Canal safety gates

[2] Substantial structures or simple 'stop gates' or 'stop planks' were used to prevent flooding and were usually only put in place when air raid warnings were given.

[3] Large volumes of stored water have considerable destructive potential and where structures such as canals run on embankments above low lying built up areas or where aqueducts exist, appropriate safety precautions were taken either as a war-time contingency[4] or at the time of construction.

[5] Where a water link was no longer commercially important, but still represented a risk in case of damage, it might be closed off permanently with concrete or an earth bank.

The purpose of these two hand cranked steel gates was to hold back the waters of the Forth and Clyde Canal to prevent serious flooding in Glasgow in the event of bombing destroying or breaching the nearby Stockingfield Aqueduct.

In an emergency these gates automatically close to ensure that any risk created by a flood is controlled, protecting Gloucester and the villages along the course of the canal to Sharpness.

[1] The Air Raid Precautions (ARP) Department was created in 1935 to ensure that local authorities and other employers co-operated with central government.

Attempts were made by six members of the Ribbon Society (Irish dissidents) in March 1883 to blow up the Possil Road Aqueduct on the Glasgow Branch of the Forth and Clyde Canal.