THE ENGLISH CANAL SYSTEM.
“Of famous cities we the founders know,
But rivers, old as seas to which they go,
Are nature’s bounty; ’tis of more renown,
To make a river than to build a town.”
—_Waller._
The general circumstances under which artificial navigation came to be
adopted in our own and other countries have already been set forth to a
limited extent. We have now to consider the special circumstances that
have led to the adoption of particular routes and particular means of
transport, as well as to make some attempt to indicate the conditions
under which canals may be used with advantage.
The routes that are provided by canal navigations are usually either
local or national—local, when they only connect two inland centres;
national, when they afford access from manufacturing or agricultural
centres to the sea. In the earlier history of the canal system both of
these ends were kept in view. It was just as important to bring raw
materials from their place of production to the centres of consumption
as to connect the centres of manufacture with the outer world.
About the middle of the last century, the cost of goods by road,
between Manchester and Liverpool, was 40_s._ per ton; whilst, by the
Mersey and Irwell route, the water rate was 12_s._ per ton. After the
opening of the Bridgwater Canal the cost was reduced to 6_s._ per ton,
and a better service was given than either of the previous routes had
afforded.
Again, the cost of carriage on coal by pack-horse from Worsley to
Manchester, which had been 6_s._ to 8_s._ per ton, was reduced to 2_s._
6_d._ per ton on the same canal. In fact, the Duke bound himself not to
exceed that freight, although the old Mersey and Irwell Company still
held to their toll of 3_s._ 4_d._ for all the coal the Duke sent by
their route.
The costs of transports throughout the country were on a similar scale,
except where held in check by the river traders, who, whilst competing,
had still an interest in high freights. From Manchester to Nottingham
the charge was over 6_l._ per ton; to Leicester, over 8_l._, and so on.
These rates were reduced to 2_l._ and 2_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._, respectively,
after the opening of the Trent and Mersey Canal, which also reduced the
cost of transport between Manchester and Hull to less than 2_l._, per
ton, owing to the back-carriage secured from that port, together with
the tide service of 80 miles up the Humber and the Trent.
The real commercial prosperity of England dates from this period
of canal development and enterprise. Raw materials, manufactures,
and produce, were easily transported at a reasonable cost between
Liverpool, Manchester, Staffordshire, Nottingham, and places on the
route to Hull and Northern Europe. These advantages were extended to
the Severn route by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Act,
which was obtained during the year 1766, and by the navigation of the
Soar to Leicester.[40]
In 1761 it was estimated that the quantity of traffic carried between
the two great cities of Lancashire—Manchester and Liverpool—was about
40 tons per week, or about 2000 tons a year. The cost of transport,
as we have just seen, was upwards of 1_s._ per mile. It is calculated
that the traffic now carried on between the two towns is not less than
ten million tons, and the cost of transport is stated at from 3_s._ to
8_s._ per ton. But the present conditions of transport are nevertheless
regarded as unsatisfactory, and hence the movement for the construction
of the Ship Canal, which is expected to carry traffic for less than
one-half of the amount charged by the railway companies.
When the public mind became fully alive to the importance of providing
internal means of transport by water, there were not wanting those
who were able to provide the ability and the experience necessary to
execute the plans proposed. The history of the Bridgwater Navigation
has been so fully related by Smiles,[41] that nothing which we could
say here would materially enhance the interest of the story. For all
practical purposes, this was the first great artificial waterway in
England. It was, indeed, so remarkable a work for the time that we
shall briefly recapitulate its history.
In 1758 the Duke of Bridgwater got his first Act of Parliament,
which awakened a general ardour for similar improvements among the
landowners, farmers, merchants, and manufacturers of the kingdom, and
although there was not a Louis XIV. nor a Colbert to encourage them,
engineers were found fully equal to Riquet, so that England, though
late, began to make good use of the resources she possessed in her
inland provinces.
The history of the Bridgwater canal may fairly be said to occupy, in
relation to the annals of internal navigation, much the same place
that the Liverpool and Manchester Railway does in relation to the
development of the railway system. It is necessary to review some of
the circumstances connected with this enterprise in order that the
actual position of transport at that time may be understood.
Although an Act of Parliament had been obtained many years previously
for the purpose of making the Mersey and the Irwell navigable from
Liverpool to Manchester, the facilities thereby provided were defective
and unsatisfactory in the extreme. The freight charged for water
transport between the two towns was 12_s._ per ton, when the navigation
was available, but this was not always at command. Boats could not
pass between the lowest lock and Liverpool without the assistance of
a spring tide. There were many fords or shallows in the Irwell, over
which boats could not pass at all “except in great freshes, or by
drawing extraordinary quantities of water from the locks above.” The
consequence was that most of the traffic between the two towns was
carried on by road, at a much higher cost for rather over thirty miles.
