ENGLISH RIVERS.
“Rivers, arise; whether thou be the son
Of utmost Tweed, or Ouse, or gulphy Don,
Or Trent, who, like some earth-born giant, spreads
His thirty arms along the indented meads;
Or sullen Mole, that runneth underneath;
Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden’s death;
Or rocky Avon, or of sedgy Lee;
Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallowed Dee;
Or Humber loud, that keeps the Cythian’s name;
Or Medway smooth, or royal-towered Thame.”
—_Milton._
One of the earliest pioneers of inland navigation was Wm. Sandys,
of Ombersley Court, in Worcestershire, who, in 1636, applied for
Parliamentary powers to make the river Avon navigable for boats and
barges, from the Severn at Tewkesbury to the city of Coventry. Part
of the work which was executed in pursuance of the powers so obtained
exists to the present time. In 1661 Sandys sought for Parliamentary
authority to make the Salwarp navigable from the Severn to his own town
of Droitwich, and to make navigable the rivers Wye and Lug, and the
brooks running into the same in the counties of Hereford, Gloucester,
and Monmouth.
Our great rivers, the Thames, Severn, Trent, Ouse, &c., were the
recognised means of transit long before the time of the Romans, who
were so far advanced in inland navigation as to cut canals of forty
miles in length, as instanced in the Caerdyke, between Peterborough and
Lincoln (though now filled up), as also to build docks, as shown in the
old dock walls, &c., still standing at the outfall of the Trym into the
Avon below Bristol.
The Fossdyke navigation from Lincoln to the Trent is also of Roman
origin, and probably an extension of the Caerdyke, on their route to
York. Torksey, at the junction with the Trent, was a Roman town and
fort, and continued possessed of many privileges, down to the Norman
period, on condition that the knights who held it should carry the
King’s Ambassadors, as often as they came that way, down the Trent
in their own barges, and conduct them to York. This is recorded in
‘Domesday Book.’ Itchin Dyke to Winchester was also cut by the Romans.
It is usual to date the first beginning of canal navigation in England
from the time when Brindley constructed the famous canal between
Worsley and Salford for the Duke of Bridgwater. This, no doubt, was
the first important artificial navigation throughout. But Sandys had
practically undertaken canal construction about a hundred years before.
The Act of Parliament which sanctioned the various enterprises that he
had projected, authorised him to construct new channels, and to set
up, in convenient places, “locks, wears, turnpikes, penns for water,
cranes, and wharfs, to lay timber, coals, and all other materials that
shall be brought down;” to have and use “a certain path, not exceeding
four feet in breadth, on either side of the said rivers and passages,”
for the “towing, pulling, or drawing-up of their barges, boots,
leighters, and other vessels passing and repassing them, or any part
of them, by strength of men, horses, lines, ropes, winches, engines,
or other means convenient;” and “to dig, carry, trench, or cut, or
make any trench, river, or new channel, or wharf,” &c., after having
arranged with the “respective Lords, owners, or occupiers of the said
lands.”[29]
Sandys, however, did not succeed in carrying out the intended
navigation between the cities of Hereford and Bristol as he proposed.
He attempted to make the Wye navigable by locks and weirs on the
pound-lock system, which did not suit its rapid current. The enterprise
was accordingly abandoned, after a trial of several years.
In 1688 the project of making the Wye navigable was revived. It was
now proposed to abandon the pound-lock system, to purchase and remove
all the mill-weirs and fishing-weirs between Hay, in Herefordshire,
and the sea, and to deepen the channels of the shallow streams. The
weir-owners rose in opposition to these proposals, and for several
years the subject was the occasion of a bitter controversy. When the
Bill was applied for in 1695, the city of Hereford, and thirty-two
parishes in the county, petitioned in its favour; while the towns of
Ross and Monmouth, and thirteen parishes, petitioned against it. The
Bill, however, ultimately became law,[30] and although, owing to the
uncertainty of its depth and current, the Wye was never adapted for
regular navigation, it was so far improved that throughout the
eighteenth century it was of great service to the county of Hereford.[31]
One of the earliest to advocate river improvements in Britain was
Andrew Yarranton, an original genius, who had ideas and plans quite
a hundred years in advance of his times.[32] He occupied himself with
many different projects designed to effect improvements in means
of communication, and in developing the resources of the country
generally. At one time serving as a soldier, at another engaged in the
manufacture of iron; now planning how to provide employment for the
poor, and again studying how to bring about more economical processes
of husbandry, Yarranton made a special hobby of the improvement of
navigation, undertaking surveys of the principal rivers in the West of
England at his own cost, and urging upon the people the importance of
opening up the facilities of communication thereby available to them.
