The lock is close to the Berkshire bank, but accessed from the Oxfordshire side via two long walkways, the downstream one being near Mill Meadows.

The weir consists of a series of iron watergates running from the lock to the Oxfordshire bank near the mills.

Humphrey Gainsborough, a non-conformist minister at Henley Congregational Church was concerned in the building of the lock.

In 1843 the lock was in poor condition and plans were drawn up to rebuild it on the opposite side of the river.

At the lock and beyond it on the Berkshire bank there are steep hills, which give way to Wargrave Marsh, an expanse of water meadows, after the entrance to the Hennerton Backwater.

The Wargrave & Shiplake Regatta takes place on the reach downstream of the railway bridge in August.