The new navigation, although it promised to reduce this charge to 6_s._
per ton, to abridge the distance by nine miles, to provide wharfage
that was not already available, and to give transportation facilities
at all times, was strongly denounced and opposed. It was argued that
the canal would cut through and separate the land in the possession of
several gentlemen along the proposed line of route, that a great number
of acres would be covered with water and for ever lost to the public,
that the canal could confer no advantage not already secured by the
Irwell and the Mersey, that the taking from those streams of the water
required for the canal would greatly prejudice, if it did not totally
obstruct, the old navigation in dry seasons, and that the property of
the old navigation should not be prejudiced without full compensation
being made to the proprietors.[42]
A letter written in 1767,[43] at Burslem, states that “gentlemen come
to see our eighth wonder of the world—the subterraneous navigation,
which is cutting by the great Mr. Brindley, who handles rocks as
easily as you would plum-pies, and makes the four elements subservient
to his will. He is as plain a looking man as one of the boors of the
Peake, or one of his own carters, but when he speaks all ears listen,
and every mind is filled with wonder at the things he pronounces to
be practicable. He has cut a mile through bogs, which he binds up,
embanking them with stones which he gets out of other parts of the
navigation, besides about a quarter of a mile into the hill Yelden; on
the side of which he has a pump, which is worked by water, and a stove,
the fire of which sucks through a pipe the damps that would annoy the
men who are cutting towards the centre of the hill.”
The Bridgwater Canal has had a very remarkable career. It was sold by
Lord Ellesmere to the Bridgwater Navigation Company for 989,612_l._,
including plant valued at 150,000_l._ In 1886, the Bridgwater
Navigation Company sold the canal to the Manchester Ship Canal Company
for 1,710,000_l._ The Bridgwater Canal was followed, after a few years,
by a number of similar undertakings.
We cannot pretend in this chapter to write the history of the canal
movement; but we may, nevertheless, rapidly pass in review some of
the prominent features of that movement, the better to illustrate the
development of canal navigation, and to show how it came to be such as
it is.
About the year 1769 we find that the counties of Lancashire,
Staffordshire, Cheshire, Leicestershire, and Warwickshire, were
greatly exercised concerning the proposal to cut a canal between
the Mersey and the Humber by way of Harecastle, Stoke, Burton, and
Wilden, near which latter place it was intended to effect a junction
with the Trent. Branches were proposed to Birmingham, Lichfield,
Tamworth, and Newcastle-under-Lyme. The canal, it was expected, would
develop the trade in white flint ware, “which is as strong and sweet
as Indian porcelain;” in the noted quarries of Swithland slate, in
Leicestershire, “a beautiful and durable covering for houses;” in
limestone, “on which the village of Breden, in Leicestershire, is
situated;” and “in that sort of iron ore, commonly called ironstone,
proper for making cold-short iron, and which, when mixed with the red
ore from Cumberland, makes the best kind of tough or merchant
iron.”[44] It is somewhat curious, at this time of day, to find that
the facilities which it would offer for the exportation of corn were
put forward as one of the principal arguments in favour of the new
navigation.[45]
THE HULL AND LIVERPOOL CANAL.
In the year 1755, the Liverpool Corporation authorised a survey to be
made with a view to the construction of a line of navigation between
Liverpool and Hull. Brindley made a survey of the same route three
years later, and he, in turn, was followed by Smeaton. Brindley’s plans
were ultimately adopted. He proposed to complete the canal “as far
north as Harecastle, purchase the land, erect locks, make towing paths,
build bridges, and defray every expense, except that of obtaining the
Act of Parliament, for 700_l._ per mile,” but beyond Harecastle it
was estimated that the works would cost 1000_l._ a mile.[46] Brindley
proposed to make the canal 12 feet wide at the bottom, and three feet
deep on an average, with a depth of 30 inches at the fords. The boats
designed to be worked on the canal were 70 feet long, 6 feet wide,
drawing 30 inches of water, and carrying 20 tons. Their cost was stated
at 30_l._ each.[47]
It is interesting to record that when the proposal to construct a canal
from Liverpool to Hull was under consideration, about the middle of
the last century, one of the arguments used in its favour was that it
would enable American iron to be brought cheaper to the manufacturing
towns from the ports of Liverpool and Hull, and so contribute to
lessen the consumption of foreign European iron, “to the great profit
of this nation in general, and our own ironworks in particular”;
while it was even suggested that, in order to develop this branch of
business between our then American colonies and the mother country, a
bounty should be offered on the import of American pig-iron, thereby
contributing to “clear the lands in America,” and “to preserve the
woods in England.”
The project to construct a new waterway through the manufacturing
districts between Liverpool and Hull was strenuously opposed by a
number of Cheshire gentlemen, who were the owners of the Weaver or
Northwich Navigation, and who proposed to carry that waterway to
Macclesfield, Stockport, and Manchester. In 1765, a plan was submitted
for extending the navigation of the Weaver from Winsford Bridge, in
Cheshire, to the river Trent, in the county of Stafford, there joining
the Trent and the Severn by canals, and thereby “opening an inland
communication between the great ports of Liverpool, Bristol, and Hull.”