In 1665 Yarranton proposed to the burgesses of Droitwich to deepen
the small river Salwarp, so as to connect that town, now an important
centre of the salt industry, with the river Severn. He was offered
terms to carry out his plans, but the offer does not appear to have
been good enough.[33]
In 1666 Yarranton proposed to make the river Stour navigable between
Stourport and Kidderminster, and to connect it with the river Trent by
a navigable canal. He carried out this work so far as to make the river
navigable from Stourbridge to Kidderminster; but his scheme was not
completely adopted for lack of means. He says that he “laid out near
1000_l._,” and “carried down many hundred tons of coal,”[34] although,
on account of the novelty of his enterprise, it was greatly ridiculed.
At a later date Yarranton proposed to connect the Thames and the
Severn by means of an artificial cut, “at the very place where, more
than a century after his death, it was actually carried out by modern
engineers.”[35]
Although the proprietors in what was called the “Old Quay Company”
had obtained an Act of Parliament in 1733 for improving by weirs and
cuts the rivers Mersey and Irwell, between Runcorn and Manchester, the
first association incorporated for making a regular navigable canal in
England was not till more than twenty years later, six centuries after
the first canals in Italy and Flanders, and a hundred years subsequent
to some of the chief canals of France being in operation. It is but
fair to add that England carried the movement further than most other
countries.
It is unnecessary to enter into the history of the development of the
navigable resources of the rivers of the United Kingdom during the last
two centuries, even if it were possible, which, of course, it is not
in a work of this description. The dates when the several principal
navigation works were undertaken will be found set out in Appendix I.
But we may, nevertheless, bestow some consideration upon the principal
steps that have brought about the remarkable facilities that England,
Scotland, and, to a less extent, Ireland, respectively enjoy at the
present time in the matter of internal transport. The Clyde, the
Tyne, the Tees, the Wear, and other prominent English rivers have
been transformed from shallow brawling streams, some of them easily
fordable at all states of the tide, into magnificent waterways, capable
of bearing on their bosoms the largest vessels afloat. This work has
necessarily involved great engineering capacity, a large expenditure,
and a judicious administration of their powers and resources by the
public bodies through whom it has been carried to completion.
THE MERSEY.
On the Liverpool side of the Mersey there are sixty docks and
basins of the ordinary type, having a total water area of 368 acres
and 25 miles of quay berthing. On the Birkenhead side, there are
164½ acres of docks, with 9½ miles of quayage, three graving docks,
having a total length of 2430 feet, and every facility for loading and
unloading ships.
The total expenditure incurred on this enormous provision for shipping
has been upwards of twenty millions, and the total annual revenue of
the Mersey dock estate is about a million and a half sterling.
The entire length of the Mersey is 56 miles. For the first 37 miles
of this distance, the river has a tortuous course, ill-adapted for
navigation, and passes through an almost exclusively agricultural
country. From Runcorn to the sea, the form of the river is that of a
bottle, of which the wide expanse between Runcorn and Liverpool forms
the body, and the narrow part opposite Liverpool the neck. Through this
neck there annually passes nearly twenty million tons of shipping,
including entrances and clearances.
The unassisted efforts of nature have hitherto maintained the navigable
channels of the Mersey, so that the conditions of navigation remain
practically uniform. The bar, however, is gradually moving in a seaward
direction, while maintaining its general form and characteristics. In
Liverpool Bay there is a great range of tide, which insures a depth
of at least 30 feet over the bar once in every twelve hours, even on
the lowest neaps. Some two or three million cubic yards of upland
water every twelve hours are discharged into the estuary, chiefly by
the Mersey and the Weaver, which, with 710 million cubic yards on a
high spring tide, maintains the normal capacity of the estuary, and
counteracts the process of silting. Some 17,300 acres of a deposit of
sand in the estuary are above the low-water mark. Through this the
upland water forms and maintains a channel in its course to the sea,
and any serious exclusion of this tidal water would be likely to so far
injure the sea channels as to interfere with the trade and shipping of
the port.
