Naburn Lock was recently said to be facing one of the ‘greatest challenges in its 267-year history’ after sustained heavy rainfall left the site under water for weeks.

The Canal & River Trust, a charity that maintains more than 2,000 miles of canals and navigable rivers in the UK, said as the water levels receded it had been out checking water levels and looking for signs of damage.

This is not, of course, the first time the lock - which forms the barrier between the tidal and non-tidal sections of the River Ouse - has been flooded. Nor will it be the last.

The first lock was built in 1757 - that is, indeed, 267 years ago. It remains one of the UK’s earliest examples of canal engineering, the Canal & River Trust says.

The ‘History of the County of York’ says that the River Ouse ‘was from early times an important highway for the trade of York’.

“It was, however, within the parish (of Naburn) that considerable improvements were made in the 18th and 19th centuries to overcome the difficulties created by shoals,” the history notes.

“A weir was made at Naburn, a mile downstream from the village, in 1741 and a ‘dam’ or weir and a lock were opened in 1757; the making of the lock cut created an island on which a water-mill was later built.”

A second, larger lock was later beside the old one. It was opened ‘with much ado’ by Queen Victoria’s grandson Prince Albert Victor, the Duke of Clarence, in 1888.

A contemporary photograph shows him standing, alongside engineers, in the dry bed of the new lock.

‘There was procession of vessels from York to Naburn; the weather was most propitious throughout the day; and the citizens displayed appropriate decorations from their business premises,’ the History of the City of York notes.

The original lock-keeper’s house was rebuilt in 1823-4, and work done in 1888 included the building of a pair of lock-keepers’ cottages.

We’ve dug out a series of photos to illustrate the lock’s history for our gallery today. Some, naturally, involve flooding. But many don’t.

Enjoy.