Category: Waterscape

THE FLOWER OF GLOSTER by Temple Thurston 1912

‘…desolate though the Thames and Severn may now be, it has such beauties as I shall ever remember … the topmost lock of the Golden Valley, where the Sapperton Tunnel pierces its dark way into the very heart of the hills … that wonderful valley of glorious gold, where in the month of May the deep woods have laid down their royal carpet of blue-bells …’

‘When you join the Thames and Severn Canal at Stroud, it is but twenty-eight miles and a few furlongs before you come to Inglesham, where the water of the canal joins the Isis and all signs of the tow-path are lost to you for ever. But those twenty-eight miles are worth a thousand for the wealth of their colour alone.

Immediately you have come to Brimscombe Basin and the high land, studded with the grey Gloucestershire houses, begins to rise at either side of the canal, it is no longer the English scenery you might expect, but like mountain villages in Switzerland, thousands of feet above the level of the sea. I have seen villages in the Apennines which reminded me of Chalford and St. Mary’s crossing. The mills and the factories with blue slate roofs make a colour against the golden distance of the Golden Valley, to which, through all those little villages on the hill-sides, you feel you are always leading, slowly and surely, like a miner who nows the day will come when he shall strike his reef. There is an aura of gold everywhere. The distance is no longer blue – that is more the colour of the nearer foreground. But away beyond it there is a mist of gold into which all tones and shadows melt like metal cast into a furnace. Mills and factories, blue slate roofs and grey houses! All this sounds impossible; but it is true!

Yet this is but the beginning of the Golden Valley, the long courtyard to that garden through which you must pass before you come to the great gates which give entrance to this deep valley of gold. And all along by the side of this paved courtyard there grow in broad white feathered masses the flowers of cow-parsnip. At one spot, on a pathway the other side of the canal, there is a door set in a wall that the path itself may continue. Here was the greatest cluster of all.’

‘Soon after Chalford, the grey houses with their blue slate roofs grew fewer in number, the hills at each side became higher; there are broader pasture fields; a stray farm or lock-house is all you can see of human habitation. In the nearer distance the dense woods spread over the rolling land and, like an army in glittering mail, with golden trappings and with coloured plumes, they march down the hill-sides to the water’s edge.

This part of the country must be the most luxuriant in the whole of England. In a half hour’s ramble through those woods … I counted seventeen sorts of wild flowers then in bloom … bluebells and orchis … cuckoo-pint … nettles, red and white … Garlic I found and primroses … violets grew so thickly … Ground ivy … forget-me-nots, king cups … lesser celandine … strawberries in blossom … the common bugle … Herb-Robert … stitchwort and salvia. I have no doubt I missed a great many more … knotted figwort … white and purple comfrey … willow herb …

And with all these jewelled flowers, imagine a valley of gold. The leaves of all the countless trees set before you in the golden flush of youth; the fields on the other bank dipped in the myriad buttercups and cowslips; the sunlight steaming on it all from a cloudless sky in May …

When I came out of those woods into the sunshine again, I could only stand and wonder …’

‘For more than three miles the canal divides the wooded hills, a band of silver drawn through the valley of gold. Lock by lock it mounts the gentle incline until it reaches the pound to Sapperton Tunnel, and at the summit spreads into a wide basin before it passes into the last lock some few hundred yards before the tunnel’s mouth.

The whole way from Stroud is almost deserted now. We only met one barge in the whole journey. An old lady with a capacious barge bonnet was standing humming quietly to herself at the tiller. That was the only boat we found on those waters. The locks are, however, good; some of them have only just been made within the last few years. But the draught of water is bad; in some places we just floated, and no more. It was stern work for Fanny then. I thought the tow-line must give way, the strain upon it was so great.

In one short pound more shallow than the rest, we came across two little boys, bathing…

After our meal we went on through the rest of this wonderful valley. It was golden to the last. Even in the water itself the weeds grew more luxuriously than I have seen in any river. In and out of the forests of trailing weed the fish moved mysteriously, like mermaids in a fairy-tale. It was all a fairy-tale beneath the water. There were dense growths, and then clear spaces on to which the sunshine fell in brilliant patches. The pen of Hans Andersen could have found many a story in that magic country beneath the still water of the canal.

At the top of the valley, looking down between the hills through a lattice-work of apple blossom, stands the Bricklayers’ Arms, a little inn with two or three houses clustered around it …

The passage through the tunnel of Sapperton, which, on a sudden bend of the canal, opens a deep black mouth into the heart of the hills … Into the grim darkness you glide and, within half an hour, are lost in a lightless cavern where the drip drip of the clammy water sounds incessantly in your ears.

Some time ago, when there was more constant traffic on this canal, there were professional leggers to carry you through; for there is no tow-path … There are no leggers now. For four hours Eynsham Harry and I lay upon our sides on the wings that are fitted for that purpose, and legged every inch of the two and three-quarter miles. It is no gentle job. Countless were the times I looked ahead to that faint pin-point of light; but by such infinite degrees did it grow larger as we neared the end, that I thought we should never reach it … A drip of shiny water on one’s face is quite enough to upset the most engrossing contemplation. I saw the pin-point of light growing to the pin’s head, and still we laboured on, only resting a few moments to light a fresh candle or take breath.

It was evening when we came out into the light again and, though the sun had set, with shadows falling everywhere, it almost dazzled me. A barge in the next lock rose above the lock’s arms, with every line cut out against the pale sky.’

To Whom it may Concern and to Posterity

I have been asked to leave an account of the plight of the first convicts to be transported from the Stroud-water district to New South Wales, or, less frequently, Norfolk Island. I have said that I will do this quite willingly. I do this through the words of _______________________ , and my pen.

But first, I will provide a list of the convicts themselves, their places of origin, the dates of their sentencing, dates of their transportation and their ships of transportation. I hope that you will find a perusal of this instructive, informative and enlightening.

Samuel Davis (killed 30 May 1788) from Stroud, sentenced in 1785 for seven years, transported 1787 on the Alexander.

Samuel Griffiths (als Brisco, als Butcher), sentenced in 1784 for seven years, transported 1787 on the Alexander.

Joseph Haines (Haynes), sentenced in 1785 for fourteen years, transported 1787 on the Alexander.

Elizabeth Lock 21 (m Richard Morgan q.v. 30 Mar 1788), servant, sentenced 1783 for seven years, transported 1787 on the Lady Penrhyn.

Joseph Long from Slimbridge, sentenced in 1785 for seven years, transported 1787 on the Alexander (later Norfolk Island).

William Oakey (Oakey) killed 30 May 1788) from Painswick/Stroud, a labourer, sentenced in 1784 for seven years, transported 1787 on the Alexander.

Elizabeth Parker als Pugh, died 26 Feb 1788, (had a daughter, Ann, on the voyage), from North Nibley, sentenced in 1785 for seven years, transported 1787 on the Friendship.

Edward Risby from Uley, a labourer, sentenced in 1784 for seven years, transported 1787 on the Alexander (later Norfolk Island, then Van Dieman’s Land).

Daniel Smart (died at Sydney Cove 11 Mar 1788), from Stroud, sentenced in 1786 for seven years, transported 1787 on the Alexander.