The Mersey is the outlet for several important canal navigations,
including the Weaver Navigation Canal, near Weston Point, the
Bridgwater Canal at Runcorn, the Sankey Canal at Widnes, the Shropshire
Union Canal at Ellesmere, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at the Docks,
and the Manchester Ship Canal, now under construction, at Eastham. The
position of these several canals in relation to the river may be traced
in a map accompanying a paper read by Mr. Lyster, the engineer, before
the Institution of Naval Architects. These canals are important factors
in assisting the growth of the trade of the Mersey. The Leeds and
Liverpool is, however, the only canal that has a direct connection with
the Liverpool Docks.
By this canal Liverpool has water communication with the important town
of Leeds, and thence, by the Aire and Calder Canal, with Hull and the
other ports on the Humber. By the Shropshire Union Canals the Mersey is
connected with the network of canals in the Midland Counties and with
the River Severn.
In Camden’s time Liverpool must have been a very obscure place. The
author of ‘Britannia’ dismisses it almost in a sentence, observing that
“from Warrington, the River Mersey, spreading abroad, and straightwaies
drawing in himselfe again, with a wide and open outlet, very commodious
for merchandise, entereth into the Irish Sea, where Litherpoole, called
in the elder ages Lipen-poole, common Lirpoole, is seated, so named, as
it is thought, of the water spreading itself in manner of a poole.”
With the exception of the Thames—which it rivals, and with which for
a number of years past it has run a neck-to-neck race—the Mersey is,
so far as its volume of business is concerned, the most important river
in the world. This, however, is an attainment of comparative modern
origin. The first wet dock was constructed at Liverpool, in 1708-9,
on the site now occupied by the Custom House. In the latter part of
the same century several other docks were constructed. The dock estate
has now an area of 1078 acres, the whole of which is appropriated to
basins, docks, quays, and premises worked in connection therewith.
THE WEAVER.
The history of the navigation of the river Weaver, which adjoins the
Mersey in Cheshire, supplies a notable example of what may be made of
an originally insignificant and tortuous stream in order to adapt it
for the requirements of commerce. The river has been canalised between
Northwich and Chester, twenty miles of the navigation being artificial
navigation, and the other thirty miles being river proper.
In 1721 three Cheshire gentlemen obtained the first Act of Parliament
for making the river Weaver navigable. The depth then provided for was
only 4 feet 6 inches, and boats of more than 40 to 50 tons could not
enter.
About the year 1760, the navigation was carried down so as to enable
vessels to enter at nearly all tides, and in 1810 the river was further
improved by the Weston Canal, which is four miles long, enabling
vessels of much deeper draught to enter without navigating a dangerous
part of the old river. This canal forms a junction with the Bridgwater
Docks at Weston Point, and a dock was formed in connection with it so
as to enable vessels to wait for the tide.
In 1830 the depth was increased to 7 feet 6 inches, with locks 88 feet
long and 18 feet wide, capable of taking cargoes of 100 to 150 tons.
There were at this time eleven single locks on the river, not including
the entrances to the Mersey. About 1860, a second set of locks, having
10 feet of water on the sills, and 100 feet long by 22 feet wide, was
placed by the side of the existing locks, and the number was reduced to
nine pairs. The larger size, owing to the vessels being built almost to
the shape of the lock, were capable of passing vessels with nearly 320
tons on board.
This continued until about seventeen years ago, when it was decided to
replace these locks by some of very much larger dimensions, and also to
greatly reduce the number. With this object, locks were built at Dutton
and Saltersford near the site of existing locks, and of sufficient
height of walls to enable the two ponds above to be thrown into one,
thus doing away with the four smaller locks. The same has been done at
Hunts, and, more recently, at Valeroyal, above Northwich. The locks at
Dutton and Saltersford are entirely built of masonry, having limestone
sills and rubbling courses, with the intermediate part sandstone. All
the work on the river is of this description, with the exception of the
Hunts and Valeroyal large locks, which are built of concrete.
