Victorian dwelling close to the Navigation nearly 200 yards north of St Catherine Lock. Called St Catherine’s Cottage (it was also known as Halfway House), is just visible in the photo of the mill shown below. The last tenant of the cottage, a Mr Marriner, died in 1956, and the cottage, already derelict, was sold in 1957 at the same time as the meadows to the west. It was demolished and no trace of it now remains.

Just before reaching St Catherine Lock, there used to be a bridge under the railway and bypass, but this was removed in 1994/5 opening up a vista of Plague Pits Valley and St Catherine’s Hill rising over 200 feet above the canal. The fort on top of the hill was constructed in the 3rd century BC but deserted after it was sacked in the 1st century BC. A Norman chapel dedicated to St Catherine was built in the 12th century but no remains are now visible. The hill is now a nature reserve.

South of Tun Bridge
The Navigation near the site of St Catherine’s Cottage.
Image date: 16 Mar 2003. © 2003 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU481275. WGS84: 51° 02′ 44″ N, 1° 18′ 54″ W.

St Catherine’s Cottage
St Catherine’s Cottage (or Halfway House) lay on the west bank nearly 200 yards north of St Catherine Lock.
Image date: 1870s. Image: Winchester College. NG Ref: SU481275. WGS84: 51° 02′ 44″ N, 1° 18′ 52″ W.

Navigation at St Catherine’s
Navigation at St Catherine’s with Winchester beyond. The area to the east (right) of the canal is the infilled and reclaimed site of the railway and bypass.
Image date: 16 Mar 2003. © 2003 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU481271. WGS84: 51° 02′ 29″ N, 1° 18′ 53″ W.

Construction of the bypass
Looking north along the old alignment of the railway over the bridge which was extended to accommodate the new railway alignment visible on the left and the bypass on the right. The Navigation lies on the extreme left of this picture taken shortly before the new railway line was brought into use.
Image date: 11 Feb 1937. © 2014 Kevin Robertson. NG Ref: SU481273. WGS84: 51° 02′ 36″ N, 1° 18′ 54″ W.

The Navigation at St Catherine’s — Looking north from St Catherine Lock
Looking north from St Catherine Lock.
Image date: 16 Mar 2003. © 2010 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU480273. WGS84: 51° 02′ 36″ N, 1° 18′ 56″ W.

Iron railings beside canal
Iron railings were installed beside the canal above the lock when the towing path and Twyford Lane were merged, considerably narrowed and opposite the entrance to the underbridge when the bypass was built and the railway moved nearer in 1937.
Image date: 24 Jul 2013. © Mike Faherty (cc-by-sa/2.0). Image from www.geograph.org.uk. NG Ref: SU480273. WGS84: 51° 02′ 37″ N, 1° 18′ 55″ W.

St Catherine’s Hill
St Catherine’s Hill as seen from near the lock.
Image date: 16 Mar 2003. © 2003 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU480273. WGS84: 51° 02′ 35″ N, 1° 18′ 55″ W.

Winchester Bypass
Winchester Bypass from St Catherine’s Hill looking south. St Catherine Lock is hidden by the bypass / former railway and trees just to the left of the bridge under the road and railway.
Image date: 1977. Image scanned from slide. © 2003 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU483274. WGS84: 51° 02′ 39″ N, 1° 18′ 45″ W.

Site of Winchester Bypass
The Navigation and Plague Pits Valley from St Catherine’s Hill shortly after the removal of the Winchester Bypass. The water in the Navigation is now visible just upstream of the lock.
Image date: June 1995. Image scanned from slide. © 2003 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU480273. WGS84: 51° 02′ 35″ N, 1° 18′ 56″ W.

St Catherine Lock

A mile from Black Bridge lies the summit lock of the Itchen Navigation which begins the descent of about 105 feet (32 metres) to the sea. Usually known by the name St Catherine (or St Catherine’s) Lock, an Ordnance Survey map of 1870 gives the more prosaic name “Lock No 1”. Like the majority of locks on the waterway, it was turf-sided as was customary on waterways built in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Turf-sided means that the water within the lock chamber was retained by sloping earthen or “turf” banks rather than the stone or brick walls that are usual on more modern waterways. That these banks often leaked did not matter greatly as the river would normally supply enough water. Usually, the only brickwork / masonry to be found in such locks is at each end where the lock gates were hung. On the Itchen Navigation, at most of the locks, the top and bottom gates were about 100 feet apart. For more details on the Navigation’s locks and barges see this page.

