Sharing memories of Diglis Island

Built in 1844, for over 170 years, Diglis Island was a hub for lock gate building and home to British Waterways Board offices from the 150s onwards. It fell to our visitor services manager at Diglis, Mark Miles, to capture the experiences of those who lived and worked on the island.

To kick off the project, Mark sat down with 91-year-old John ‘Wesso’ Weston, who moved onto the island with his parents in 1946, when his father became a lock keeper.

As John explains: “Dad took the job as it came with a two-bedroom house, which meant we could move out of my grandparents’ place. Mostly, it was a step up from before, but Mum was slightly taken aback when she was told that there was no running water in the house – just a water pump in the garden!”

Just three years later, in 1949, John became a Waterways apprentice. It was a rewarding, if physically demanding, initiation, as he developed the skills required to build lock gates for the River Severn, and the Kennet & Avon, Monmouthshire & Brecon, and Bridgewater canals.

In those early days, John’s workshop was fairly sparse, with just a grinding wheel to sharpen the blades of the chisels, two trestle tables on which to cut the wood for the lock gates and a 9m long workbench-still in its original position.

“It was a devil of a job,” says John, “not only did you have to balance on the beam, but as the saw only cut one way, you had to do all the work – and it was really hard.”

There were lighter moments too, of course, and the men would often gather in the large 30-metre-long workshop for an impromptu game of cricket. “The foreman would come out of the office, glance up and down to make sure that we hadn’t broken anything and then leave us to it,” says John.

Throughout the 1950s and 60s, machines slowly began to take over some of the more menial tasks at Diglis. In the mid-50s, after spending its early life at Cardiff Docks, the iconic crane by Butters Brothers (a Scotch Derrick crane) was moved to the island.

“Before it arrived, we had to keep disassembling the lock gates to turn them over, as they could weigh four tonnes or more,” says John. “With the crane, we could easily turn them over to work on the other side, saving a lot of time and effort.”

With the march of mechanisation, by the 1960s, the lock gates, which had once taken six weeks to build, could now be completed in half the time. John played his part, liaising with a representative from local machine manufacturers, Robinson’s.

As he explains: “I had this idea about seeing if they could manufacture a different head for the mortice machine so that it would cut the tenon joints as well as the mortice joints. I spoke with a chap from head office and a few weeks later he returned with a new attachment.”

As they were milling around the upgraded machine, a few of John’s friends started chuckling. “As a joke, they’d written ‘John’s’ on the front of the machine,” John laughs, “and what’s more, it can still be seen today!”

Remarkably, John’s workshop is still relatively untouched. His old workbench is still in the same spot, and, but for a thin layer of dust, it’s as if he and his fellow apprentices never left.

“I have so many happy memories of working at Diglis,” says John, “it’s so lovely that there are people still interested in my stories; although, at the end of the day, it was just my job.”

Share your memories

If you have any memories of living or working at Diglis Island that you’d like to share with us, please contact [email protected].