Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Tranchasse lock is part of a complex including a disused canal bridge built between 1829 and 1834 on the Berry Canal. Located on horseback on Colombiers and Ainay-le-Vieil (Dear), this bridge of 96 meters by 8 arches allowed to cross the Cher until 1955. Designed by engineer Joseph-Michel Dutens, it was realized after seven years of delay since Charles Vauvilliers' initial project (1822). The local stone, which was not resistant, required repairs in 1837, then a widening of the basin in 1872 to respond to the increase in traffic.

In 1878, a partial collapse of the downstream head (80 meters) imposed metal reinforcements: pulls with cruciform anchors and steel straps on the batteries. The bowl, initially coated with bitumen (1844), was then covered with lead for sealing. The site, used 121 years to transport coal and ore between the Allier mines and the Berry forges, was filled in the 1960s and 1970s. The lock, the lockhouse (now home) and the adjacent basin have been protected since 2009.

Ranked a historic monument with the canal bridge next to the Cross, the site was closed to pedestrians in 2014 for damage to guardrails and reopened after work in 2019. Today, when abandoned, it illustrates the age of industrial waterways in the Centre-Val de Loire, before their decline in the face of rail and road transport. The technical archives, like those of Émile Barrat (1908), document his successive repairs.

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