Oscar´s Lock

Product description

Formal name: Oscar, after Crown Prince Oscar, later King Oscar I
Year of construction: 1815
Technical facts: This double lock covers a height of 4.8 metres. It is operated using hydraulics and all gates have cast iron frames with wooden boarding. The lock keeper’s house here at Oscar’s Lock was built in 1843. In 1918, electricity was brought to the house, but water and sanitation would not be added until 1949. These amenities were likely to have been welcome modernities for lock keeper Karl Ludvig Ring, who both lived and worked here. The house also had a tax collection office, which may have been one of the reasons behind its modern amenities.
All housing provided by the canal company was subject to a charter on accommodation. The 1887 charter divided houses into two classes. Houses used by heads of canal construction, lock inspectors and other officials belonged to the first class. The second class contained the houses for bridge keepers, lock keepers and forest managers. The canal company covered all repairs for lock keeper’s houses, though they were expected to contribute in terms of labour. However, if anyone living in the house caused any sort of damage, the lock keeper had to cover repair costs himself. The lock keeper was also tasked with keeping the lock’s surroundings, his garden and his small patch of farmland, neat and tidy.
South of Oscar’s Lock, there once stood a wooden grain warehouse, thought to have been built in the early 1850’s. Sadly, the warehouse burned down in 1996, when it served as a workshop and storage facility for the canal company. Today, however, it has been rebuilt on the foundations of the old building and now houses a hostel.