When these improvements are completed there will be only four locks on
the twenty miles of navigation, the larger of each pair of locks being
220 feet long, by 42 feet 6 inches wide, and having 15 feet of water
on the sills. Most of the river is now dredged to 12 feet, there only
being 10-feet bars at certain points. The ordinary width is about 95 to
100 feet at water level, and 45 feet at the bottom. More than a million
tons of salt annually pass down the Weaver to the Mersey.
THE TYNE.
This noble river, from Newcastle to the sea, is one of the greatest
triumphs of modern engineering. Good old Camden quaintly remarks, that
“where the wall (Roman) and the Tine almost met together Newcastle
sheweth itself gloriously, the very eye of all the townes in these
parts, ennobled by a notable haven, which Tine maketh, being of that
depth that it beareth very tall ships, and also defendeth them, that
they can neither easily be tossed with tempests nor driven upon
shallows and shelves.”[36]
No better example of what has been done within recent years in the way
of providing additional facilities for the wants of British shipping,
could be quoted than the case of the Tyne. That river is the natural
outlet of the great northern coalfield. It is also the outlet for a
very great trade in chemicals, engineering, iron and steel, and other
industrial products. But in order to adapt it for the purposes of
its large and rapidly-growing commerce, it was necessary not only to
provide several docks—the more important of which, the Northumberland
and the Coble Dene, cost 352,000_l._ and 528,000_l._ respectively—but
it was also requisite to expend over 1,300,000_l._ in dredging the bed
of the river, so as to provide access for the largest size of vessels,
to expend nearly three-quarters of a million on other river works,
to construct North and South Piers at a cost of over 820,000_l._;
and to incur a total outlay considerably exceeding 4,000,000_l._ The
effect of these improvements and structural works has been that the
Tyne has been transformed from “a series of shoals, with a narrow and
generally serpentine channel between and past them, through which
vessels of about 15-ft. draught could get up at high-water spring
tides, whilst at low-water it was a not uncommon occurrence for small
river steamers, drawing from 3 to 4 ft. of water, to be aground on
their passage between Shields and Newcastle for three or four hours,”
to a magnificent navigable highway, that admits vessels of 3000 tons
and upwards at all states of the tide with perfect safety. At the time
that the great work was commenced, and for many years afterwards,
the revenue from shipping dues was quite insufficient to enable any
substantial progress to be made, and the trade grew so rapidly that
it became imperative to either borrow money in order to carry out the
required works, or allow the shipping to seek other ports, where better
facilities were provided. The works to the end of 1882 had, therefore,
to be chiefly carried out by the aid of borrowed money. As a matter of
fact, only 426,000_l._ was expended out of income, while 3,673,000_l._
was borrowed. The results, however, appear to have justified the
course. The annual income from dues and tolls has grown, within twenty
years, from 91,000_l._ to over 251,000_l._
The Tyne Improvement Commission, chiefly under the presidency of Sir
Joseph Cowen, have deepened the river to a uniform depth of nearly 30
feet, built training walls, dredged the bar, built new channels, and
otherwise revolutionised the old order of things. The results have been
extremely striking. In 1888 14,668 vessels, having a total tonnage of
6,734,000 tons, cleared from the Tyne ports; while 6093 ships, having
1,662,000 tons register, entered the same ports. The people of Tyneside
are proud of their river, as well they may be.
THE RIBBLE.
Preston is a busy town and port in the county of Lancashire, situated
on the river Ribble, about seventeen miles from the sea. The navigation
of the port has hitherto been confined to coasting vessels drawing
about 14 feet of water. The amount of shipping entering the port has
been under 30,000 tons a year. The Ribble rises in the West Riding of
Yorkshire, at the east foot of Whernside, and arrives at Preston after
a course of fifty-seven miles. With its tributaries it drains about 800
square miles of land, a great part of which is moorland. The annual
rainfall over this district averages about 37 inches. Below Preston,
the channel of the river opens out into a broad sandy estuary, four or
five miles in width, the whole of which is covered at high water of
spring tides, and the greater part of which is dry at low water. The
course of the river, after it leaves the trained portion, is along the
northern shore of this estuary to Lytham, whence the main navigable
channel, called “The Gut,” bends in a south-westerly direction between
the Salt-house and the Horse-shoe banks to the Irish Sea. The width of
the estuary between the two forelands on the coast, Stanner Point on
the north, and Southport on the south, is five miles. The sands extend
four miles seaward beyond this line, and are uncovered at low water.