A modern sluice has been built across the head of the lock in place of the top gates to retain water in the section of canal above. The lock is very unusual (possibly unique) in that during the middle of the 19th Century, there was a sawmill on the west side of the lock. This mill was powered by a waterwheel that drew its water from above the lock gates, discharging it into the lock chamber. The conserved remains of some of the brickwork for the wheelpit can still be seen, on the offside, just downstream of the older brickwork associated with the top gates.

The lock received attention as part of the conservation works carried out in 2010 during the Itchen Navigation Heritage Trail Project which was partially funded by a Heritage Lottery grant. This involved clearance of some trees and other vegetation that was threatening the structure. In the areas of the top and bottom gates and the mill wheelpit, crumbling brickwork was replaced or consolidated, re-pointed, and tied back to the banks behind. Three ‘bat bricks’ were installed in the SE gate pier to mitigate for the loss of any potential bat roost sites. Further details of the repairs together with photographs see this report (3.74MB) made as part of the project.

As seems to be the case in projects such as this, however, little or no consideration appears to have been given to ongoing maintenance of the works done. As a result, since completion of the project in 2012, they have started to suffer from neglect.

As part of this project, an information board was installed telling a little of the local history. Unfortunately, the drawing in particular does not give a realistic portrayal of the lock or the barge within it. See problems with drawing.

The following problems with the information portrayed in this drawing have been identified. Whilst many of these points are not major individually, the sum of them means the drawing fails to accurately portray the lock when in use. For more details on the Navigation’s locks and barges see this page.

The barges used on the navigation were about 70 feet long and 13 feet wide (21.3m x 4.0m) - not 20 metres long. Whilst shorter than most of the locks, they were only a little narrower than the masonry supporting the lock gates. Most of the locks were about 90 to 100 feet long between the bottom and top gates. Thus the barge shown should be larger than portrayed.
The drawing seems to show the water level within the lock chamber to be higher than the water in the summit level of the canal leading to Black Bridge on the right of the drawing (the sawmill was on the west side of the lock).
The representation of the lock gates is wrong:
- The gates would have been mitred in the form of a shallow ‘V’ pointing upstream so that they were self-sealing from the pressure of the upsteam water. Two gates in a straight line as shown would not have been able to withstand the pressure of water as the difference in levels on either side was increased.
- The gates opened back into recesses in the brickwork to protect them from barges entering or leaving the lock.
- The gates would not have been hung from the lock masonry in the manner shown with the top pivot (hinge) landward of the brick side of the lock. If hung like this, how would the bottom of the gate be pivoted?
- The balance beams used to open and shut the gates would have been more substantial than those shown.
- No means of letting water into or out of the lock (paddles) have been shown.
- Water appears to be emerging from under the top lock gates. The water used to fill / empty a lock entered / left using gravity. The water level to the right of the lock was higher than that below the bottom gates on the left.
A boat rising in the lock might have been controlled using ropes ashore to posts or bollards or by shafts from the lock side. The idea of a boatman (or even two) standing on the boat with a shaft would have been ineffectual and potentially life-threatening. The force of water entering the lock could be too great for a man to control the boat with a shaft whilst stood on it and he would be more likely to use a shaft stood more safely on the side of the lock.
The barge would not have been loaded with cargo piled some five or six feet higher than the gunwales - potentially the boat could capsize or some of the cargo slip down the heap and over the gunwales into the water. In addition, the barge would have had great difficulty passing under the low bridges on the Navigation.
The axis of the waterwheel was aligned approximately with the side of the mill - not outside it. The wheel was also substantially lower and wider than that shown - almost as wide as the curved brickwork. Some contemporary drawings indicate fendering in front of the wheel presumably to protect it from boats.
Water is shown emerging from under the waterwheel but it would have been stopped whenever a boat used the lock as the wheel could only operate when there was a head of water with the lock empty.