Richard Smart (died on voyage 24 May 1788), from Stroud, sentenced in 1786 for seven years, transported 1787 on the Alexander.

‘We were taken from Newgate and put in rowboats in the fogs of early in the year 1787. We shivered in our rags, coughing like hags, rattling our shackles, as we ploughed along the Thames. We thought a ship ought to be an improvement on what we had undergone: we had served part of our sentences in Newgate, and some of our number had exchanged a death sentence in exchange for transportation, it was said. We were a surly and irascible bunch. When we saw where we were to be chained below decks, some swore they regretted not taking the rope at the scaffold.

Now, I am a man of average height, about 5 feet 4 inches when not shod. But how could I stand upright in headroom of some 4 foot six inches? Can you imagine that discomfort and fixed contortion? I didn’t know I had a nine-month voyage ahead of me neither.

We were barricaded in, with marines on sentry to stop us from mutiny and standing upright.

Me and my Newgate cellmates were put on the Alexander. It was the largest ship on the voyage, at about 100 feet long, 30 feet in width and about 450 tons. They managed to put nigh on two hundred of us in there. The newest ship, the Lady Penrhyn, was for the women; it was the healthiest but I think it was the slowest ship in our entourage and the Alexander the fastest. Our convict fleet also included the Friendship. Every one of these ships was like a Noah’s Ark what with the animals all on deck.

Lamentable creatures! The cacophony was heart-rending straightway: the sea was in a bad mood in the Channel; they were on deck in the wind and waves, but we were chained below decks in the confined space. Lamentable creatures! The scurvy, fever, pneumonia and dysentery were all rife. Twenty of us were to die, and there was never less than twenty sick at every sunset.

It was a blessed relief when we reached the Canary Islands in June – not bad going, from the captain’s viewpoint. We were allowed up on deck then for some of God’s fresh, clean air.

The Atlantic Ocean beckoned, and Rio awaited us. We anchored there in August, awaiting the Lady Penryhn. And what tales we heard of life aboard that ship. Couplings and carnality and fecundity down there below decks with the crew pressing the women hard: it was little wonder that the voyage brought forth new life, in consequence. Marriage transpired too; it was not all base-born.

We left Rio and reached Cape Town in November. (I have such remarkable accounts to tell of adventures in New South Wales and so little paper and ink, that I will be quite perfunctory with the rest of the navigation.) We arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788, nine months after the commencement of the transportation. The Bay was not what the captain had been led to expect, and so we sailed on to Port Jackson and Sydney Cove.

We landed the animals, built wattle and daub huts, dug and hoed and assiduously set about breaking the obdurate soil. The eucalyptus trees were abundant, but useless to us. We had more hope for the fruit trees we carried from the Cape. We planted and carefully nurtured every tree. And the rats destroyed every tree, in turn.

The whole of nature appeared to be resistant to control. It was quite in keeping with the sense of fear, despair, hopelessness about the future, and animal sense of living in the present moment, that when the Lady Penrhyn arrived, thunder and lightning rent the whole welkin. Seamen and marines had their way with the women convicts in a scene of deplorable and unspeakable depravity. All those bibles that were landed would have been better given to the natives: the deadly sins were liberally displayed by our masters – they were on the lash, and we felt the lash.

But ink and paper run low, and I must inform you of the unfortunate adventures that befell two of my Gloucestershire comrades. To this I turn.

In short, Samuel Davis of Stroud and Thomas Oakey of both Painswick and Stroud had been ordered to cut rushes for thatch and roofing for our new cottages. Captain James Campbell of the Marines suspected them of laziness and an indolent aversion to labour, however, – and so he thought a visit their mangrove bush encampment would be in order too.

Alas!

A trail of blood ran from their tent to the bushes, where Oakey lay with three spears deep in his torso, his skull shattered, and his eyes gouged out (either by carrion or the Eora tribesmen).

Davis lay some distance away, and when discovered, his essentially untouched body was still warm. Captain Campbell surmised that Davis was dispatched by terror, as he witnessed the brutal murder of his old friend and cellmate from Gloucester gaol, whilst hiding in the mangrove bushes.

Much discourse followed on the deaths. Some thought the men might have used their tools of hatchets and bill-hooks as weapons against natives: their consequent deaths were retribution, it was argued. Others wondered if their deaths were retribution for a different reason – they had stolen a canoe, it was said, and canoes represented Eora souls in native folklore.

The surgeon, John White, and Governor Phillip himself, certainly thought so, for the Eora were customarily friendly and civil in their relations with the white men and women who had so recently arrived in their land. There had to be a reason for their violence, they thought.

In consequence, the Governor, the surgeon and armed marines and convicts followed a tribal path that led from the scene of the murder, right to the margins of Botany Bay. There they descried some fifty canoes on the sand, lined ceremonially. All the while they kept their eyes peeled for the dead men’s tools, but instead a meeting with some two hundred tribes people ensued.

The Eora men were heavily armed themselves with spears and clubs, but they were more intent on communicating through the symbolism of theatre rather than force of arms. One displayed a wound most likely caused by an axe. Another portrayed the murder of a friend by the slashing of the stomach by an axe of a rush-cutter.

Whatever the cause, the melancholy fact is that Samuel Davis and William Oakey met deaths far removed from what they might have expected if they had obeyed the law in their Stroud hills and valleys. Mangrove bushes and tribal bloody retribution under an alien southern sun, instead of the hoot of an owl in a yew-shrouded, moonlit churchyard on a Stroud-water hillside

Here endeth the account of ………………………. and my penmanship.

(Sources used: Transportees from Gloucestershire to Australia 1783 -1842, edited by Irene Wyatt and The Commonwealth of Thieves: The Story of the Foundation of Australia by Tom Keneally)

I was apprenticed early (probably at the age of 11 or 12, in 1830 or 1831) to one Toby Duffell, a gun-lock filer, and also a publican, living on the Leas, near the Ranters’ Chapel, in Darlaston … I … bolted, and, for the time, cut his acquaintance and lock-filing. Having made my escape, I wandered along the Leisures until I was lucky enough to find employment at half-a-crown a week on the fly-boat running to Worcester. My business was to take the shift either day or night in driving the towing horses. After some time I learned to steer the boat, and gave up the whip to another hand. In passing the locks it was my place to assist in opening and shutting the lock gates, and as I was deficient in strength for this purpose, my employer bestowed upon me heavier curses, and still heavier blows. So fearfully was I beaten that I determined to take French leave of this freshwater sailing. Learning from the lad on the boat that, in a tunnel through which we had to pass for a distance of two miles, there was a sort of landing place, I made up my mind to jump off the boat I was steering, unseen by the man who was ‘legging’ her through the tunnel.

This I succeeded in doing, and at once made off, guiding myself through the slime and ooze by groping with my hands against the damp and dripping wall. After what seemed to me to be hours of crawling along I came to a flight of steps … (William Derricourt, or Day, Old Convict Days, 1899)

Adapted from Strike the Bell (transport by road, canal, rail and sea in the nineteenth century through songs, ballads and contemporary accounts) Selected and Edited by Roy Palmer CUP1978

On Brimscombe Becoming a Port

Oh dear! Oh dear! This a curious age is,
Alteration all the rage is –
Young and old in the stream are moving,
All in the general cry improving,
From Stroudwater I’ve brought news down sirs,
For instead of mills and scarlet clothiers,
Nothing you’ll see but ships and sailors.