The depth at low water spring tides on the bar, or the portion of the
navigable channel with deep water, is four feet. Beyond this the depth
seawards rapidly increases, from 20 feet immediately beyond, till,
at the Nelson buoy—which is two miles beyond the bar, and the first
buoy belonging to the Ribble navigation—the depth is six fathoms. The
depth above the bar along the Gut channel, which is rather tortuous
and narrow, being shown on the Admiralty chart as less than a quarter
of a mile wide, varies from 4 to 24 feet. This channel is buoyed out
with eight buoys, which are shifted as the channel varies. There are
three other channels between Lytham and the sea, called, respectively,
the South Channel, the Penfold, and the North Channel. These are more
or less navigable; but the Gut is the main sea-fairway. From Lytham a
shallow channel runs near the shore for about a mile to “The Dock,”
where ships can lie at anchor. Thence it winds towards the Wage through
the sands. This channel is continually shifting its course, owing to
gales and freshets. From this point the river has been trained by
rubble-stone training walls, put in about thirty-four years ago, which
continue for seven miles up to Preston. These walls rise seven feet
above low water, and are 300 feet apart at the top. Spring-tides rise
24 feet at the bar, and neaps 17 feet, and at Preston the rise is 10
feet and 4 feet 6 inches. The project of constructing a dock at Preston
has been agitated for some years, and has been strongly advocated
by Mr. Garlick, M.I.C.E., who was the engineer to the Navigation
Commissioners. It was considered that by providing deep-water
accommodation to the town, its trade and prospects would be greatly
increased, having regard to the large manufactories by which it is
surrounded, the immense population in the immediate neighbourhood, and
the nearness of the Wigan coalfield. This work is now in progress,
including the division of the river; the estimated cost being about
440,000_l._
THE SEVERN.
This famous river is navigable up to Welshpool, a distance of 155 miles
by water, from the mouth of the Bath Avon river. The extreme branch
of this river may be traced for about 45 miles above Welshpool, to
Plinlimmon Hill, and numerous other branches extend for great distances
into the country on both sides. The whole of this great length of
navigation was, till lately, unimproved by art, the river having no
locks, weirs, or other erections throughout its whole length, for
surmounting the numerous shallows and irregularities which the current
over variable strata had formed in its bed. The first or lowest 42
miles of this river, extending to the city of Gloucester, are very wide
for a great part of the way, and have a most rapid tide; but the last
28 miles are so crooked, that ships are said to be often several days
in passing it; on which account, a ship canal, calculated for vessels
of 300 tons burthen, was in the year 1793 projected and begun between
Gloucester and Berkeley, of 18¼ miles in length, for avoiding these 28
miles of the river. From Gloucester to Worcester the distance is 30
miles by the course of the stream, the rise in this length being 10
feet, or at the rate of 4 inches a mile; from Worcester to Stourport
the distance by water is 13 miles, and the rise 23 feet, or at the rate
of 1 foot 9 inches per mile; from Stourport to Bridgnorth it is 18
miles, and the rise 41¾ feet, or 2 feet 4 inches per mile on the
average; and from Bridgnorth to the new town at the junction of the
Shropshire canal, called Coalport, the distance is about 7 miles, and
the rise about 19 feet, being a rate of about 2 feet 8 inches per mile.
William Reynolds, the founder of Coalport, caused an account to be
daily registered of the depth of the stream in the bed of the Severn at
that place, between the 7th of October, 1789, and the 23rd of December,
1800, of which Mr. Telford has given the particulars, except on twelve
occasions when the river had overflown its bounds and covered the usual
marks (on Sundays during some part of the time), the intervals of frost
in which the river was frozen over, and for three short intervals,
when, unfortunately, the experiment was by some accident suspended.
