Bridgwater and Taunton Canal
Bridgwater and Taunton Canal | |
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Canal and River Trust | |
History | |
Original owner | Bridgwater and Taunton Canal Company |
Principal engineer | James Hollinsworth |
Date of act | 1811, 1824 |
Date of first use | 1827 |
Date completed | 1841 |
Date closed | 1907 |
Date restored | 1994 |
Geography | |
Start point | Taunton |
End point | Bridgwater Docks |
Connects to | isolated |
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The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal is a
The early years of operation were marred by a series of legal disputes, which were resolved when the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal Company and the
Despite commercial traffic ceasing in 1907, the infrastructure was maintained in good order, and the canal was used for the transport of
History
Prior to the building of the canal, navigation between the towns of Bridgwater and Taunton was possible by using the River Parrett and the River Tone. The Tone had been improved by its Conservators, who had obtained
Precursors
From 1768 there were a number of grand schemes proposed, all with the aim of linking the Bristol Channel to the English Channel by a waterway, thereby avoiding the need to navigate by sea around Cornwall and Devon. James Brindley was the first to survey a route, which would have run from the Bristol Channel to Exeter, following the course of the River Tone for part of its route. In 1769, Robert Whitworth looked at a shorter route from Bridgwater Bay to Seaton, following the River Parrett and the River Axe. He was asked to reassess the route in the 1790s. William Jessop surveyed a route between Taunton and Exeter in 1794, while another group proposed a canal linking Bristol, Nailsea, Bridgwater and Taunton, which was surveyed by William White. Jessop's assistant, Josiah Easton, suggested a route from Uphill (on the Bristol Channel) to Seaton, again in 1794, and the previous two schemes sought parliamentary approval as the Grand Western Canal and the Bristol and Western Canal, respectively. Only the first was authorised, but the economic downturn caused by the Napoleonic Wars meant that construction did not begin immediately.[3]
John Rennie surveyed the line for a ship canal from the mouth of the River Parrett to Seaton in 1810, which was designed for ships of 120 long tons (120 t), but it was felt that the economic situation would not support the projected expenditure of over £1 million. He then considered a more modest proposal, based on the original Bristol and Western plans,[3] and the scheme, now renamed the Bristol and Taunton Canal, was authorised by an Act of Parliament dated 14 May 1811. The company had powers to raise £420,000 in shares and an additional £150,000 if required,[4] but economic concerns meant that the project did not start immediately. Powers for the Bristol to Bridgwater section lapsed in 1815, but work finally commenced in 1822, to be halted by an injunction because the authorised route was not being followed.[3] A further Act, of 17 June 1824, authorised the revised route, and changed the name of the project to the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal Company. The predicted costs for the construction of the shorter canal were £34,145, as opposed to £429,990 for the longer scheme.[4]
Three further schemes were proposed before the idea of a Channel-to-Channel link was abandoned.
Construction
Construction of the canal began in 1822, with
The canal was to be about 12 miles (19 km) long. It included a 700-yard (640 m)
By mid-1826, the Canal Company had insufficient funds to complete the work, and a special meeting authorised the taking out of a mortgage to cover the £15,000 deficit.[5] The canal was an obvious competitor to the River Tone Navigation, which was managed by the Conservators of the River Tone, a legal body created for that purpose by Act of Parliament in 1699.[2] There was animosity between the Company and the Conservators, with the Company maintaining that they had a right to use the Tone to reach the centre of Taunton, and the Conservators maintaining that they did not. The canal was scheduled to be opened on 1 January 1827, but the opening was delayed until 3 January, as the connection to the River Tone was not made until 2 January. The opening celebrations were hampered by snow and bitter cold weather.[5]
Operation
