Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation
Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation | |
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Specifications | |
Length | 13.75 miles (22.13 km) |
Maximum boat length | 60 ft 0 in (18.29 m) |
Maximum boat beam | 16 ft 0 in (4.88 m) |
Locks | 12 |
Status | Navigable |
Navigation authority | Essex Waterways |
History | |
Original owner | Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation Co |
Principal engineer | John Rennie |
Other engineer(s) | Richard Coates |
Date of act | 1793 |
Date completed | 1797 |
Geography | |
Start point | Chelmsford |
End point | Heybridge, Maldon |
Connects to | Blackwater estuary |
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The Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation is the
Unlike most canals, it was not nationalised in 1948, and remained under the control of the original company. The first leisure boats to use the navigation did so in 1973, when the Inland Waterways Association organised a rally at Chelmsford. Springfield Basin was restored in 1992, but the proprietors faced bankruptcy in 2003, and after two years of negotiation, Essex Waterways Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Inland Waterways Association, took over responsibility for management, although the proprietors retained ownership.
Because Essex and Suffolk Water abstract water from the navigation to supply Hanningfield Reservoir, they have a statutory obligation to maintain the outer gates at Heybridge sea lock, to prevent salt water entering the drinking water supply. They undertook major refurbishment work at the lock during the winters of 2016/17 and 2017/18, including replacement of the outer sea gate with a new design. A long-standing ambition, first proposed in 1985, has been to provide a better destination at Chelmsford, by providing access for boats to the town centre. A proposed link from Springfield Basin has been thwarted by road building in the area, but a plan to replace the automatic weir below Chelmsford Town Centre with a new structure incorporating a navigation lock was recommended in 2020.
Route
The navigation runs from Springfield Basin in
History
Prior to the actual construction of the navigation, there had been almost 120 years of proposals for such a scheme, and opposition from the port of Maldon, which anticipated that its revenues would fall if vessels could travel to Chelmsford. The first such scheme was proposed in 1677 by
The next schemes were proposed in 1762, when the canal engineers
Chelmsford and Blackwater Canal Act 1793 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Peter Muilman, a Dutch merchant living in London (and the father of
The port of Maldon now tried to mitigate their loss, and with advice from Benjamin Latrobe, produced a plan to improve the Blackwater through Maldon to its junction with the Chelmer at Beeleigh, which was submitted to Parliament in 1793. Realising that this would make the final cut to Heybridge redundant, the Navigation Company opposed the Bill, and it was defeated.[8] Latrobe submitted a revised scheme in April 1795, which was also defeated. This marked the end of his engineering career in Britain, as he emigrated to America shortly afterwards.[9] Work continued on the navigation, with the first section from Heybridge Basin to Little Baddow opening in April 1796 and the navigation opening throughout on 3 June 1797. The final cost was around £50,000.[8]
Operation
When completed, the length of the navigation was 13.8 miles (22.2 km). 12 locks lowered the level of the navigation by 75 feet (23 m) from Springfield Basin in
A community developed around Heybridge Basin, with Richard Tovee, a sawyer by trade, and Thomas Malden, a coal merchant, both buying plots of land to further their trade. The Navigation Company built a granary, which was used to store perishable goods, while rope-makers and boat builders also established themselves nearby. Soon a pub and a brewery appeared, and the settlement steadily grew in size.[14]
The Navigation experienced some teething problems, with floods in 1797 creating shoals which prevented the passage of barges. These got steadily worse, until Rennie was called back in 1799 to address the problem. Rennie was again recalled in 1805, when the mill owners complained about leakage through the locks and requested damages. Further improvements were made,[15] including the rebuilding of Heybridge sea lock by James Green,[16] and trade developed steadily. The first inland gasworks in Britain was built in Chelmsford in 1819, using coal brought up the navigation. Besides coal, bricks, stone, timber and general cargo was carried from Heybridge to Chelmsford, and the major cargo in the reverse direction was grain and flour. Local wharfs served the communities of Little Baddow, Boreham, Ulting and Heybridge.[15] At its peak in the mid 19th century, the canal was carrying over 60,000 tons of cargo per year.[17]
Locks
The twelve locks on the navigation are:[11]
Lock name | Lock number | Fall (or rise) of lock,
feet & inches (metres) |
