Pocklington Canal
Pocklington Canal | |
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Canal and River Trust | |
History | |
Original owner | Pocklington Canal Company |
Principal engineer | George Leather |
Date of act | 1815 |
Date completed | 1818 |
Date closed | 1934 |
Date restored | 1971 |
Geography | |
Start point | Pocklington |
End point | East Cottingwith |
Connects to | River Derwent |
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The Pocklington Canal is a broad canal which runs for 9.5 miles (15.3 km) through nine
History
The first proposals to build a canal to Pocklington were made in 1765, when there were plans for a canal from the
Finally, in 1812, Earl Fitzwilliam employed George Leather Jr., to survey a proposed route. At the time, both Leather and his father were working for the Earl on a navigation and drainage scheme for the upper Derwent. The suggested route started at Sutton Lock on the Derwent, presumably so that goods for the Pocklington Canal would have to travel a greater distance along the Derwent, and therefore the tolls would be greater, but Leather found this route to be problematic, and proposed an alternative route to East Cottingwith. Before actually conducting the survey, he estimated the cost at £43,630, for a route with 8 locks that stopped at the turnpike road to Hull. He also suggested that the canal could be continued into Pocklington, with an extra two locks, for an additional cost of £8,257. He calculated the probable revenue at £1,245.50 per year, which was surprisingly close to the actual figure once the canal was built. He started surveying in 1813, but became ill, and the work was not completed until June 1814.[4]
Pocklington Canal Act 1815 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
There was some debate as to whether the extension from the road into Pocklington should be built, but it was decided to include provision for it in the
The canal was started from the Derwent end, so that sections could be brought into use as they were completed. Work progressed quickly, and some of the shareholders protested at the frequency with which calls were made for the money, but a fast build reduced overheads. The section to Hagg Bridge opened in August 1816, and the head of navigation was extended to Walbut in the following spring. Bad weather prevented Leather from completing the work by the end of 1817, and the canal eventually opened on 30 July 1818. The final cost was £32,695, the excess over the original estimate being caused by some additional works which had to be done. £2,495 was borrowed to cover the shortfall, and Leather received a warm vote of thanks from the shareholders.[8]
Operation
The canal was sized to allow keels which operated on the Derwent to use it, and so the locks were 58 feet (18 m) long by 14 feet 3 inches (4.34 m) wide. The canal rose by around 101 feet (31 m) as it travelled the 9.5 miles (15.3 km) from the Derwent to Pocklington, and so the locks were quite deep, with a rise of a little over 11 feet (3.4 m) each. Pocklington Beck supplies most of the water for the canal through a feeder at Canal Head. The paddle gear on the locks was fitted with fixed handles when the canal opened, but these were replaced by removable ones after incidents where the lock pounds were emptied by unauthorised people. A house was built for the lock-keeper and collector of tolls, and Mark Swann was appointed to the post.[9] The house was located close to the top lock.
Tolls raised just £623 in 1820, as there was competition for goods travelling to Hull, Market Weighton and York from road transport. However, in 1822 a packet boat was bought as a joint venture by several tradesmen, and a weekly service to Hull began. Traffic consisted of coal, lime, manure and general merchandise travelling up the canal to Pocklington, while corn, flour and timber travelled in the opposite direction. Traffic rose gradually, enabling the debts to be repaid during the 1820s, and in 1830, a dividend of 3 per cent was paid to shareholders. Many of the committee who had steered the project from the beginning took the opportunity to stand down at this point, to allow younger men to take the canal forwards. Average receipts from tolls were around £1,400 per year, which allowed the dividend to be around 3 per cent until the late 1840s.[10]
In 1845, the projected York & Hull East & West Junction Railway made an offer to purchase the canal, and the chairman of the Pocklington company, who was associated with the
Decline
To minimise costs little more than token maintenance was carried out by the railway company. In May 1850, Swann, who had been collecting tolls since the canal opened, was dismissed. Some of the locks were repaired in 1851, after which the railway company received a suggestion from landowners that the canal should become a drainage ditch, with a tramway running along the bank for the carriage of goods. Although the idea was well received, no further action was taken. When the York and North Midland Railway was taken over by the
Restoration
In July 1958, the Bowes Committee published their Inquiry into Inland Waterways, which recommended that waterways should be classed as A, B or C, where class A and B would be retained for navigation, but class C would not. The Pocklington Canal was in class C, and the newly formed Inland Waterways Protection Society carried out a survey of it in 1959, so that they had evidence of its condition. A government White Paper followed the Bowes Report in February 1959, which recommended that an Inland Waterways Redevelopment Advisory Committee should assist schemes to regenerate canals which were no longer commercially viable. The evidence collected by the Protection Society was presented to the Redevelopment Advisory Committee in June 1959, when the Committee were examining a proposal to close the canal and fill it with sludge from a water treatment plant.[14]
In the 1960s consideration was given to the possibility of restoring the canal, and in 1969 the Pocklington Canal Amenity Society was formed. Restoration began in 1971 with the repair of the entrance lock near East Cottingwith. In 1980, the Shell Oil Company funded a new set of gates for Thornton Lock, under an awards scheme.