During all the months of January, in the above period of eleven years,
ending the 6th of October, 1800, the river does not appear to have
exceeded the depth of 16 feet, that being the greatest depth at any
time recorded; and several times, when no depths are inserted to the
great floods, it is stated in the table that the water was above all
the marks. Besides these, there were thirty-two smaller floods, or
times when the water had risen, and was falling again for some days
after; the highest of these had a depth of 13 feet (5th January, 1790),
the lowest 4 feet, and the mean of the whole of these floods is 7½
feet. In the months of February there were two of these overflowings,
one of which (11th February, 1795) followed a frost and continued for
five successive days: nineteen floods, the two highest of which were
equal (17th and 20th February, 1799) to 12 feet.
THE WITHAM.
On the Witham, for a distance of thirty miles, between Boston and
Lincoln, the river is practically a canal. The tide is stopped by
a sluice at Boston, and a weir and locks had to be constructed at
Bardney and Lincoln. The inland water is held up to a constant height
on the sill of this sluice by penstocks, for the purposes of the
navigation. The navigation having been taken over by the Great Northern
Railway Company, the works are maintained in efficient condition; but
the obligation imposed by the original Act of holding up the water
seriously affects the drainage. The river Slea, from Sleaford to the
Witham, was made into a canal in 1792. The navigation on this river
having almost entirely ceased, the company was dissolved by an Act of
Parliament. The Bane, another affluent of the Witham, was also
canalised, forming a navigation from the Witham to the town of
Horncastle; but the dues obtained are insufficient to maintain the
works in proper order.
THE NENE AND OUSE.
On the Nene, which is canalised from Peterborough to Northampton, the
navigation is reduced to a few barges. The constant floods on this
river are ascribed in a great measure to the defective condition of the
works. The proprietors of the navigation, on whom was cast the duty of
maintaining the river, no longer have the funds, and there is nobody
to take their place. The same thing has occurred on the Ouse between
Earith and Bedford.
On some of the affluents of these rivers, which, under legislative
powers granted last century, had been converted into “navigations,” the
proprietors have obtained Acts of Parliament relieving them of their
rights and liabilities, and there is now no jurisdiction over these
rivers, or anybody responsible for removing shoals or cutting weeds.
The beds of these streams have consequently become shallow, and they
are no longer capable of acting as efficient arterial drains. Thus,
on the Ivel, an affluent of the Ouse, the navigation trust, created
in the reign of George II., was abolished in 1876. The river is said
to have since diminished one-half in width, and one-half in depth,
and the bottom is being gradually raised to the level of the land. In
like manner, the Lark, another canalised affluent, has almost entirely
silted up since the navigation of the river ceased. The Ouse itself,
above Earith, is obstructed by numerous shoals, and an enormous growth
of weeds. These were originally kept down by the constant passage
of the vessels, and the shoals were removed by the trustees of the
navigation.
THE TEES.
The improvements that have been carried out for the purpose of opening
up the navigation of the river Tees, although less considerable than
those carried out for some of the larger rivers of Great Britain, are
yet entitled to take rank as among the most notable river engineering
achievements of the century. They are also among the most recent. It
was not until 1852 that the Act was passed creating the Tees Navigation
Commission. At that time there were three or four channels in the
estuary, all of them very shallow. The shifting sandbanks caused great
trouble and not a little danger to navigation, and the depth of water
near to Middlesbro’ did not admit of the passage of vessels of large
size. Since then, about twenty miles of low water training walls have
been erected for the purpose of confining the navigable channel. The
volume of water and its scour have thereby been much increased. The
river has been continuously dredged in order to secure a depth of
water that would allow of the passage of vessels of large tonnage into
the Middlesbro’ Docks. About 23 million tons of material have been
dredged from the bed of the river, and the channel has been generally
straightened and widened. Breakwaters have been constructed on both
sides, one of them, called the North Gare, being about two miles and a
half long. A remarkable feature of the work is that these breakwaters
have been constructed of slag, obtained from the blast-furnaces in the
neighbourhood. Some millions of tons of slag have been employed in this
way, the ironmasters having paid to the Conservancy Commissioners a
small sum for removing the slag, the disposal of which had been a great
source of difficulty previous to this application.