Thus it will be, I bet you a crown, sirs,
When Brimscombe becomes a sea-port town, sirs.

All over Brimscombe, there’ll be boats and barges,
Man-o’-war ships that never so large is,
Steamers backwards and forwards towing,
You’ll ride for nothing, and they’ll pay you for going,
Sailors swearing, spars a battering,
Heave-ye-hoing handspikes clattering,
Strange sails crowding every day, sirs,
Sailing and anchoring in Brimscombe port, sirs.

Thus it will be, I bet you a crown, sirs,
When Brimscombe becomes a sea-port town, sirs.

In a short time, you’ll have trade enough, sirs,
All over the world, you’ll send your stuff, sirs,
Goods of every clime and nation,
Will all come here for embarkation,
Machinery and cloth, coals and carrots,
In return they’ll get Polly Parrots,
Baboons, Racoons, and Spanish donkeys,
Jays, cockatoos, and ring-tailed monkeys.

Thus it will be, I bet you a crown, sirs,
When Brimscombe becomes a sea-port town, sirs.

In a few years, say, perhaps twenty,
Man-o’-ships will arrive in plenty,
Then as the tide of time approaches,
They’ll run ‘em about the street like coaches,
Over the marshes, stones and crosses,
Tars for Jarvies, Whales for Horses,
But I’ll be off, first I’ll make my bows, sirs,
For, ecod, I believe there’s a ship coming now, sirs.

Thus it will be, I bet you a crown, sirs,
When Brimscombe becomes a sea-port town, sirs.

Swindon: Canals in an Urban Landscape

The North Wilts Canal’s construction,
Almost mirrors those fraught years
From 1815 to 1819,
When the country seemed on the brink of revolution:
The Corn Laws, the Spa Fields Riots, the March of the Blanketeers,
The Pentridge Rising, the Spenceans, the Cato Street Conspiracy,
The suspension of Habeas Corpus, the Gagging Acts, the Six Acts, Peterloo,
And it’s easy to forget that in 1812,
More troops were stationed in the Luddite counties,
Than were used to oppose the French in the Peninsular War.

It wasn’t like the Byrds, Eight Miles High,
But it was eight miles long,
Connecting the Wilts and Berks Canal and the Thames and Severn Canal,
So, in a manner of speaking, it conjoined four rivers:
The Kennet, the Avon, the Thames and the Severn;
A dozen locks carried it sixty feet upwards from Latton,
To join the Wilts and Berks where you now might shop in Debenhams;
Tunnels and wharves and aqueducts and bridges,
Coal and grain and bricks and slate and salt and flour and malt,
And iron and timber and clay and warehouses,
And a reservoir at Coate Water,
And motorways and roads and shops and offices and houses –

But where do we go when the concrete comes to Coate?

A canal-cut reservoir at Coate Water,
A manuscript of field, sky and lake-land
For Richard Jefferies and his muse,
Wandering east from England’s Chicago.

Recreation for Railway families,
Who couldn’t afford the annual Trip,
Just trying to forget the Great War
And short-time working.

It’s where my mother dived deep into the waves
Wind-whipped and keen before the polio scare,
And where mum and dad courted before the War.
It’s where I paddled in the 1950’s,
Thrilled by miniature railway rides,
Egg sandwiches and ice cream cornets,
In long summer holiday equal measure,
Until the smell of creosote and Woodbines
Wafted through the wooden changing rooms,
With the 11Plus, The Beatles,
And Don Rogers on a thousand transistor radios.

It’s where young men impressed their girl friends
With a clean sweep of the oars from out the boathouse,
Cries of joy echoing in the willowed, muddied banks,
While the great crested grebe stared up to the Downs
And the thatched cottages up in Hodson,
“The Gamekeeper At Home”, still.

You can see all these memories reflected in the waters,
You can see all of yours too:
Take a walk and peer into the shifting surface,
There they are just waiting to be netted,
With the rod and line of recollection,
But where will they all go when the concrete comes?

The Old Curiosity Shop, 1841, Chapter 43, Charles Dickens

Before she had any more time for consideration, she and her grandfather were on board, and gliding smoothly down the canal. The sun shone pleasantly on the bright water, which was sometimes shaded by trees, and sometimes open to a wide extent of country, intersected by running streams, and rich with wooded hills, cultivated land, and sheltered farms. Now and then, a village with its modest spire, thatched roofs, and gable-ends, would peep out from among the trees; and, more than once, a distant town, with great church towers looming through its smoke, and high factories or workshops rising above the mass of houses, would come in view, and, by the length of time it lingered in the distance, show them how slowly they travelled …

They had, for some time, been gradually approaching the place for which they were bound. The water had become thicker and dirtier; other barges, coming from it, passed them frequently; the paths of coal-ash and huts of staring brick marked the vicinity of some great town; while scattered streets and houses, and smoke from distant furnaces, indicated that they were already on the outskirts.

Now, the clustered roofs and piles of buildings trembling with the working of engines, and dimly resounding with their shrieks and throbbings; the tall chimneys vomiting forth a black vapour, which hung in a dense ill-favoured cloud above the housetops, and filled the air with gloom; the clank of hammers beating upon iron, the roar of busy streets and noisy crowds, gradually augmenting until all the various sounds blended into one, and none was distinguishable for itself, announced the termination of their journey.

I was born in the parish of ———-, about the year brave General Wolfe fell at Quebec. My father worked on the new farms and fields of —————–. When wages were bountiful, he got 9 shilling a week. That went down to seven in the lean times. One winter-tide, he got fourteen pence a day only. No wonder we found bread and fuel scarce that year. Mother gave birth to eleven of us. Six survived.
The first work I ever did was to scare the crows. I got my breakfast and a penny a day. Then I started tending the sheep; then the cows; then the crops. By the time I felt my own strength, I was ready and waiting to leave the parish and go on the tramp.
I’d ask for work as I wandered the country, sometimes staying a few weeks with one master, but never much longer than that. Some nights I’d sleep in the barns and sometimes when it was clear and dry, the hedgerows. I struck up friendships readily, and my ready laugh got me the moniker, ‘Happy Jack.’
I met a mate one night down by the river, looking for eels, and he told me about the work you could get at the Stroudwater Navigation. I walked down there and met the gang and showed the men my muscles. We had a tankard together, and as I stayed on my feet, and pushed the barrow straight, I joined the industrious throng.
I was a tipper, working Sundays and all.

The Navigator on the Cut

I am a navigator, that’s tramped the country round,
To get a job of fruitful work, wherever it is found,
I left my native village, my family and relations,
To ramble up and down and work in various stations,
I am a navigator, the lock gates are quite shut,
I’m a nipper, I’m a tipper, working on the cut.

I left my native home on the first day of September,
That late summer day, I still can remember,
I bundled up my kit, Sunday smock and Sunday cap,
And wherever I do go, folks call me Happy Jack.
I am a navigator, the case it is quite shut,
I’m a nipper, I’m a tipper, working on the cut.