OS Grid Ref | Distance from Springfield Basin, miles (km) |
Springfield Lock | 1 | 3’ 9” (1.14 m) | TL716063 | 0.3 (0.5 km) |
Barnes Mill Lock | 2 | 5’ 6” (1.68 m) | TL729064 | 1.0 (1.6 km) |
Sandford Mill Lock | 3 | 7’ 0” (2.13 m) | TL739063 | 1.9 (3.1 km) |
Cuton Lock | 4 | 4’ 0” (1.22 m) | TL743077 | 2.85 (4.6 km) |
Stoneham's Lock | 5 | 5’ 0” (1.52 m) | TL752082 | 3.75 (6.0 km) |
Little Baddow Mill Lock | 6 | 6’ 0” (1.82 m) | TL758083 | 4.4 (7.1 km) |
Paper Mill Lock | 7 | 6’ 4” (1.93 m) | TL776089 | 5.7 (9.2 km) |
Rushe's Lock | 8 | 6’ 3” (1.91 m) | TL795089 | 7.1 (11.4 km) |
Hoe Mill Lock | 9 | 8’ 3” (2.51 m) | TL807083 | 8.2 (13.2 km) |
Rickett's Lock | 10 | 6’ 0” (1.83 m) | TL827087 | 9.4 (15.1 km) |
Beeleigh Lock | 11 | 5’ 6” (1.68 m) | TL838083 | 10.3 (16.6 km) |
Beeleigh flood gate | – | – | TL840083 | 10.4 (16.7 km) |
Heybridge Sea Lock | 12 | 14’ 10” (4.52 m) | TL871068 | 13.75 (22.1 km) |
Decline
The Eastern Counties Railway reached Chelmsford in 1843, and a
The navigation is unusual in that it was not
Leisure era
Prior to the cessation of commercial traffic in 1972, pleasure craft were prohibited from using the locks,[2] and for a short period, the only boats to use the navigation were the company work boats and canoes. Leisure boats used the navigation for the first time in 1973, when the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) organised a rally at Kings Head Meadow, Chelmsford. Subsequently, leisure boats were moored at Paper Mill Lock and Hoe Mill Lock. Springfield Basin became unusable after the gates were damaged by vandals in the late 1970s, and gradually silted up. The basin was restored to use in 1992, when the IWA co-ordinated various bodies to undertake the work. The National Rivers Authority dredged the basin, Essex County Council repaired the lock bridge, riparian owners repaired wharves, and members of the IWA and the Waterway Recovery Group repaired the lock and the feeder system to the basin. A boat rally was held in 1993, and the project won the "Shell Best of Britain Award."[19]
The construction of housing and restaurants around the Springfield Basin site took place, including Coates Quay and Waterfront Place, which meant that the basin became accessible to the public for the first time, and Lockside Marina was built just above Springfield Lock.
While Essex Waterways manage the navigation from day to day, it is still owned by the Company of Proprietors. The towpath from Maldon to Chelmsford has been designated as a public footpath, and is maintained in good order. Narrow boats can be hired from Paper Mill lock, and the infrastructure is being steadily upgraded. Access to the navigation from the River Blackwater is only possible at certain states of the tide, and advance booking to use the sea lock is required.[12] Almost the entire canal is now a conservation area, after Chelmsford so designated the part within their jurisdiction in 1991, and Maldon and Braintree district councils took similar action subsequently.[21]
On 18 February 2016, the Chelmsford Civic Society held a meeting at the Essex Record Office to consider the option of extending the canal from Springfield Basin to a new destination nearer to the town centre. Over 100 people attended the meeting, at which the idea of a new 180-yard (160 m) cut from the basin was aired. The cut would avoid a weir and low bridge to rejoin the river system where the River Can and Chelmer merge, and a new waterside area would be constructed in the town centre. Although the leader of the council actively opposed the concept, the idea of a better destination for the navigation had been a long-standing dream,[22] having first been proposed in 1985 in a report by the IWA, and embraced by the council in 2002. The link was downgraded to an "aspiration" following a 2008 planning enquiry, although it remained on the town centre development plans,[23] and the replacement Essex Record Office building was sited so that it would overlook the link.[24] The link ceased to be a favoured option in 2020, after decisions to build a new link road between Parkway and the site of the old gas works, which was being redeveloped as housing.[25]
An alternative would be to use the course of the Chelmer. Navigation is prevented by a large weir structure, which was installed in the 1960s as part of a flood defence scheme. Its principal function is to maintain water levels in the rivers within the city, which would otherwise become muddy ditches at some times of the year. Since 1995, it had been maintained by the Environment Agency, but they decided that they could no longer justify the costs of maintaining the structure,[25] which consists of two radial gates at either side of a central tilting gate, with a control building on the north bank of the river.[26] Chelmsford City Council commissioned a feasibility study, which proposed that the automatic gates could be replaced, and a navigation lock built alongside the new structure, on the north side of the river. It is estimated that the project would take two years to complete at a cost of around £6 million, much of which would be provided by Community Infrastructure Levy money, from the housing developments taking place in the vicinity.[25] Some 970 new homes are expected to be provided in the Chelmsford Waterside neighbourhood, and the council has obtained a grant of £10.7 million from the Government's Housing Infrastructure Fund, enabling it to address issues of access, contamination of the land, and the presence of gas mains which currently hinder the development.[27]