The early years of the new canal were marred by legal disputes with the Conservators of the River Tone.[7] The connection to the Tone at Taunton had been made forcibly, by the Canal Company breaching the bank of the river. In August 1827 they announced that they were taking over the Tone, and evicted William Goodland, the river superintendent, from his cottage. Despite a ruling by the Court of King's Bench that their action was illegal, the Canal Company held on to the river until a High Court judgement in February 1830.[8] The Conservators promptly built a dam, to prevent boats reaching the river and water entering the canal, which they removed after further legal action and an Order of the Chancery Court.[9] Reconciliation finally came in late 1831, when the two parties proposed a new Act of Parliament to authorise the sale of the Tone Navigation to the Canal Company. This was obtained in July 1832, and required the Canal Company to erect a new iron bridge to replace the existing North Town Bridge, which hampered access to the wharfs in Taunton. They also had powers to construct a lock and a short length of canal at French Weir, to connect with the Grand Western Canal, while the Conservators were allowed to conduct an annual inspection of the canal, and to resume their ownership of the river if the canal was not maintained in good order.[8]
At the Bridgwater end, navigation onto the River Parrett was not easy, and the Corporation of Bridgwater had commissioned a number of surveys to construct a floating harbour. All came to nothing, but in 1836 the Bristol and Exeter Railway Company obtained an Act to construct a railway which would pass through Bridgwater. Subsequently, the Canal Company, in order to protect their trade, sought their own Act to construct a floating harbour to the west of Bridgwater, and to extend the canal to join it. This was obtained on 21 April 1837, and the works were started. The construction work involved a deep
The two basins were connected by a lock, whilst towards the river a ship
The new facilities were opened on 25 March 1841, after which the basin and locks at Huntworth were filled in.[12] Trade increased from 90,000 long tons (91,000 t) in 1840, before the harbour opened, to 120,000 long tons (120,000 t) shortly afterwards. Around 2,400 vessels per year were using the port by 1853. The Canal Company had hoped that the opening of the Grand Western Canal in 1838 and the Chard Canal in 1842 would increase traffic significantly, but their impact was marginal. Despite commercial success, the interest payments on the mortgage were crippling, and in 1846 the company obtained an Act to convert the canal into a railway, although its powers were never used. Trade halved as railway competition increased, and the company was in the hands of receivers by the early 1850s.[10]
In 1866 the Bristol and Exeter Railway stepped in and bought the canal.[13] The main attraction was the dock, with its large volume of coal traffic, but they purchased both the canal and the dock for £64,000, under the terms of an Act of Parliament obtained that year,[14] which included a requirement that there should always be "a good and sufficient water communication between the towns of Taunton and Bridgwater".[15] Unlike many such acquisitions, the canal was seen as a useful adjunct to the railway network, and was maintained in good order for several years, with the Conservators of the River Tone continuing their annual inspections, and reporting any defects to the railway company.[10]
Decline
The canal was increasingly affected by water supply problems. The main source of water was the River Tone, although this was not fed into the canal at Firepool, in order to ensure that the mills on the upper section could function. Instead water was pumped out of the river at Creech,[16] by the Charlton Pumping Station,[17] where the river and canal were only 300 yards (270 m) apart. Large volumes of water were discharged from the canal every fortnight, when the Bridgwater Dock was scoured, in order to free it from silt, while the Railway Company was extracting water to supply the station and steam locomotive sheds at Taunton. During the summer months there was often not enough water to go round.[16]
The canal gradually became clogged with weed, and the railway took much of the trade. Between 1870 and 1874, income dropped from £2,500 to £1,700. Three years later, the Bristol and Exeter Railway merged with the Great Western Railway. The new owners were remote, and were more interested in the water supply for Taunton station and for the Bridgwater Dock, than running the canal as a going concern, with the result that the canal deteriorated further. The Conservators continued their annual inspections, but had little hope of any improvements being made.[16]
The opening by the Great Western Railway of the Severn Tunnel in 1886 brought further decline, for the imports of coal and slate from South Wales to Bridgwater Dock and the canal could now be moved more directly. The provision in 1902 of water troughs on the railway near Creech, to enable non-stop trains to pick up water, required another 100,000 imperial gallons (450 m3) a day, which was extracted from the Tone.[18] The remaining traffic moved to the railway, the last commercial boats used the canal, from Bridgwater dock to a wharf in North Town, Taunton, in 1907,[19] and the canal was effectively closed.[18]
Closure