I got a job of navvy work in the lovely town of Stroud,
And working on the cut is a thing that makes me proud,
I can use my pick and spade, likewise my old wheelbarrow,
To dig upon the cut, be the margins broad or narrow.
I am a navigator, the lock gates are quite shut,
I’m a nipper, I’m a tipper, working on the cut.

But now I have to leave the splendid town of Stroud,
But finishing the cut, it makes me feel right proud,
So call for beer freely, and drink away the glut,
Here’s a health to Happy Jack, and his work upon the cut.
I am a navigator, the case it is quite shut,
I’m a nipper, I’m a tipper, working on the cut.

My point of starting was a Basin. Goods, bales, boxes, casks and cases … As we entered the large gas-lighted, roof-covered yard, amongst a group of Warwickshire, Staffordshire, and Lancashire bargemen, dressed in their short fustian trousers, heavy boots, red lush waistcoats with pearl buttons and fustian sleeves, and gay silk handkerchiefs slung loosely round their necks … We threaded our way between waggons, horses, cranes, bales, and men, until we stood before the black pool of water that ran up from the basin under the company’s buildings. Here … was the long thin form of the fly-boat Stourport … in which it had been arranged we should make our journey on the canal as far as Birmingham, or even beyond that town if we felt so disposed …

The Stourport may be taken as a fair specimen of the fly-boats which are now employed in the carrying trade upon the canals that intersect England in every direction, joining each other, and covering a length of nearly two thousand five hundred miles. For the conveyance of heavy goods that do not require a rapid transit, these boats still maintain, and are always likely to maintain their position, unaffected by railway competition; and it has been demonstrated that with the application of equal forces, canal carriage will move at the rate of two and a half miles an hour – (the average speed of fly boats) – a weight nearly four times as great as a railway carriage, and more than three times as great as turnpike carriage …

About one o’clock in the morning we reached the Islington tunnel … A couple of strong, thick boards … are hooked on to places formed on each side of the barge, near the head, from which they project like two raised oars. On these two narrow, insecure platforms, the two venturesome boatmen lie on their backs, holding on by grasping the board underneath, and with their legs up to their waist hanging over the water. A lantern, placed at the head of the barge, serves to lighten the operation which consists in moving the Stourport through the black tunnel by a measured side-step against the slimy, glistening walls; the right foot is planted in a half-slanting direction, and the left foot is constantly brought over with a sweep to take the vacated place, until the right can recover its footing. The Stourport, steered by its commander, Captain Randle, walks through the tunnel in the dead of night by the aid of its four stout legs and its four heavily hob-nailed boots that make a full echoing sound upon the walls like the measured clapping of hands but disturb not the sleeping inmates of houses and kitchens under which they pass; many of whom, perhaps, are ignorant of the black and barge-loaded Styx that flows beneath them.

We emerge from the tunnel at last, and tackle to our horse. Our progress is then slow and steady between the silent houses of Camden Town; past the anything but silent railway carrying establishment of the Messrs Pickford; round the outskirts of Regent’s Park; under the overhanging trees of the Zoological Gardens; and through Saint John’s Wood, to the termination of the Regent’s Canal, and the commencement of the Grand Junction Canal, near the Harrow Road, at Paddington.

John Hollingshead, Household Words, 1858, in Strike the Bell, edited by Roy Palmer

Bradshaw’s Canals and Navigable Rivers of England and Wales 1904 is a wonderful read. The prose searches for an encyclopedic series of formal and logical cross-references so as to eradicate any possibility of even the slightest ambiguity or lacuna. The result is enchanting – here is a selection, presented as a prose-poem.

Bradshaw’s Canals and Navigable Rivers of England and Wales 1904
(1) – EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED IN THIS WORK

‘The expression “navigable” in this Work means navigable for the purposes of trade; waterways which can only be used by rowing boats, &c., for pleasure purposes are not dealt with.

(2.) – CANAL NAVIGATIONS AND RIVER NAVIGATIONS
Canal navigations have the advantage of providing still water for the passage of craft …

On river navigations, the advantage given by the current to vessels going down stream does not compensate for the disadvantage they encounter from the same cause when going up stream …

The traffic on river navigations is more liable to be interrupted by floods and drought… When the banks of a river overflow … it becomes a trackless waste, where risk of the navigator losing his way is great, and headroom under bridges is much diminished.

Weeds also exercise an effect on the depth of water at the top of reaches in rivers according to the season …
The traffic on river navigations is not stopped by frost as soon as it is on canals …

On rivers having weirs in which there is removable tackle, navigation is often assisted by the system of “flashing”, or, as it is sometimes called, “flushing.”

Any ordinary boatman can find his way in safety over a canal on which he has never travelled before, but if his journey extends over rivers the extra cost of a man with local knowledge to pilot him is often incurred.

Again, there are navigations and portions of navigations which may be described as intermittent, that is, those on which the passage of the trade is confined to spring tides owing to there not being sufficient depth of water on neap tides…

(3) – HAULAGE
(a) Hauling by Horses.
Hauling by horses is till the system most in use … and in it must be included hauling by mules, which is rare, and by pairs of donkeys, or, as they are termed, “animals,” which are much used for boats on the Stroudwater Canal …

Canal towpaths vary considerably, from the well-appointed and well-metalled way to the neglected track – often in winter nothing but a slough of mire …

River towing-paths, unlike those belonging to canals, are usually not fenced off from adjacent land …

When the towing-path changes from one side of the navigation to the other, means for transferring horses to the opposite bank are necessary. In the case of canals, bridges are always provided for this purpose… On rivers, bridges are not always so conveniently placed … ferry boats, which in some cases are owned and worked by the navigation, as on the Upper Thames, take their place… Fords, now happily almost extinct, are another means of crossing horses from one bank to another…

The following are about the average speeds attained by a narrow or monkey boat hauled by a horse in a narrow boat canal in fair order: –
1 narrow boat, loaded, hauled by one horse, about 2 m.p.h.
1 narrow boat, loaded, hauled by one horse, about 3 m.p.h.
2 narrow boats, loaded, hauled by one horse, about 1 and a half m.p.h.
2 narrow boats, empty, hauled by one horse, about 2 and a half m.p.h.

(b) Bow hauling or hauling by men.

There is but little bow hauling done now, and what there is is restricted to occasional use for quite short distances …

In the early days of canals the bow hauling interest must have been very strong, as we find clauses inserted in Acts of Parliament enacting that barges on certain navigations shall be “haled” by men only …

In a paper on the past and present conditions on the River Thames read before the Institution of Civil Engineers, January, 1856 … we read: – “ The traffic on the Upper Thames was in the last century principally conducted by large barges carrying as much as 200 tons each, and hauled against the stream by 12 or 14 horses, or 50 to 80 men; these men were usually of the worst possible character, and a terror to the whole neighbourhood of the river.”

(c) Sailing.

Sailing is suitable for districts where the country is flat, with long reaches of water without locks, and where there are few trees to break the wind; it is also a valuable assistance to drifting with the tide or stream when the wind is favourable.

(d) Drifting with the Tide or Stream.

Drifting on the ebb or flow tide, or down stream in the non-tidal portion of a river is usually supplemented by sailing, steam, or horse haulage, as otherwise progress would be needlessly slow …
Vessels drifting must of necessity be very unmanageable, as a rudder is practically useless unless the vessel is travelling faster than the water in which it floats.