As a result of the works that have been carried out for the improvement
of the navigation of the Tees, the shipping trade of the river, and
especially of the port of Middlesbro’, has greatly increased. The main
element in this development has been the growth of the iron industry;
but the second element has undoubtedly been the increased facilities
for navigation. The popular impression about Middlesbro’ is that only
a single house stood in 1830, where there is now a busy town of more
than 70,000 inhabitants. This may or may not be a legend, but there is
no doubt about the fact that in 1850 there were only from two to three
feet of depth on the bar of the Tees, where it was possible to wade
across at low water; whereas now there is about 20 feet of water, and a
harbour of refuge has been provided in which ships can ride in safety
whatever the condition of the usually stormy seas outside.
THE IRWELL.
This river has been partly canalised, in order to afford a means
of communication between Warrington, Manchester, and other large
towns, and Liverpool, but it was only adapted for light craft and
has consequently fallen largely into disuse. The Mersey and Irwell
Navigation was acquired by the Bridgwater Company, and has now, with
the rest of the Bridgwater property, passed under the control of the
Manchester Ship Canal Company.
THE WEAR.
This river, which has its rise in the district that unites Durham and
Westmoreland, falls into the North Sea at Sunderland after a course
of thirty miles. The river is under the jurisdiction of the Wear
Commissioners from about nine miles from the bar to the sea. Over this
distance very considerable improvements have been carried out during
the last half century. These improvements have resulted in making the
Wear one of the foremost shipbuilding rivers in the United Kingdom, and
have given it the second place in the coal-shipping trade. The revenue
of the Wear Trust, which only averaged about 14,000_l._ a year between
1840 and 1850, has within recent years amounted to about 130,000_l._ a
year. One of the most extensive works undertaken on the river, besides
graving docks, wharves, &c., and the deepening of the bed, was the
construction of a lock at the sea outlet, designed to obviate the
detention of screw-colliers when waiting for the tide. This lock is 481
feet in length by 90 feet in breadth, and has a depth of 29½ feet at
ordinary spring tides. The present docks can accommodate 200 ships of
large size, drawing up to 24 feet of water. The area of the docks is
over 78 acres, and they are fitted with nineteen coal spouts, at which
15,000 tons of coal can be shipped daily.
In this chapter we have dealt with a few only of the more notable
examples of river improvement in modern times. The list might be almost
indefinitely extended. There is hardly a brawling mountain torrent
between Land’s End and John o’ Groat’s that has not been reclaimed,
deepened, widened, or otherwise improved upon by the art and the genius
of the engineer. Nor has the work been confined to modern times. The
Romans are known to have constructed embankments for the control of
British rivers during the period of their occupation, although for
something like 1000 years afterwards their example was not followed.
The engineers and the local authorities of the nineteenth century have
done much to redeem this reproach. The improvement and conservancy of
rivers have now been reduced to a science, founded mainly upon the
following general principles[37]:—
1. That the freer the admission of the tidal water, the
better is the river adapted for all purposes, whether of
navigation, drainage, or fisheries.
2. That its sectional area and inclination should be made to
suit the required carrying power of the river throughout its
entire length, both for the ordinary flow of the water and
for floods.
3. That the downward flow of the upland water should be
equalised as much as possible throughout the entire year; and
4. That all abnormal contaminations should be removed from
the streams.
Our tidal rivers are undoubtedly one of the chief sources of our
maritime supremacy. For this reason it is of the utmost importance
that they should be kept in good repair, free from unnecessary
obstructions, and well adapted to the purposes of navigation. As it is,
however, this is not always the case. The chief reason for existing
maladministration, where it exists, is the absence of a uniform system
of control. The Thames, for example, has been hitherto controlled
partly by the Thames Conservancy and partly by the Metropolitan Board
of Works. The Great Sluice, at Boston, in Lincolnshire, was constructed
in 1764 by Smeaton, for the purpose of stopping the flow of the tide
in the river Witham, and converting the upper part of the river into a
fresh-water canal as far as Lincoln. As, however, the control of the
river is divided—one body dealing with the tidal part from the Grand
Sluice to the sea, and the other with the canal and drainage of the
land above—each opposes the schemes of the other, and the navigation
has been ruined.[38]
There is one course whereby this condition of things, where it
exists, may be prevented. It has been suggested that a new Government
Department should be created, with entire charge of and control over
all estuaries and navigable channels, and presided over by a member of
the Cabinet. The interests at stake are sufficiently large to justify
this.[39] They are as vital to our commerce and industry as any matter
now dealt with by the State, affecting our material well-being, and
they are every year increasing in extent and importance. As regards
the principal rivers—the Mersey, the Tyne, the Tees, the Clyde,
and the Wear especially—they are now controlled in accordance with
the recommendation made by the Duke of Richmond’s Select Committee,
that “each catchment area should be placed under a single body of
conservators, who should be responsible for maintaining the river, from
its source to its outfall, in an efficient state.” There are other
rivers, however, that are administered rather in the interest of the
landed proprietors than in that of navigation, and where these two come
into conflict the State should have powers that would enable the public
interest, which is both national and international, to be effectually
protected.
