Editing Teddington Lock (section)

===First lock, 1810===
The [[Navigation Acts|Navigation Act]] obtained in April 1771 by the Thames Navigation Commission did not allow them to build locks below [[Maidenhead Bridge]],{{sfn |Skempton |1996 |p=153}} but from 1802, several plans for locks in the First District of the Thames, stretching from Staines to Teddington, were drawn up. Stephen Leach took over the post of Clerk of Works for the First District in 1802, following the retirement of Charles Truss at the age of 82. Just before his retirement, Truss proposed locks at Molesey and Teddington, each having a weir with long tumbling bays, similar to modern practice. [[John Rennie the Elder|John Rennie]] had suggested a series of long cuts in 1794, and Truss adopted the same idea. Rennie and [[William Jessop]] again proposed four long cuts in 1805, each about {{convert|1.5|mi|km}}, but the Navigation Committee were thwarted by strong opposition from landowners.{{sfn |Skempton |1996 |p=165}}

Zacchary Allnutt, by then Surveyor for the Second and Third Districts, stretching from Staines to [[Mapledurham Lock|Mapledurham]] near Reading, suggested locks at Chertsey, Sunbury and Teddington in 1805. Rennie submitted new proposals in 1809 for nine locks between Staines and Twickenham; two would be without weirs, seven would require large weirs to be built. Finally Leach drafted plans in 1810, which he suggested were "at once practicable and expedient, the least expensive, and the most likely to pass through Parliament without opposition and yet calculated to remedy the most prominent evils complained of." An [[Act of Parliament]] was obtained by the [[City of London Corporation]] in June 1810, which authorised construction of locks and weirs at [[Chertsey Lock|Chertsey]], [[Shepperton Lock|Shepperton]], [[Sunbury Lock|Sunbury]] and Teddington. Each would be {{convert|150|by|20|ft|m}} with the associated weirs having ample capacity for flood conditions. Rennie, Leach and the Navigation Committee visited the sites in July, to finalise the positioning of the lock.{{sfn |Skempton |1996 |p=165}}  Leach then took charge of the work, which was undertaken by contractors Joseph Kimber and John Dows who also built Sunbury Lock.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jeOMfpYMOtYC&pg=PA397 |title=A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland |editor-first=Alec W. |editor-last=Skempton |publisher=Thomas Telford, on behalf of the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] |location=London |year=2002 |volume=1 |pages=14,397 |isbn=978-0-7277-2939-2 |oclc=223272473}}</ref><ref name="Thacker1914">{{cite book |first=Fred. S. |last=Thacker |title=The Thames Highway |url=https://archive.org/stream/thameshighwayhis00thacrich#page/206/mode/2up |year=1914 |publisher=Fred S. Thacker |location=Holborn, London |lccn=15024238 |pages=206–208}}</ref>

Work at Teddington started in September 1810, but there were delays caused by flooding in November and December, and Leach awarded the contractors an extra £500. The lock was finished and opened in June 1811, but the weir was incomplete. The cofferdam protecting the works would need to be removed as river levels rose in the winter, which would have delayed completion until the following July, and so again Leach stepped in, awarding advance payments to the contractors, which enabled them to finish on time.{{sfn |Skempton |1996 |p=166}} The lock was further upstream than the present lock complex at the point where the footbridge now crosses. It comprised three pairs of gates as stipulated in the act.<ref name="Thacker1914" /> Total cost for lock, cut, weir, ballast and ground was £22,035 10''s.'' {{frac|7|1|2}}''d.'' ({{Inflation|GBP|22035.5|1810|r=-3|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) of which the land from [[Wilbraham Tollemache, 6th Earl of Dysart|Lord Dysart's]] estate cost £282 10''s.'' 5''d.''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1hdDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA843 |title=Journal of the House of Commons |year=1813 |publisher=[[HMSO]] |volume=69 |page=844 |postscript=. (Appendix)}}</ref> The lock was, at first, highly unpopular with the local fishermen and bargemen. After attempts to smash it, the lock keeper was granted permission to keep "a [[blunderbuss]] with [[bayonet]] attached thereto" to ward off attacks.<ref name="Croad2003">{{cite book |last=Croad |first=Stephen |title=Liquid History: The Thames Through Time |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wI9nAAAAMAAJ |year=2003 |publisher=Batsford |isbn=978-0-7134-8834-0 |page=27}}</ref>