diff --git a/items.h b/items.h
index 7497d0d096..b091fa0b56 100644
--- a/items.h
+++ b/items.h
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ void item_stats_sizes(ADD_STAT add_stats, void *c);
 item *do_item_get(const char *key, const size_t nkey, const uint32_t hv);
 item *do_item_touch(const char *key, const size_t nkey, uint32_t exptime, const uint32_t hv);
 void item_stats_reset(void);
-extern pthread_mutex_t cache_lock;
 extern pthread_mutex_t lru_locks[POWER_LARGEST];
 void item_stats_evictions(uint64_t *evicted);
 
diff --git a/thread.c b/thread.c
index eef90eb020..29f6c0eae1 100644
--- a/thread.c
+++ b/thread.c
@@ -36,9 +36,7 @@ struct conn_queue {
     pthread_mutex_t lock;
 };
 
-/* Lock for cache LRU operations
- * Was old global lock for all item_*, assoc_*, etc operations */
-pthread_mutex_t cache_lock;
+/* Locks for cache LRU operations */
 pthread_mutex_t lru_locks[POWER_LARGEST];
 
 /* Connection lock around accepting new connections */
@@ -727,7 +725,6 @@ void memcached_thread_init(int nthreads, struct event_base *main_base) {
     int         i;
     int         power;
 
-    pthread_mutex_init(&cache_lock, NULL);
     for (i = 0; i < POWER_LARGEST; i++) {
         pthread_mutex_init(&lru_locks[i], NULL);
     }