Bude Canal
Bude Canal | |
---|---|
Specifications | |
Maximum boat length | 20 ft 0 in (6.096 m) |
Maximum boat beam | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) |
Locks | 2 |
Number of lifts | 6 inclines |
Status | part extant |
History | |
Principal engineer | James Green (1781-1849), Thomas Shearm |
Date of act | 1819 |
Date completed | 1823 |
Date closed | 1891 |
Geography | |
Start point | Bude |
End point | Vinworthy (N), Blagdon (E) and Druxton (S) |
The Bude Canal was a canal built to serve the hilly hinterland in the Cornwall and Devon border territory in the United Kingdom, chiefly to bring lime-bearing sand for agricultural fertiliser. The Bude Canal system was one of the most unusual in Britain.[1]
It was remarkable in using
The design of the canal influenced the design of the Rolle Canal.
Origins
The coastal area at Bude has sand unusually rich in minerals, and the poor agricultural land of the locality was found to benefit considerably from application of the sand. In the pre-industrial age, actually transporting it was difficult, even to land relatively close to the coast.
Several schemes were put forward for canals to bring the sand to the countryside, and these proposals did not lack ambition. One early scheme, conceived by Cornish engineer John Edyvean, aimed at distributing Welsh coal from the port as far inland as Calstock on the River Tamar. It gained parliamentary approval for construction in 1774, but financial problems and the Napoleonic Wars frustrated the proposal.[2][3]
In 1818, the West Country canal engineer
The canal system
The project:
- improved the difficult exposed sea harbour at Bude;
- built a broad canal capable of taking 50-foot (15 m) barges for 2 miles (3.2 km) to Helebridge Basin;
- built the rest of the system for tub boats, 20 feet (6.1 m) long by 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) wide;
- built a reservoir at Virworthy to feed water to the system.
The main line of the canal ran south east from Bude to Druxton Wharf near
There were two conventional locks in the short broad canal section, each with a vertical interval of 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m). This section terminated at Helebridge, about 2 miles (3.2 km) from Bude, and ordinary coastal barges travelled this far up the canal.
The tub boats were designed to use the main part of the system, and they generally made the transit from the harbour at Bude, or from Helebridge if trans-shipping from coastal vessels there.
After Helebridge, there were three
With no intermediate locks on the tub boat sections, the canal had to follow the contours between the inclined planes, and this made its route even more circuitous than most canals. However, some relatively ambitious viaducts and earthworks were constructed, particularly where side streams and small valleys entered the main watercourse and its valley.
The inclined planes
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The unusual feature of the canal was the six inclined planes. The tub boats had wheels, and on the inclined planes they were pulled up the slopes with the wheels running in channel rails (like a squat letter "U" in section). There were two sets of rails, one for each direction, but it does not appear that a counterbalancing system was used (in which a boat coming down would balance one being pulled up).
The tub boats were hauled up and let down the
Name | Vertical interval | Length | System | Coordinates |
---|---|---|---|---|
Marhamchurch | 120 ft | 836 ft | Overshot waterwheel | 50°48′20″N 4°31′40″W / 50.805647°N 4.527908°W |
Hobbacott | 225 ft | 935 ft | Descending bucket | |
Vealand | 58 ft | 500 ft | Overshot waterwheel | |
Merrifield | 60 ft | 360 ft | Overshot waterwheel | |
Tamerton | 59 ft | 360 ft | Overshot waterwheel | |
Bridgetown | 51 ft | 259 ft | Overshot waterwheel |
The gradients of the planes differed somewhat, with Hobbacott being the steepest at 1 in 4.5 and Vealand being the gentlest at 1 in 8.6.
Tub boats
The tub boats were 20 feet (6.1 m) long and 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) wide, and carried about 20 tons payload; the usage of tub boats was not confined to the Bude Canal. They were commonly operated by coupling between 4 and 6 together and hauling them – by horse power – together. A "train" of boats could therefore be 120 feet (37 m) long, and on the very sinuous alignment of the canal, the train must have been difficult to pass round sharp curves. Steering was possible by manually altering the connection between adjacent boats, using handspikes.
