Building record 5004 - Dutton Sluice

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

GV II Dutton Sluice (1)
Sluice, probably 1874, red and cream sandstone and cast iron. 8 sluice-gates divided by concavely battered piers with projecting bands of cream stone, on round-ended cutwaters. Raking stone abutments with steps replaced in concrete. Iron walkway on segmental arch of iron over each sluice with infil of 4 pointed arches in each spandrel. Baroque in effect. c.f. sluice at Hunt's Lock, Northwich. Part of the Weaver Navigation Improvement of 1874.

<2> Minerva Heritage Ltd, 2019, Dutton Sluice Hydroelectricity Project, Dutton, Cheshire: Heritage Assessment, R4401 (Client Report). SCH8832.

A heritage assessment was produced in 2019 in support of proposals for the development of a new hydroelectric generation plant, adjacent to the Dutton Sluice, on the south bank of the River Weaver. An Archimedean screw turbine is proposed adjacent to the sluice, and a new power house building on top of the turbine will contain generators and ancillary electrical equipment. New palisade security fencing will enclose the new infrastucture. The work will include some dredging of the river bed and shallow excavations to facilitate a new inlet channel, fishpass, ramp, resting pool and embankment.

The desk-based assessment, supported by a site assessment, has shown there is potentially a direct (physical) negative effect on Dutton Sluice. The physical changes comprise alterations to, and removal of fabric around, the southern end of the asset; specifically the platform on which it the sluice gates and footbridge are supported. There is also a slight potential impact on timbers adjacent to the sluice, probably associated with construction work on the sluice, circa 1900.