(e) Haulage by Steam or other Mechanical Power.

Although successful installations of electrical haulage are in use on portions of continental waterways, they have not as yet been established in this country. Oil engines have been tried but have never passed much beyond the experimental stage.

Steam haulage is in use to a greater or lesser degree on all the principal rivers …

Steam haulage is in use on all the Ship Canals …

At first sight it may appear surprising that the use of steam haulage has not become more general … especially considering the expense and risk of epidemic incurred in keeping large numbers of horses, but the true reason is that so few of our canals are at all adapted for it …

Contrary to what is often supposed steam haulage on the ordinary narrow boat and barge canals adds but little to the speed of the vessels over horse haulage … the rate of progress is limited by the ease with which the water can get past the vessel as it travels, which is governed by the proportion of the cross section of the waterway to the immersed section …

Steamers have the advantage … in being able to travel continuously night and day …

The question of injury caused to canal banks and works by the wash of steamers is a very vexed one …

The Severn is the navigation where the greatest number of vessels are towed together at one time. Between Gloucester and Worcester as many as two dozen narrow boats are sometimes towed behind one tug, the boats being in two parallel lines.

(4) APPLIANCES FOR OVERCOMING CHANGES OF LEVEL

(a) Locks.

A lock, as is generally known, consists of a pit or chamber built usually in bricks or masonry, and provided at both ends with a gate or gates and suitable sluices, whereby the level of the water in the lock chamber can be made to correspond as required with the level of the navigation at either end …

The ordinary shape of a lock is naturally rectangular, so as to consume no more water than is necessary …

Locks, as a rule, are not constructed to give a greater fall each than from 6 to 8 feet, as otherwise they would use an excessive amount of water, and the bottom gates would become of abnormal size …

The provision of an adequate supply of water to canals is often an expensive matter. Each time a vessel passes through a summit level or highest pound of a canal it consumes two locks of water … To maintain the supply of water to the summit … impounding reservoirs are generally provided to store the rainfall from as wide an area as possible … often supplemented by pumping from wells and from streams where available.

Economy in the use of lockage water can be obtained (1) by substituting lifts or inclined planes … (2) by pumping back the water from the lowest to the highest level …

“Waiting turns” is a system practiced in dry weather at a flight of locks to economise water… boats are not allowed to follow each other indiscriminately, but that for every boat that goes down the locks one shall also come up, and vice versa, thus making sure that the maximum amount of traffic is passed for the water consumed …

Staircase locks, or as they are sometimes termed “Risers,” are locks arranged in flight without any intermediate pools, so that the top gates of one lock are also the bottom gates of the lock above. This arrangement is used … where the slope of ground to be surmounted is steep, but it has the disadvantage that vessels which are over half the size the lock will contain cannot pass each other …

“A boat locking down from the higher … requires a lock full of water minus the amount it displaces; a boat locking up … requires a lock full of water plus the amount it displaces; thus, it will be seen that a loaded boat requires more water than an empty one when locking up hill, and that an empty one requires more water than a loaded one when locking down hill.”

Throughout the main body of the barge and narrow boat canals, the lock gates and paddles (the latter are variously known as “slats,” “slackers,” and “cloughs,”) are invariably operated by manual labour. The rack and pinion is the usual gear for opening and closing paddles, the spindle of the pinion having a square on the end to take a portable crank or windlass carried by the boatmen … In a few localities, gear which requires the use of a handspike is still in existence …

(b) Navigation weirs or Staunches.

They are at best rude and primitive devices, having the sole merit of being cheap, and can only exist where the traffic is small, as their use entails what is practically, to use a railway phrase, single line working. The system consists in providing, instead of a lock, an opening for the passage of vessels through a weir, which can be opened or closed at will, so that the water of the river can be penned back in the reach above or allowed to run level, or nearly so, with the water in the top of the reach below. The passage of the water … is also assisted by sundry side sluices … The opening or closing of the navigation passage is effected either by a gate or gates similar to those of a lock, or a shutter or “clough,” which is wound up vertically by suitable gear, or in the case of three navigation weirs still in use on the Upper Thames, by removing a number of the rimers and paddles of which the weir consists and opening a portion of the bridge specially constructed to swing aside for the purpose … In navigating downstream on a river provided with staunches, a man must be sent in advance to set the staunch, and sufficient water allowed to accumulate …

(c) Lifts.
Lifts are of two kinds: vertically ascending lifts and inclined plane lifts.

(5) – TUNNELS.

In the tunnels of early date, towing paths were never constructed, and except where steam haulage is in use, the method of propelling boats … is either “shafting” or “legging.” Shafting consists of pushing with a long pole or shaft against the top or sides of a tunnel … and is generally only used in short tunnels. Legging is performed by two men, one on each side … if the tunnel is too wide to admit of their reaching the side walls with their feet from the boat’s deck, … “wings” are brought into use for them to lie on … Legging is hard work and in former days used to be performed by women as well as men. At the tunnels where traffic is good professional leggers are in attendance …

(6) – BRIDGES.

The type of overline canal bridge most commonly found in this country is the single-arch brick or stone bridge having the towing-path carried under it alongside the waterway. In districts affected by subsidences due to mining operations, iron girder bridges are largely used, as they can be more readily raised when the headroom under them diminishes.

(7) – AQUEDUCTS.

A remarkable instance of road, canal, and railway, on three different levels, is to be seen near Hanwell in Middlesex. Here the short aqueduct carrying … the Grand Junction Canal over the Great Western Branch Railway from Southall to Brentford is also surmounted by the bridge carrying the high road from Greenford to Osterley Park. The three ways of communication make approximately angles of 60 degrees with each other at their point of crossing, and an imaginary plumb line could be drawn to intersect all of them.

(8) – TIDES.

In navigable waters, under the influence of the ebb and flow of the tide, traffic, as a rule, has to be conducted in the same direction as that in which the tidal current is moving at the time. The difference of level of the tide at high and low water, the velocity of the tidal current, the distance inland to which the periods of ebb and flow extend, and the further distance to which the effect of the tide is felt by backing up the land water vary very much. It must always be remembered that the tide is greatly affected both as regards the time of high and low water and the height to which it rises or falls by the wind …

The tide flowing past Sharpness Point on the Severn, the entrance to the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal, is at times credited with a velocity of twelve knots (nearly fourteen miles) per hour …

The phenomenon of the first of the flood tide flowing up a river in the form of a tidal wave, or as it is termed “Bore” or “Aegre,” is met with in certain of the rivers at spring tides whose channels suddenly contract from wide estuaries, thus causing the advancing water to be heaped up. The term “bore” is applied … in rivers of the West Coast of England, while “aegre” … in the … East Coast…

(9) – PRINCIPAL TYPES OF VESSELS USED IN INLAND NAVIGATION.

(a) Non-Sailing Vessels.

“Narrow” boats or “monkey” boats are by far the most numerous type of vessel …

The ordinary type of long-distance travelling narrow boat carries from 25 to 30 tons and is built with rounded bilges. The narrow boats in use on the Severn and in a few other localities for short-distance traffic are built with square bilges, and carry up to 40 tons. This latter class of boat requires more power to haul, as it offers more resistance to the water …

(b) Sailing Vessels.