Each boat had four wheels 14 inches (360 mm) in diameter for running on the inclined planes; the boats were hauled up and down individually.
The operation of lining the tub boats up with the rails, at transfer from canal to plane, must have been difficult. Once engaged with the continuous chain, it would have been impracticable to stop the motion momentarily while the wheels were guided to the rail channels; but no record is available as to how this was achieved.
Operation
On completion of the canal, the owning company was constantly short of cash, and inevitably income did not reach the levels predicted at the stage of promoting the canal. In addition, serious problems with the state of the newly finished works were discovered, although in the circumstances of a locally promoted scheme with novel technological aspects, the canal as built was better engineered than it might have been. The chains on the inclined planes were constantly breaking, the rails broke, and other mechanical failures were frequent, and physical damage from careless boat handling was also common.
However, the rich sand was successfully carried to farms near the various wharves in large quantities, and other merchandise was also carried, particularly
Nonetheless, the arrival of the railway soon spelt the ultimate doom of the canal: manufactured fertilisers had become commonplace and cheap, and they could be brought in by railway, so that the demand for the local sand was diminished considerably.
When it became obvious that the canal could not survive, some directors proposed obtaining parliamentary authority for abandonment, or selling the canal outright to the railway company, or anyone else. However, legal conditions agreed at the time of construction gave certain landowners rights to take water from the canal, and they would not give up these rights without compensation, so for the time being the proposals for disposal were frustrated. Finally, abandonment of the tub boat operation took place on 14 November 1891, with the Launceston main line and the Holsworthy branch being abandoned, but the Feeder arm continuing to be kept open because of the water rights. After protracted negotiations, the remainder of the canal was bought by Stratton and Bude Urban District Council, on 1 January 1902, and this enabled them to supply domestic water in due course to the villages in the district from the canal's Tamar reservoir. The works became the responsibility of North Cornwall District Council [1] when English local government was reorganised in 1974.
The canal today
Today the
An exhaustive list of locations where the canal's remains can be seen may be found in Harris and Ellis.[5]
Plans for restoration
In 2005 major plans were approved to re-develop the canal, including renewal of the two locks between the sea lock and the first
One element of the restoration was a number of wooden sculptures by Daniel Sodhi-Miles. These are inscribed with Cornish words and phrases, and take the form of chains or parts of chains, recalling the canal's boating history.[8]
March 2008 damage
On Monday 10 March 2008, a powerful storm wrenched one of the lock gates off its fixings. Contractors removed the gate the following morning, and four-tonne concrete pipes were placed in the canal basin to dissipate the power of waves coming in from the sea. A temporary dam was constructed at Falcon Bridge, and a team of anglers and staff from the Environment Agency rescued the fish population before it was swept out to sea. Beyond the dam, the loss of water was contained, with levels only dropping by about 8 inches (20 cm),[9] but at the lower end of the canal water continued to flow out until it was practically empty, revealing some interesting finds in the mud, including a shotgun.[10]