After the First World War the canal remained in a state of limbo – with minimal maintenance by the railway company – and was the haunt of fishermen and walkers. The Conservators continued their annual inspections, and the infrastructure remained in remarkably good order, compared to many other closed canals. The section near Creech St Michael was even used for swimming lessons for the local school children in the 1930s.[18]
During the
Control of the canal passed into public ownership with the Transport Act 1947. Despite concerted efforts, the Conservators could not make any progress with the removal of the fixed low-level bridges, which prevented maintenance from being carried out. The Inland Waterways Association started to take an active interest in the restoration of the canal from 1952, but this was resisted by the British Transport Commission, who padlocked the lock gates to prevent them being used. Despite this, a team of seven men was employed to maintain the infrastructure through this period.[24] The maintenance of the channel enabled the canal to become one of the first to be used for the commercial transport of water, which was pumped from the canal to Durleigh reservoir from 1962 onwards.[25]
The canal was absorbed by the
Restoration
From the late 1960s, there was a growing awareness of the benefits of retaining the canal. The
In December 1974, the Council bought Bridgwater Dock from British Railways. The concrete wall across the barge lock was removed, but there was no intention to restore the ship lock. By 1980, the council had invested over £50,000 in the restoration, which included Kings and Standards locks, and the bottom gates of Newtown Lock. Some bridges had been raised, but only to 4 feet (1.2 m), which allowed canoeing, but prevented bigger boats from using the waterway. Work on the deep cutting between West Street and Albert Street started in September 1978, jointly funded by the County Council and Sedgemoor District Council, using direct labour, while a Manpower Services Commission scheme to dredge the canal from the dock to the cutting and to widen the towpath was funded by the District Council in 1981.[26]
The condition of the swing bridge at Bathpool caused a change in policy. There were objections to the plan to replace it with a fixed bridge with limited headroom, and the planning application was deferred. By 1983, a six-year plan to restore the canal was fully costed, and it was adopted by the British Waterways Board, the County Council, Sedgemoor District Council and
Current use
Boating on the canal is encouraged, although the lack of a link to the River Parrett at Bridgwater is restrictive. At this point, the Parrett is a salt water river, and is laden with silt, whereas the canal contains fresh water. Not only is there a risk of silt entering the canal,[29] but the salt water cannot be allowed to contaminate the fresh, as the canal is still used for the transport of drinking water for the population of Bridgwater.[30] The canal forms part of the local flood relief system, in winter taking water from the River Tone at Taunton and discharging it into the Parrett at a sluice in the western fringe of Bridgwater, near the Bridgwater Canalside Centre.
During 2020, the boats were ordered to leave the docks at Bridgwater, however as of 2023, there has been a £5m grant to restore the docks and canal.
The Somerset Space Walk
The Taunton-Bridgwater canal is also home to an installation termed the 'Somerset Space Walk', a scale model (530 million:1) of the Solar System centred around the 'Sun' at Maunsel lock with the planets located along the towpath in both directions. The Space Walk was designed by local man, Pip Youngman, in order to demonstrate the scale of the Solar System in an interactive way. The trail can be walked either from Taunton's Brewhouse Theatre to Maunsel Lock (Pluto to the Sun) or from Bridgwater's Morrison's Supermarket to Maunsel Lock (also Pluto to the Sun) or of course, vice versa. From Pluto to the Sun from either town is an 11-kilometre (6.8 mi) walk.[35]
Route
Point | Coordinates (Links to map resources) |
OS Grid Ref | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Firepool Lock | 51°01′19″N 3°05′53″W / 51.022°N 3.098°W | ST230253 | Junction with River Tone |
Chard Canal Junction | 51°01′34″N 3°02′35″W / 51.026°N 3.043°W | ST269256 | defunct |
Creech Pumping Station | 51°01′48″N 3°01′05″W / 51.030°N 3.018°W | ST287261 | derelict |
Higher Maunsel Lock | 51°03′32″N 2°59′20″W / 51.059°N 2.989°W | ST307293 | |
Lower Maunsel Lock | 51°03′47″N 2°59′20″W / 51.063°N 2.989°W | ST307297 | |
Kings Lock | 51°04′37″N 2°59′35″W / 51.077°N 2.993°W | ST305313 | |
Standards Lock | 51°04′52″N 2°58′37″W / 51.081°N 2.977°W | ST316317 | |
Fordgate swing bridge | 51°05′20″N 2°58′12″W / 51.089°N 2.970°W | ST32163263 | |
Huntworth Basin | 51°06′54″N 2°59′13″W / 51.115°N 2.987°W | ST309355 | defunct |
Bridgwater Docks | 51°07′55″N 3°00′18″W / 51.132°N 3.005°W | ST297375 | No connection with River Parrett |
See also
Bibliography
- Cumberlidge, Jane (2009). Inland Waterways of Great Britain (8th Ed.). St Ives, Cambridgeshire: Imray Laurie Norie and Wilson Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85288-355-6.