Severn trows measure about 70ft. long by 17ft. beam, and draw when empty from between 3ft. to 4ft., they carry about 120 tons on a draught of from 8ft. 6in. to 9ft. 6in.

(10) – TABLES OF PRINCIPAL THROUGH ROUTES OF INLAND NAVIGATION IN ENGLAND AND WALES.
London to Liverpool: Routes 1, 2 and 3.
London to Hull: Routes 1 and 2.

London to the Severn (Avonmouth Docks): Route 1.

London to the Severn (Sharpness Docks): Route No. 1.
Navigation Thames From Limehouse To Inglesham Miles146
Locks 47 Max Vessel Size 100’ Approx Draught 3’6” 191 miles,
102 locks.

London to the Severn (Sharpness Docks): Route No. 2.

Thames From Limehouse To Brentford; then Grand Junction to Braunston; then Oxford Canal to Napton; then Warwick & Napton Canal to Budbrooke (near Warwick); then Warwick & Birmingham Canal to Kingswood; then Stratford-upon-Avon to King’s Norton; then Worcester & Birmingham Canal to Worcester; then River Severn to Gloucester; then Gloucester & Berkeley Ship Canal to Sharpness. 219 miles and 230 locks.

Liverpool to the Severn (Sharpness Docks): Route No. 1.

River Mersey from Liverpool to Eastham; then Manchester Ship Canal to Ellesmere Port; then Shropshire Union Canals to Autherley; then Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal to Stourport; then River Severn to Gloucester; then Gloucester & Berkeley Ship Canal to Sharpness. 160 miles and 84 locks.

Liverpool to the Severn (Sharpness Docks): Route No. 2.

River Mersey from Liverpool to Eastham; then Manchester Ship Canal to Runcorn; then Bridgewater Canal to Preston Brook; then Trent & Mersey Canal to Haywood; then Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal to Aldersley; then Birmingham Canals to Birmingham (Worcester Wharf); then Worcester & Birmingham Canal to Worcester; then River Severn to Gloucester; then Gloucester & Berkeley Ship Canal to Sharpness. 190 miles and 162 locks.

London to Hull: Routes 1, 2 and 3.

Birmingham to London.

Birmingham to Liverpool: Routes 1 and 2.

Birmingham to Hull.

Birmingham to the Severn (Sharpness Docks): Route 1
Worcester and Birmingham Canal to Worcester then River Severn to Gloucester; then Gloucester & Berkeley Ship Canal to Sharpness. 75 miles and 61 locks.

Birmingham to the Severn (Sharpness Docks): Route 2

From Worcester Wharf, Birmingham on the Birmingham Canals to Black Delph; then Stourbridge Canal to Stourton; then Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal to Stourport; then River Severn to Gloucester; then Gloucester & Berkeley Ship Canal to Sharpness. 89 miles and 49 locks.

Birmingham to the Severn (Sharpness Docks): Route 3

From Worcester Wharf, Birmingham on the Birmingham Canals to Aldersley; then Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal to Stourport; then River Severn to Gloucester; then Gloucester & Berkeley Ship Canal to Sharpness. 99 miles and 61 locks.

(11) – THE WHOLE OF THE NAVIGABLE WATERWAYS … IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER … AND THE FLOOWING INFORMATION ABOUT EACH ONE:-
(a) Short description, main line from – to -, branches from – to -, &c. (b) Proprietors … (c) Table of distances …
(d) Locks. (e) Maximum size of vessels … (f) Tunnels … (g) Towing-path. (h) Tidal Information. (i) Types of vessels using the Navigation, and notes as to Steam Traffic.