The North Cornwall District Council used the opportunity to repair the canal walls and dredge the basin. During the course of the dredging, over 6,000 cubic metres (7,800 cu yd) of silt were removed. It was originally intended to refill the basin gradually after 8 July 2008, but a period of intense rainfall prior to that date resulted in a surge of water passing down the canal, which damaged the coffer dam protecting the empty section from the watered section. Consequently, the basin refilled in a single day.[7]
Route coordinates
Main line Bude to Launceston
Holsworthy Branch
Point | Coordinates (Links to map resources) |
OS Grid Ref | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Mile post (Bude 7) | 50°49′10″N 4°26′50″W / 50.81944°N 4.44732°W | SS277051 | |
Shernick Bridge & Anderton Wharf | 50°49′23″N 4°26′56″W / 50.82318°N 4.44882°W | SS276055 | |
Anderton Bridge | 50°49′31″N 4°26′45″W / 50.82530°N 4.44593°W | SS278057 | |
Mile post (Bude 8) | 50°49′46″N 4°26′51″W / 50.82939°N 4.44740°W | SS277062 | |
Burmsdon aqueduct | 50°50′01″N 4°26′33″W / 50.83363°N 4.44252°W | SS281066 | |
Vealand Incline | 50°50′03″N 4°26′13″W / 50.834145°N 4.43689°W | SS285067 | |
Vealand Bridge | 50°50′06″N 4°25′40″W / 50.83487°N 4.42791°W | SS291067 | |
Junction with feeder | 50°50′15″N 4°25′29″W / 50.83749°N 4.42466°W | SS294107 | |
Parnacott Wharf | 50°49′24″N 4°23′11″W / 50.82326°N 4.38629°W | SS320053 | |
Stanbury (Holsworthy) Wharf | 50°49′17″N 4°20′43″W / 50.82145°N 4.34533°W | SS349051 | |
Blagdon Moor Wharf | 50°49′44″N 4°19′42″W / 50.82887°N 4.32832°W | SS361058 |
Feeder from Lower Tamar Lake
Point | Coordinates (Links to map resources) |
OS Grid Ref | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Brendon Bridge | 50°50′23″N 4°25′28″W / 50.83965°N 4.42438°W | SS294073 | |
Gainsmoor Bridge | 50°50′43″N 4°25′14″W / 50.84517°N 4.42067°W | SS297079 | |
Puckland | 50°50′54″N 4°25′56″W / 50.84833°N 4.43226°W | SS289508 | |
Dexbeer Bridge | 50°51′11″N 4°25′26″W / 50.85299°N 4.42378°W | SS295087 | |
Wooda Bridge | 50°51′22″N 4°24′58″W / 50.8562°N 4.41607°W | SS300091 | |
Virworthy Aqueduct | 50°51′53″N 4°24′43″W / 50.8646°N 4.41197°W | SS304310 | |
Virwirthy Mill | 50°51′54″N 4°24′58″W / 50.86494°N 4.41603°W | SS301101 | |
Virworthy Wharf | 50°52′00″N 4°25′11″W / 50.8667°N 4.41971°W | SS298103 | |
Lower Tamar Lake | 50°52′16″N 4°25′24″W / 50.87118°N 4.42324°W | SS296108 |
Route details extracted from 1885 OS maps.
See also
- Canals of the United Kingdom
- History of the British canal system
- List of reservoirs and dams in the United Kingdom
Bibliography
- David, Charlie (2009). "(based on) Chapter 11: The Regeneration Project". In Young, Bill; Stamp, Bryan (eds.). Bude Canal Past and Present. Archived from the original on 10 May 2018.
- Harris, Helen (1996). The Grand Western Canal. Devon Books. ISBN 978-0-86114-901-8.
- Harris, H; Ellis, M (1972). The Bude Canal. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-7018-6.
- Phillips, John (1792). A general history of inland navigation, foreign and domestic (2 ed.). Holborn, London: Architectural Library. OCLC 433597060.
- Quinlan, R (1994). Canal Walks of England and Wales. Stroud, Glos: Alan Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7509-0608-1.
- Whitaker, Mike (May 2008). Sea Lock Damaged by Storm. Waterways World. ISSN 0309-1422.
References
- ^ "Bude Canal". Waterscape. Archived from the original on 3 April 2012.
- ^ Phillips 1792, pp. 267–269.
- ^ "History". Bude Canal and Harbour Society. Archived from the original on 4 September 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ a b Harris 1996
- ^ a b c Harris & Ellis 1972
- ^ Quinlan 1994.
- ^ a b David 2009.
- ^ Whyte, Abi (20 December 2017). "Waterway statues: Ship's chains and a Somerset Space Walk – South West". Waterfront. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
- ^ Whitaker 2008, p. 50.
- ^ "Sandbags plug storm leak in canal". bbc news. 12 March 2008. Archived from the original on 20 March 2018. Retrieved 21 March 2008.
External links
Media related to Bude Canal at Wikimedia Commons