Much of the maintenance is carried out by local volunteers as well as volunteers from Waterway Recovery Group, which is also part of the IWA.[28] Regular working parties help to keep the waterway, including the towpath, locks and other structures well maintained, and many of the recent improvements have been undertaken by the volunteers.[29] In February 2016, the two groups worked together to upgrade 700 yards (640 m) of towpath near Papermill Lock, where a section of muddy towpath was given an all-weather surface by using 150 tons of road planings. The material was donated by Essex Highways, after it had been removed from roads during resurfacing work.[30]
Heybridge Sea Lock
The navigation is connected to the tidal River Blackwater by Heybridge Sea Lock. Its maintenance is unusual, in that the Northumbrian Water Group has a statutory obligation to maintain the mitre gates and the sea gate at the eastern end of the lock. The construction of Hanningfield Reservoir was authorised in 1950 as a joint project between Southend Waterworks Company and the South Essex Waterworks Company, both of which are now part of Essex and Suffolk Water, which is itself part of the Northumbrian Water Group. When the Hanningfield Water Order 1950 was passed by Parliament, it included a clause that made the water companies responsible for the lock gates, because water from the navigation would be pumped to the reservoir, and they needed to ensure that it would not become contaminated with salt. This arrangement was modified by the Chelmer Navigation Agreement 1964, which moved the responsibility for carrying out repairs to the Chelmer and Blackwater Company, but required the water companies to fund the work once its extent was agreed.[31]
The lock was originally constructed of masonry, but in the mid-1960s, it was extended at the seaward end, when a steel caisson gate was installed in a reinforced concrete structure. The gate was designed by
After carrying out a feasibility study in October 2014, the sea gate was dismantled and removed in November 2015. Having checked its dimensions, Northumberland Water commissioned MWH Global and Kenneth Grub to design a new gate which would fit into the existing pocket, so that no modification of the lock structure would be required. The new gate would incorporate a number of improvements over the old. The chain drive was replaced by hydraulic rams, and the gate was no longer a buoyant structure. This reduced its weight to 26 tons, while the seals were mounted in sub-frames, allowing them to be more easily replaced. The gate moved along a rail, rather than over rollers, and featured an infilled hand-rail, effectively increasing its height. This gives greater protection to the inner timber gates from wave action.[31]
A re-usable stop-log dam was constructed, to enable the lock to be isolated while the installation of the new gate was carried out and for future maintenance. While the lock was isolated, it was decided that the upper timber gates would also be replaced, and new gates were manufactured from sustainably sourced oak and ekki. Each gate weighed 5.5 tonnes, and they were craned into position in February 2017. The rails and sills for the sea gate were fitted in March, and the lock was then re-opened on 31 March for the summer season, with the sea gate expected to be fitted in November.[31] The lock was drained in October 2017 for the sea gate to be fitted, and the intermediate mitre gates were also replaced. The sea gate had been tested and commissioned sufficiently for the lock to be reopened at the end of March 2018, with final commissioning and reinstatement of the footpath taking place in April and May.[32]
Points of interest
Point | Coordinates (Links to map resources) |
OS Grid Ref | Notes |
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Chelmsford basin | 51°43′53″N 0°28′53″E / 51.7315°N 0.4813°E | TL714065 | |
Sandford lock | 51°43′43″N 0°31′03″E / 51.7285°N 0.5176°E | TL739063 | |
Little Baddow lock | 51°44′47″N 0°32′46″E / 51.7464°N 0.5460°E | TL758083 | |
Hoe Mill lock | 51°44′36″N 0°36′59″E / 51.7434°N 0.6163°E | TL807082 | |
River Blackwater crossing | 51°44′38″N 0°39′49″E / 51.7440°N 0.6635°E | TL839083 | |
Heybridge basin and sea lock | 51°43′44″N 0°42′30″E / 51.7290°N 0.7082°E | TL871068 |
Gallery
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Blackwater and Chelmer Canal
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Papermill lock, Little Baddow
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Papermill lock, Little Baddow
Bibliography
- Boyes, John; Russell, Ronald (1977). The Canals of Eastern England. David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-7415-3.