The following table gives the area and length of some of the chief
rivers of England:—
NORTH-EAST OF ENGLAND.
Area. Length.
Miles. Miles.
Coquet 240 40
Wansbeck 126 22
Blyth 131 16
Tyne 1,130 34
Wear 456 45
Tees 708 79
Esk 147 21
Humber 10,500 ··
Hull 364 20
Foulness 133 14
Derwent 794 64
Ouse 1,842 40
Aire and Calder 815 78
Don 682 57
Trent 4,052 147
Ancholme 244 25
Ludd 139 7
Withern Eau 189 13
EAST ANGLIAN RIVERS.
Area. Length.
Miles. Miles.
Bure 348 45
Yare 880 48
Blyth 79 17
Alde 109 24
Deben 153 27
Orwell 171 16
Stour 407 45
Colne 192 24
Crouch 181 15
Roding 317 33
OTHER RIVERS.
Area. Length.
Miles. Miles.
Witham 1,079 40
Welland 760 42
Nene 1,077 100
Great Ouse 2,667 143
Wissey, or Stoke 243 28
Nar, or Setchy 131 25
Many of the above rivers are not navigable for vessels of any size,
and are therefore not of much value to the transportation resources
of the country. In the majority of cases, also, the character of the
waterways, as regards locality, water-supply, &c., would not justify
any large expenditure in adapting them for purposes of transport.
FOOTNOTES:
[29] A.D. 1661, Anno. 14 Car. Reg. ii.
[30] 7 and 8 Gul. III.
[31] Papers relating to the History and Navigation of the Rivers Wye
and Lug. By John Lloyd, junr.
[32] Andrew Yarranton was born in the parish of Astley,
Worcestershire, in the year 1616. He wrote a work which is well known
to economists, entitled ‘England’s Improvement by Land and Sea, or
How to beat the Dutch without Fighting,’ describing observations
that he had made during his travels in Holland, Saxony, and other
countries.
[33] Smiles states that Yarranton was offered 250_l._ and eight salt
vats at Upwich, valued at 80_l._ per annum, with three quarters of
a vat in Northwich for 21 years, in payment for the work. It is
interesting to compare these terms with those on which some of our
modern streams have been deepened and improved.
[34] Yarranton’s ‘Improvement by Land and Sea.’
[35] ‘Industrial Biography,’ by S. Smiles, p. 65.
[36] ‘Britannia,’ Holland’s Translation, 1637.
[37] Address of the President of Section G, British Association
Meeting at Dublin, 1878.
[38] Paper on “River Control and Management,” by J. C. Hawkshaw,
‘British Association Report for 1878.’
[39] The following figures give the tonnage of the entrances and
clearances in the foreign trade (including British possessions) of
the principal rivers in 1888:—
─────────────────────────────┬────────────┬─────────────┬───────────
River. │ Entrances. │ Clearances. │ Total.
─────────────────────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┼───────────
│ tons │ tons │ tons
The Thames │ 7,471,000 │ 5,471,000 │ 12,942,000
” Mersey │ 5,368,000 │ 4,941,000 │ 10,309,000
” Clyde (Glasgow only) │ 994,000 │ 1,154,000 │ 2,148,000
” Tyne │ 2,818,000 │ 4,392,000 │ 7,210,000
” Tees (Middlesbro’ only) │ 681,000 │ 555,000 │ 1,236,000
” Humber │ 1,897,000 │ 1,503,000 │ 3,400,000
─────────────────────────────┴────────────┴─────────────┴───────────