Abbey Creek, Aberdare Canal, Acle Dike, River Adur, River Aire, Aire and Calder Navigation, Aire and Calder and Sheffield and South Yorkshire Junction Canal, Ancholme Drainage and Navigation, Arun,
Avon (Bristol), Avon (Warwickshire) Lower Navigation,
Aylesbury Branch Canal, Aylsham Navigation,
Barking Creek, Barnes’ Dike, Barnsley Canal,
Basingstoke Canal, Beeston Cut, Bentley Canal,
Berkeley Ship Canal, Beverley Beck, Bevil’s Beam,
Bilston Branch Canal, Birmingham Canal Navigations,
Birmingham and Fazeley Canal,
Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal,
Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal,
Black Ham Drain, Blackbrook Branch Canal,
Black Sluice Drainage and Navigation
Bradford Canal, Bradley Branch Canal, Brandon River,
Brecon and Abergavenny Canal, Brewery Cut Canal, Breydon Water, Bridgewater Canal,
Bridgwater and Taunton Canal,
Brinklow Wharf Branch Canal,
Broadwater Branch Navigation, Bromley Branch Canal,
River Brue, Buckingham Branch Canal, Bude Canal, River Bure, Burslem Branch Canal, Burwell Lode,
Calder and Hebble Navigation, Caldon Branch Canal,
River Cam, Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation,
Chelsea Creek, Chester Canal Navigation,
Chesterfield Canal, River Chet, Chichester Canal, Churchbridge Branch Canal, Cirencester Branch Canal,
City Mills River, City Road Basin Branch Canal,
Clifton and Kearsley Coal Co.’s (Ltd.) Canal,
River Colne, Common Broad,
Corps Landing Branch Navigation, Counter Wash Drain,
Coventry Canal, Cowbridge Drain, River Cray,
Cromford Canal, Cumberland Branch Canal,
Danks Branch Canal, Darenth River,
Dartford and Crayford Navigation,
Dartmouth Branch Canal, Daw End Branch Canal,
Deane and Dove Canal, River Dee, Deptford Creek,
Derby Canal, River Derwent (Derby),
River Derwent (Durham), River Derwent (York), Dewsbury Cut, Dewsbury Old Cut,
Digbeth Branch Canal, Dixon’s Branch Canal,
River Don (Durham), River Don (Yorkshire),
Douglas Lower Navigation, Driffield Navigation,
Droitwich Canal, Droitwich Junction Canal,
Duckett’s Canal, Dudley Canal, Duke’s Cut,
River Dun Navigation, Dunkirk Branch Canal,
Dutch River, Eau Brink Cut, Ellesmere Canal,
Ellesmere Branch Canal, Elsecar Branch Canal,
Engine Branch Canal, Smethwick, Erewash Canal,
Exeter Ship Canal, Fairbotham Branch Canal,
Farcet River, Fearnley Cut, Fleet Dike, Forty Foot River, River Foss, Foxley Branch Canal,
Gerard’s Bridge Branch Canal,
Giant’s Grave and Briton Ferry Canal, River Gipping,
Glamorganshire and Aberdare Canals,
Glan-Y-Wern Canal, Glasson Dock Branch Canal,
River Glen, Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal,
Gospel Oak Branch Canal, Gower Branch Canal,
Grand Junction Canal, Grand Surrey Canal,
Grand Trunk Canal, Grand Union Canal,
Grand Western Canal, Grantham Canal,
Gravesend and Rochester Canal,
Griff Colliery Company’s Canal, Grosvenor Canal,
Guildsfield Branch Canal, Hackney Canal, Haines Branch Canal, Halford Branch Canal, Halifax Branch Canal,
Hall Green Branch Canal, Hardley Dike,
Hatherton Branch Canal, Lord Hay’s Branch Canal, Heigham Sound, Hertford Union Canal,
Heywood Branch Canal, Hickling Broad,
High lane Branch Canal, Hobhole Drain,
Hollinwood Branch Canal, Horbury Old Cut,
Horsey Mere, Houghton Branch Canal,
Huddersfield Broad Canal, Huddersfield Narrow Canal, River Hull, River Humber, Humber Arm Branch Canal,
Hundred Foot River, Hundred Stream,
Icknield Port Wharf Branch Canal, River Idle,
Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation, Junction Drain,
River Kennet, Kennet and Avon Navigation, King’s Dike,
Knottingley and Goole Canal, Kyme Eau,
Lakenheath Lode, Lancaster Canal, Langley Dike,
River Larke, Lea Wood Branch Canal, River Lee,
Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Leicester Navigation,
Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Union Canal,
Leigh Branch Canal, Lemington Cut, Leven Canal,
Limehouse Cut, Linton Lock Navigation,
Little Eaton Branch Canal, London and Hampshire Canal,
Lake Lothing, Loughborough Navigation,
Louth Navigation, Lowestoft Harbour,
Lydney Harbour and Canal, Macclesfield Canal,
Manchester, Bolton, and Bury Canal,
Manchester and Salford Junction Canal,
Manchester Ship Canal, Earl Manvers’ Canal,
Market Harborough Branch Canal,
Market Weighton Drainage and Navigation,
Martham Broad, Maud Foster Drain, Meadow Dike, Medlam Drain, River Medway, River Mersey,
Mersey and Irwell Navigation, Middle Level Navigations,
Middlewich Branch Canal, Monmouthshire Canal,
Montgomeryshire Canal, Monway Branch Canal,
Neath Canal, River Neath, Nechells Branch Canal,
River Nene, Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal,
New Bedford River, New Cut, New Dike,
Newark Navigation,
Newcastle-Under-Lyme Branch Canal,
Newhall Branch Canal,
Newhaven Harbour and Ouse Lower Navigation,
Newport Branch Canal, The North River,
North Stafford Canal,
North Walsham and Dilham Canal,
North Wilts Branch Canal,
Northampton Branch Canal, River Norwich,
Norwich and Lowestoft Navigation,
Nottingham Canal, Nutbrook Canal,
Ocker Hill Branch Canal,
Ocker Hill Lower Branch Canal,
Old Bedford River, Old Shropshire Canal,
Old Stratford and Buckingham Branch Canal,
Old Union Canal, Old West River,
Oldbury Loop Line Canal,
Oozells Street Branch Canal, Oulton Dike and Broad,
River Ouse (Bedford), Little River Ouse,
River Ouse (Sussex), River Ouse (York), Ouse Burn,
Oxford Canal, Paddington Branch Canal,
Park Gate Branch Canal, River Parrett, Peak Forest Canal,
Peckham Branch Canal, Pensnett Canal,
Pensnett Chase Branch Canal, Pinxton Branch Canal,
Pocklington Canal, Pontcysyllte Branch Canal,
Popham’s Sea, Poplar Arm Branch Canal,
Prees Branch Canal, Preston Brook Branch Canal,
Rainham Creek, Sir John Ramsden’s Canal,
Ramsey High Lode, Ranworth Dike and Broad,
Reach Lode, Red Jacket Pill Branch Canal,
Regents Canal, Ridgacre Branch Canal,
Ripon and Boroughbridge Canal, Rochdale Canal,
Rockland Dike and Broad, River Roding,
Rother River Branch Navigation,
Royal Military Canal, Rufford Branch Canal,
Rugby Wharf Branch Canal,
Runcorn and Latchford Branch Canal,
Runcorn and Weston Canal, Rushall Canal,
St. Helens Canal, St. Thomas’s Creek,
St. Thomas’s Mill Stream, Great Salhouse Broad,
Little Salhouse Broad, Sandhills Branch Canal,
Sankey Canal, Selby Branch Canal,

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River Severn
(a) Short Description
The navigation of the River Severn may be said to commence at Arley Quarry Landing … in the county of Shropshire. Regular trade on the river is, however, only carried on between the junction with the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal at Stourport and the junction with the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal in Gloucester…
The portion of the river between Sharpness and Gloucester, to avoid which the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal was constructed, is hardly used at all for navigation on account of the dangerous shifting sands and great strength of the tide. Occasionally, however, it is used by trows desirous of saving the tolls incurred on the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal.
After leaving Gloucester the river widens out into an estuary, which, between Fretherne and the Severn Tunnel varies between five furlongs and two and a quarter miles in width. Below the Severn Tunnel the estuary again increases in width, and finally becomes merged with the Bristol Channel.
The whole course of the river above Gloucester is liable to floods … known to rise eighteen feet in five hours, and not unfrequently to attain the height of twenty-five feet above the level of low water.
The western channel of the river from the Upper Parting via Maisemore to the Lower Parting in Gloucester is not a through route, but is only used by vessels going to local wharves.
There is a towing path throughout the upper portion of the navigation from Arley Quarry Landing to Gloucester. From Arley to Bewdley the towing-path and river bank is much overgrown with bushes. From Stourport to Gloucester the towing-path is … in the hands of two separate companies, one extending from Stourport to Worcester, and the other from Worcester to Gloucester. The towing-path between Stourport and Gloucester is very little used, as steam tugs haul practically the whole of the traffic …
High Spring tides flow up to Upton-on-Severn … Neap tides flow to between Framilode and Gloucester.
On Spring tides the first of the flood tide runs up the lower part of the river to Gloucester with a ‘bore’ or tidal wave which attains its greatest height about Stone Bench … The tide in the river below Gloucester runs with great velocity, which is stated on the Spring tides to be as much as 12 knots an hour past Sharpness Point.
High water at Avonmouth about 15min. before Bristol or 5hrs. after London Bridge … High water at Sharpness about 1 hr. after Avonmouth … High water at Framilode about 1 hr. 45min. after Avonmouth … High water at Gloucester on Spring tides about 2hrs. 45min. after Avonmouth …
Sea-going vessels navigate the river up to Sharpness Docks. Vessels of 200 tons burden can navigate up to Diglis, Worcester. Severn trows navigate the whole of the river. Marrow boats navigate the river above then entrance of the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal at Gloucester. Steam tugs belonging yo the Severn and Canal Carrying Company tow vessels regularly between Gloucester and Diglis, and between Diglis and Stourport.