- Cumberlidge, Jane (2009). Inland Waterways of Great Britain (8th Ed.). Imray Laurie Norie and Wilson. ISBN 978-1-84623-010-3.
- Ferris, Mick (28 February 2020). "£6million lock gate plan for River Chelmer". Yellow Advertiser. Archived from the original on 18 February 2021.
- Jacobs (17 January 2020). "Chelmer Automatic Weir Replacement" (PDF). Jacobs UK. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 February 2021.
- Lloyd, Ryan (1 October 2017). "Heybridge Sea Gate & Lock Gate Replacement". Water Projects Online. Archived from the original on 17 February 2021.
- Meyler, Piers (4 September 2020). "New Chelmsford lock plans "most practical, realistic and affordable solution"". Yellow Advertiser. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-00-721109-8.
- Priestley, Joseph (1831). "Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways of Great Britain". Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.
- Rutherford, Justin (October 2012). "The Only Waterway is Essex". Waterways World. ISSN 0309-1422.
- Skempton, Sir Alec; et al. (2002). A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: Vol 1: 1500 to 1830. Thomas Telford. ISBN 978-0-7277-2939-2.
- Wyllie, Adam; et al. (17 September 2019). "Canal Link feasibility report" (PDF). Chelmsford Rivers and Canal Link Group. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 February 2021.
References
- ^ Nicholson 2006, p. 12.
- ^ a b Boyes & Russell 1977, pp. 62–63.
- ^ a b c Boyes & Russell 1977, pp. 63–65.
- ^ Skempton 2002, p. 77.
- ^ a b Priestley 1831, pp. 146–148.
- ^ a b Boyes & Russell 1977, pp. 65–66.
- ^ Skempton 2002, p. 557.
- ^ a b Boyes & Russell 1977, pp. 70–71.
- ^ Skempton 2002, p. 395.
- ^ Boyes & Russell 1977, p. 69.
- ^ a b Nicholson 2006, pp. 11–18.
- ^ a b c Cumberlidge 2009, pp. 96–97.
- ^ Boyes & Russell 1977, pp. 73–74.
- ^ Nicholson 2006, p. 18.
- ^ a b c Boyes & Russell 1977, pp. 71–73.
- ^ Skempton 2002, p. 267.
- ^ Nicholson 2006, p. 11.
- ^ Boyes & Russell 1977, pp. 74–75.
- ^ a b Wyllie 2019, p. 6.
- ^ Waterways, Issue 223, (Spring 2009), Inland Waterways Association
- ^ Wyllie 2019, p. 7.
- ISSN 0309-1422.
- ^ Wyllie 2019, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Wyllie 2019, p. 9.
- ^ a b c Ferris 2020.
- ^ Jacobs 2020, p. 3.
- ^ Meyler 2020.
- ^ Rutherford 2012, p. 89.
- ^ "Recent Repairs and Maintenance Work on the Navigation". Inland Waterways Association. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020.
- ISSN 0309-1422.
- ^ a b c d Lloyd 2017.
- ^ "Heybridge". Essex and Suffolk Water. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020.
External links
Media related to Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation at Wikimedia Commons