- Hadfield, Charles (1985) [1967]. The Canals of South West England (2nd ed.). Newton Abbot, Devon: David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4176-6.
- Hardcastle, Peter (2006). "Bridgwater and Taunton Canal - the roots". Somerset4u. Archived from the original on 1 October 2008.
- Harrison, Samuel Bealey; Henry, Jeremy (1835). An Analytical Digest of All the Reported Cases Determined in the House of Lords, the Several Courts of Common Law, in Banc and at Nisi Prius, and the Court of Bankruptcy: And Also the Crown Cases Reserved ... Together with a Full Selection of Equity Decisions, with the Manuscript Cases ... Desilver, Thomas. Archived from the original on 24 December 2016.
- Haskell, Tony (1994). By Waterway to Taunton. Somerset: Somerset Books. ISBN 978-0-86183-260-6.
- Haskell, Tony (2007). By Waterway to Taunton: The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7524-4267-9.
- Otter, R. A. (1994). Civil Engineering Heritage. Thomas Telford Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7277-1971-3.
- Priestley, Joseph (1831). "Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways of Great Britain". Archived from the original on 12 March 2016.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
References
Notes
- ^ "River Tone History Continued". Taunton Civic Society. Archived from the original on 21 October 2004. Retrieved 20 October 2008.
- ^ a b Haskell 1994, pp. 1–13
- ^ a b c d Haskell 1994, pp. 14–23
- ^ a b Priestley 1831, pp. 93–97
- ^ a b c d e Haskell 1994, pp. 24–33
- ^ "Higher Maunsel Lock No 4 and Higher Maunsel Bridge". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
- ^ Harrison & Henry 1835, p. 1516.
- ^ a b Haskell 1994, pp. 34–38
- ^ Hadfield 1985, p. 50
- ^ a b c d Haskell 1994, pp. 39–52
- ^ Otter 1994
- ^ Hadfield 1985, pp. 55–56
- ^ "Bridgwater and Taunton Canal". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
- ^ Hadfield 1985, p. 63
- ^ "Canals and canal projects". Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on 2 May 2006. Retrieved 20 October 2008.
- ^ a b c Haskell 1994, pp. 78–84
- ^ "Canal pumping house, SW of Charlton, Durston". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
- ^ a b c d Haskell 1994, pp. 85–105
- ^ "Bridgwater & Taunton Canal". Somerset Waterways. Somerset Waterways Development Trust. Archived from the original on 5 July 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
- ^ "Other Defences". Somerset Pillboxes. Archived from the original on 20 August 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
- ^ "Hamp bridge, Bridgwater". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
- ^ "Second World War anti-tank obstacles, Coxhill Bridge, S of North Newton". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
- ^ Haskell 1994, Author's Preface
- ^ a b Haskell 1994, pp. 106–112
- ^ Hardcastle 2006.
- ^ a b c d e f Haskell 1994, pp. 113–132
- ^ "Lower Maunsell Lock No 3 and Lower Maunsell Bridge". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
- ^ Cumberlidge 2009, pp. 86–87
- ^ "Bridgwater & Taunton Canal". Moorings & Moor. Archived from the original on 21 February 2012. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
- ^ "Bridgwater Docks, (photographic record)". Archived from the original on 17 February 2012.
- ^ Historic England. "Bridgwater Dock, Tidal Basin, locks, quaysides, bridges and fittings (1197401)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 October 2008.
- ^ Historic England. "Wares Warehouse (1197403)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 October 2008.
- ^ "Bridgwater and Taunton Canal". Somerset Waterways Development Trust. Archived from the original on 5 July 2008.
- ^ "Projects". Waterlinks Somerset. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 20 October 2008.
- ^ Youngman, Pip. "Somerset Space Walk leaflet" (PDF). Taunton Solar Model Group. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
External links
Media related to Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Wikimedia Commons
- Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at canals.com
Further reading
- The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal by John Swayne
- Bridgwater and Taunton Canal - The Route
- Bridgwater and Taunton Canal from the Inland Waterways Association
- "Waterscape - Bridgwater and Taunton Canal".
51°03′47″N 2°59′20″W / 51.063°N 2.989°W