The canal maintenance team was based in premises adjoining Dock Lock.
The house facing the canal above Dock Lock was built in 1807 for the man in charge of the maintenance team. In the early days, the occupant was usually described as a carpenter, surveyor or foreman.
From 1892, however, as Company finances were under growing pressure, the house was made available to whoever would pay the rent. After the canal closed, the house was sold to a private owner in 1956.
The Company's maintenance yard developed on land between the canal and the Oldbury Brook. The dry dock was beside Dock Lock, and nearby was a timber store, a carpenter's shop, a blacksmith's forge and a saw pit, with a boathouse for the ice breaker at the western tip of the 'island'.
The Company always employed at least one resident carpenter whose main role was to produce replacement lock gates and swing bridges. At times the Company also gave short-term employment to a second carpenter, a blacksmith or a pair of sawyers to cut up tree trunks. The maintenance team also included a small group of labourers/lock keepers who mainly worked away from the yard.
In 1871, during the rebuilding of the nearby Nupend Baptist Chapel, the timber store (which still survives) was regularly used for divine service and for one special tea party after the laying of the new chapel's foundation stone.
The dock was filled with water from the canal and was emptied via a culvert into the Oldbury Brook which ran past the back of the site.
The leader of the maintenance team ran a booking system and collected dues which paid for the water used and for his men’s time helping to dock each vessel. Owners then paid freelance shipwrights to carry out whatever repairs a vessel needed.
A local clock maker was employed to look after the clock in the turret on the roof.
Building Dock House from D1180/1/3 p62.
Building the dry dock from D1180/2/2, 23 Dec 1820 to 16 Feb 1821.
Employees from Company wages books D1180/2/56 to 67.
Unusual use of the timber store from Stroud Journal 13 May 1871.