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Sharpness New Docks and Gloucester and Birmingham Navigation Company
(a) Short Description
… The Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal commences by a junction with the River Severn at Gloucester, and after passing numerous wharves and warehouses in the city proceeds to Sharpness, where it forms a junction with the estuary of the River Severn through Sharpness Docks, all in the company of Gloucestershire. Eight miles from Gloucester, near Saul, the canal crosses the Stroudwater Canal on the level.
The canal was constructed to avoid the navigation of the dangerous reaches of the River Severn between Sharpness and Gloucester. Practically the whole of the traffic above Sharpness to Gloucester, and places beyond, passes over the canal…
For all purposes of tolls and charges in respect of any merchandise which is conveyed in a boat through the Severn Locks at Gloucester, and is loaded or unloaded at any place on the canal situate within two miles from the said locks, the distance traversed by such a boat on the canal shall be taken as equal to four miles…
Any steamer exceeding 32ft. beam or 225ft. in length can only pass up the canal by special permission, and at such draught as the Harbour Master may direct…
Sheffield Canal,
Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation,
Shorncliffe and Rye Canal, Shrewsbury Canal, Shropshire (Coalport) Canal, Old Shropshire Canal,
Sixteen Foot River, Slough Branch Canal,
Smith’s Leam,
Sneyd and Wyrley Bank Branch Canal,
Soar River, Soho Branch Canal,
Somerleyton Dike,
Somersetshire Coal Canal Navigation,
South Forty Foot River, South Walsam Broad,
River Sow, Spon Lane Locks Branch Canal,
Springs Branch Canal, Stafford Branch Canal,
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal,
Stainforth and Keadby Canal, Stalham Dike,
Stanley Cut Branch Canal,
Stockport Branch Canal, Stonebridge Drain,
River Stort, River Stour (Kent),
River Stour (Suffolk), River Stour (Worcestershire),
Stourbridge Canal, Stourbridge Branch Canal,
Stourbridge Extension Canal,
Stroudwater Canal
(a.) Short Description.
The canal commences at Wallbridge, Stroud, by a junction with the Thames and Severn Canal, and proceeds by Dudbridge, Stonehouse, Estington, and Saul to Framilode, where it joins the estuary of the River Severn, all in the county of Gloucestershire. One mile from Framilode the canal crosses the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal on the level.
There is a towing path throughout the navigation
Types of vessels using the navigation.
Severn trows and barges carrying up to 75 tons.
Stover Canal, Stowmarket and Ipswich Navigation,
Stratford-on-Avon Canal, Stretford and Leigh Canal, Stretton Wharf Branch, Surrey Canal,
Duke of Sutherland’s Tub Boat Canal, Sutton Dike,
Swansea Canal, Tag Cut, River Tamar,
Tame Valley Canal, Team Rivulet, River Tees,
River Teign, Ten Mile River, Tennant Canal,
River Thames
(a) Short Description.
Although there is no navigation on the river above the junction with the Thames and Severn Canal at Inglesham, yet the jurisdiction of the Thames Conservancy commences at Cricklade, and the Conservators have power to charge tolls from that place. The course of the river between Cricklade and Inglesham is in close proximity to the Thames and Severn Canal, passing Eisey, Castle Eaton, and Kempsford. Leaving Inglesham the river proceeds by Lechlade, Buscot, Radcot Bridge, Tadpole Bridge, Shifford New Bridge, Northmoor, Bablock-hithe Ferry, Eynsham, Godstow, Oxford, Iffley, Sandford, Abingdon, Culham, Clifton Hampden, Shillingford, Benson, Wallingford, Moulsford, Streatley, Goring, Whitchurch, Pangbourne, Mapledurham, Caversham, Reading, Sonning, Shiplake, Wargrave, Henley, Hambledon, Medmenham, Hurley, Marlow, Bourne End, Cookham, Maidenhead, Bray, Windsor, Eton, Datchet, Old Windsor, Staines, Laleham, Chertsey, Weybridge, Shepperton, Walton, Sunbury, Hampton, East Molesey, Hampton Court, Thames Ditton, Long Ditton, Kingston, Teddington, Twickenham, Richmond, Isleworth, Brentford, Kew, Mortlake, Barnes, Chiswick, Hammersmith, Putney, Fulham, Wandsworth, Battersea, Chelsea, Vauxhall, Lambeth, Westminster, Blackfriars, and Southwark to London Bridge. Leaving London Bridge the river continues its course by St. Katherine’s Dock, London Docks, Wapping, Shadwell, Surrey Commercial Docks, Limehouse Docks, West India Docks (upper entrance), Millwall Docks, Deptford, Greenwich, Blackwall, West India Docks (lower entrance), East India Docks, Victoria Docks, Woolwich, Royal Albert Dock, Beckton Cross Ness, Erith, Purfleet, Greenhithe, Grays Thurrock, Northfleet, Tilbury Docks, and Gravesend. Below Gravesend the river rapidly widens out into an estuary, and after passing Southend and The Nore, where it receives the River Medway, becomes submerged into the North Sea.
From Cricklade to a point about half-a-mile below Castle Eaton, the course of the river is situated in the county of Wiltshire; for the remainder of its course the river forms almost entirely the boundary between various counties … On the left bank … Gloucestershire … Oxfordshire … Buckinghamshire … Middlesex … Essex … On the right bank … Wiltshire … Berkshire … Surrey … Kent …
From Cricklade Town in the county of Wiltshire to an imaginary line drawn from the entrance to Yantlet Creek in the county of Kent to the Crow Stone, situated between Leigh and Southend, in the county of Essex, the river is under the jurisdiction of the Conservators of the River Thames.
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Thames and Medway Canal;
Thames and Severn Canal
(a) Short Description.
The canal commences at Wallbridge, Stroud, where it forms a junction with the Stroudwater Canal, and proceeds by Brimscombe, Chalford, Daneway, Siddington, South Cerney, Latton, Marston Meysey, and Kempsford to Inglesham, where it forms a junction with the River Thames, all in the county of Gloucestershire.
There is one short branch from Siddington to Cirencester.
Boats enter the west end of the (Sapperton) tunnel at 12 noon, and the east end of the tunnel at 7-0 a.m. and 6-0 p.m., except on Sundays.
There is a towing path throughout the navigation, except through Sapperton tunnel.
Barges navigate the canal between Stroud and Brimscombe. Narrow boats are in use on the whole of the Main Line and Cirencester Branch.
Doctor Thomas’s Canal; Thorney River; Thurne Dike; River Thurne;
Tir-Isaf Branch Canal;
Titford Branch Canal;
Toll End Communication; River Tone; River Trent; Trent and Mersey Canal; Trewyddfa Canal;
Tuddenham Mill Stream Branch Navigation;
Twenty Foot River;
Two Lock Line Canal;
River Tyne;
Ulverston Canal; Upton Dike; River Ure;
Vermuyden’s Eau; Walsall Canal; Walsall Branch Canal;
Walton Summit Branch Canal;
Wandsworth Creek; Wandsworth Cut;
Lord Ward’s Canal;
Wardle Lock Branch Canal;
Warwick and Birmingham Canal;
Warwick and Napton Canal;
Waterworks River; River Waveney;
Waxham New Cut; River Weaver; Weaver Canal;
Wednesbury Oak Loop Line;
Wednesbury Old Canal;
Welford Branch Canal; Well Creek;
River Welland; Wendover Branch Canal;
River Wensum; West Fen Drain;
Weston Canal; Weston Branch Canal;
River Wey;
Whaley Bridge Branch Canal;
River Wharfe;
Whitchurch Branch Canal;
Whitesley Mere;
Willenhall Branch Canal;
Wilts and Berks Canal; Wirral Line;
Wisbech Canal; River Witham;
Witham Drainage General Commissioners Navigable Drains;
Withymoor Branch Canal;
Woking, Aldershot, and Basingstoke Canal;
River Wye;
Wyken New Colliery Branch Canal;
Wyrley and Essington Canal;
River Yare; River Yeo.