In 2014, the
The canal society own a trip boat called New Horizons, which is based at Melbourne, and is used to enable the public to experience a cruise on the canal during the summer months. The canal is also noted for its wide variety of fish stocks, including tench, bream, perch and roach. It is popular with anglers, and the fishing rights are licensed to the York and District Amalgamation of Anglers.[25] Restoration is ongoing and around 7 miles (11 km) of the canal had been restored by 2020. The section from the River Derwent to the Bielby Arm is navigable, and two of the remaining five locks have been renovated.[26][27]
Coordinates
Point | Coordinates (Links to map resources) |
OS Grid Ref | Notes |
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Canal Head, Pocklington | 53°54′58″N 0°47′02″W / 53.916°N 0.784°W | SE799473 | North terminus |
Top Lock | 53°54′54″N 0°47′10″W / 53.915°N 0.786°W | SE798471 | |
Silburn Lock | 53°54′40″N 0°47′17″W / 53.911°N 0.788°W | SE797468 | |
Giles Lock | 53°54′25″N 0°47′28″W / 53.907°N 0.791°W | SE795463 | |
Sandhill Lock | 53°54′04″N 0°48′11″W / 53.901°N 0.803°W | SE787457 | |
Coates Lock | 53°53′49″N 0°48′22″W / 53.897°N 0.806°W | SE785452 | |
Bielby Arm | 53°53′13″N 0°48′22″W / 53.887°N 0.806°W | SE785440 | Current north terminus |
Walbut Lock | 53°53′17″N 0°49′41″W / 53.888°N 0.828°W | SE771441 | |
Thornton Lock | 53°53′24″N 0°50′38″W / 53.890°N 0.844°W | SE761443 | |
Melbourne Arm | 53°53′24″N 0°51′18″W / 53.890°N 0.855°W | SE753444 | |
Gardham Lock | 53°53′56″N 0°53′28″W / 53.899°N 0.891°W | SE729453 | |
Cottingwith Lock | 53°52′34″N 0°56′10″W / 53.876°N 0.936°W | SE700427 | |
River Derwent | 53°52′26″N 0°56′24″W / 53.874°N 0.940°W | SE697425 | Southern terminus |
See also
Bibliography
- The Pocklington Canal - A Guide to the canal. The Pocklington Canal Amenity Society.
- Hadfield, Charles (1972). The Canals of Yorkshire and North East England (Vol 1). David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-5719-4.
- Hadfield, Charles (1973). The Canals of Yorkshire and North East England (Vol 2). David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-5975-4.
- ISBN 978-0-00-721114-2.
- Priestley, Joseph (1831). "Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways of Great Britain". Archived from the original on 4 April 2016.
- 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.
- Squires, Roger (2008). Britain's restored canals. Landmark Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84306-331-5.
References
- ^ Hadfield 1972, p. 89
- ^ a b Hadfield 1973, pp. 328–329
- ^ Skempton 2002, p. 204
- ^ Hadfield 1973, p. 329
- ^ Hadfield 1973, pp. 329–330
- ^ Priestley 1831, p. 521
- ^ Hadfield 1973, p. 330
- ^ Hadfield 1973, pp. 330–331
- ^ Hadfield 1973, p. 331
- ^ Hadfield 1973, pp. 331–332
- ^ Hadfield 1973, p. 333
- ^ a b Hadfield 1973, p. 445
- ^ Nicholson 2006, pp. 45–57
- ^ Squires 2008, pp. 38–40.
- ^ Squires 2008, p. 106.
- ^ Squires 2008, p. 116.
- ^ Squires 2008, p. 122.
- ^ Squires 2008, p. 131.
- ^ Squires 2008, p. 149.
- ^ Squires 2008, pp. 154–156.
- ^ "Restoration from Melbourne to Bielby". Pocklington Canal Amenity Society. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
- ^ "Pocklington Canal sections dredged for first time in 100 years". BBC News. 15 November 2017. Archived from the original on 19 November 2017.
- ^ "Disused Pocklington canal stretch reopens for anniversary". BBC News. BBC. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- ISSN 0309-1422.
- ^ "For everyone to enjoy". Pocklington Canal Amenity Society. 2017. Archived from the original on 20 January 2020.
- ^ "Pocklington Canal Amenity Society". Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
- ^ "Maps". Pocklington Canal Amenity Society. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020.
- ISBN 0-319-22706-5.