Head of St Catherine Lock
The sluice and top cill at the head of St Catherine Lock.
Image date: 16 Mar 2003. © 2003 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU480273. WGS84: 51° 02′ 35″ N, 1° 18′ 56″ W.

St Catherine Lock chamber
The chamber of St Catherine Lock seen from the sluice at the head.
Image date: 16 Mar 2003. © 2003 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU480273. WGS84: 51° 02′ 36″ N, 1° 18′ 56″ W.

St Catherine Lock
The lock chamber, with 5 years of growth and fallen trees since clearance and conservation, appears neglected and is disappearing from view.
Image date: 25 Feb 2016. © 2016 Marie Keates. Image from https://www.iwalkalone.co.uk. NG Ref: SU480273. WGS84: 51° 02′ 36″ N, 1° 18′ 56″ W.

Tail of St Catherine Lock
Masonry at the tail of St Catherine Lock to support the bottom gates and the bridge that used to cross the lock.
Image date: 16 Mar 2003. © 2003 Peter Oates. NG Ref: SU480273. WGS84: 51° 02′ 35″ N, 1° 18′ 56″ W.

Information board
Information board at the lock - a pity it does not give a good representation of the lock or the barge within it. And in 2019 it is difficult to see where Catherine’s wheel once was.
Image date: 3 Dec 2011. © Shazz (cc-by-sa/2.0). Image from www.geograph.org.uk. NG Ref: SU480273. WGS84: 51° 02′ 36″ N, 1° 18′ 56″ W.

One of the pictures on this page is shown by kind permission of Marie Keates. A keen walker, she has written about and illustrated several attempts to walk the full length of the Navigation during 2013 in her blog at https://www.iwalkalone.co.uk. She has walked along all or parts of the Navigation often since then: all illustrated with some excellent photographs.

Itchen Navigation: A Portrait

Tun Bridge - St Catherine Lock

Distance: 0.5 mile (0.8 km)

Tun Bridge

Tun Bridge and barge

Tun Bridge and barge

Tun Bridge c1875

Tun Bridge c1875

Tun Bridge in the 1870s

Tun Bridge in the 1870s

Tun Bridge dating from 1926

Tun Bridge dating from 1926

Rowing on the Navigation

Rowing on the Navigation

Tun Bridge being rebuilt

Tun Bridge being rebuilt

The latest Tun Bridge

The latest Tun Bridge

Rower at Tun Bridge

Rower at Tun Bridge

Tun Bridge in the 1860s

Tun Bridge in the 1860s

Tun Bridge in 1899

Tun Bridge in 1899

Train at Garnier Road

Train at Garnier Road

The view to Winchester in 2010

The view to Winchester in 2010

Handlebar Café at Tun Bridge

Handlebar Café at Tun Bridge

View south from Tun Bridge

View south from Tun Bridge

Tun Bridge to St Catherine’s Cottage

South of Tun Bridge

South of Tun Bridge

The railway in use

The railway in use

Looking south near Tun Bridge

Looking south near Tun Bridge

Looking north to Tun Bridge

Looking north to Tun Bridge

Twyford Lane

Twyford Lane

Railway milepost

Railway milepost

The former Winchester Bypass

The former Winchester Bypass

The Pausing Place

The Pausing Place

The Navigation partially drained

The Navigation partially drained

St Catherine’s Cottage to St Catherine Lock

South of Tun Bridge

South of Tun Bridge

St Catherine’s Cottage

St Catherine’s Cottage

Narrow towing path

Narrow towing path

Junction of Twyford Lane and towing path

Junction of Twyford Lane and towing path

Navigation at St Catherine’s

Navigation at St Catherine’s

Looking south at St Catherine Lock

Looking south at St Catherine Lock

Looking north from St Catherine Lock

Looking north from St Catherine Lock

Construction of the bypass

Construction of the bypass

Looking north from St Catherine Lock

Looking north from St Catherine Lock

Iron railings beside canal

Iron railings beside canal

St Catherine’s Hill

St Catherine’s Hill

Winchester Bypass

Winchester Bypass

Site of Winchester Bypass

Site of Winchester Bypass

St Catherine Lock

Information displayed at St Catherine Lock