In view of the attention that has recently been given to the salt
industry, it may be stated that the transport of that commodity was
one of the principal reasons offered for the construction, in 1769,
of a canal between Liverpool and Hull, _viâ_ Cheshire. At that time
manufactured salt was carried on horseback “to almost all parts of
Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire,
and Lincolnshire,” and it was stated that “so great is the home
consumption of this article, that from the saltworks of Northwich
alone, a duty of 67,000_l._ was last year paid into the Exchequer. At
Northwich and Wisford are annually made about 24,000 tons.”[48]
THE LEEDS AND LIVERPOOL CANAL.
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which was commenced in 1770 and
completed in 1816, is one of the most important lines of navigation in
the United Kingdom, connecting, as it does, the Irish Sea at Liverpool
with the German Ocean at Hull. The works were extended over a period
of about forty-one years, and cost altogether 1,200,000_l._ The course
of the canal from Leeds is _viâ_ the Abbey of Kirkstall, Calverley,
Woodhouse, Apperley Bridge, Shipley, Bingley, Skipton, Burnley,
Blackburn, Wigan, and so on to Liverpool. It is the longest canal in
Great Britain, and in some respects, the most remarkable. It has many
important works of art on its course, the summit level of which is
reached at an elevation of 411 feet above the Aire at Leeds, 41 miles
from that town. At Foulridge there is a tunnel 1640 yards in length, 18
feet high, and 17 feet wide. Near to this tunnel are two reservoirs for
the supply of the canal. They cover an area of 104 acres, and store up
12,000 cubic yards of water. The canal is carried on aqueducts across
the Aire, the Colne Water, the Brown, the Calder, the Henbarn, the
Derwent Water, and the Roddlesworth Water. The total length of the
navigation is 127 miles, and the total lockage 844 feet 7½ inches,
while the canal basin at Liverpool is 56 feet above low-water mark
on the river Mersey. The canal has several important feeders or
branches.[49]
KENNET AND AVON CANAL.
The Kennet and Avon Canal starts from the port of Bristol and runs to
Bath, Dundas (for the Somersetshire Coal Canal), Bradford-on-Avon,
Semington (for the Wilts and Berks Canal), Devizes, Honeystreet,
Pewsey, Burbage, Hungerford, Newbury, Reading, where it joins the
Thames for Henley, Marlow, Maidenhead, Windsor, Staines, and London.
The distance from Bristol to Bath is 15 miles, from Bath to Newbury 57
miles, from Newbury to Reading 18½ miles, and from Reading to London 74
miles.
The river Avon, from Bristol to Bath, will admit of barges being worked
carrying 90 tons when the water is high, but in low water this weight
would be reduced to 50 or 60 tons, in consequence of the want of
cleansing and dredging. This part of the navigation is under an Act of
Parliament, 10 Queen Anne, 1711, and is to be free and open for ever
upon payment of toll.
The canal from Bath to Newbury (under an Act of Parliament of George
III.) has been constructed for vessels drawing five feet of water,
measuring 14 feet wide, and according to the present soundings on the
lock-sills, vessels of that draught ought now to navigate the canal,
but they are not able to do so from the great accumulation of mud,
which is seldom less than one foot in thickness, and generally two feet
or more. This not only prevents the barges from using the canal for
carrying full cargoes, but necessitates the employment of extra towing
power. One horse would tow a barge 2 to 2½ miles an hour, if the canal
were kept in proper working order. At the present time two or more
horses are required to do what ought to be only the work of one. Many
of the lay byes throughout the canal were originally made to enable
vessels to turn; nearly all of these are now of no use, owing to their
being full of mud and weeds, consequently barges have often to go long
distances beyond their proper destination in order to turn. Owing to
the accumulation of mud on the sides of the canal, barges can only
pass one another with great difficulty, causing much loss of time.
The gearing of the paddles of most of the locks is very insufficient
and out of repair. On all properly managed navigations, dredgers are
kept almost constantly at work cleansing out the mud, which rapidly
accumulates, but on this canal there are none. The only men employed on
the canal are a few labourers to clean out the weeds with rakes, which
are deposited on the towing-paths, and allowed to remain for months,
thus obstructing the use of the paths. The pounds between the locks at
Devizes are nearly all full of mud and weeds.
The construction of the new port of Sharpness, opened in 1874, is due
to the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal Company, which constructed at
the small promontory of that name, about midway between Avonmouth and
Gloucester, a large tidal basin, 350 feet by 300 feet, a lock 320 feet
long, with three pairs of gates of large size, and a discharging dock
2200 feet long, and occupying an area of 13½ acres. The entrance to
the docks from the Severn is 60 feet wide, and the depth at high water
averages 26 feet.
The canal company, by this provision, has been able to retain for
Gloucester a great deal of the shipping which formerly, although
chartered for that city, has, owing to the old canal entrance being
too small, been obliged to discharge at one of the South Wales ports.
Almost simultaneously with this step, the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal
Company purchased the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, thereby enabling
water communication to be opened up with the heart of the Midlands.
THE ELLESMERE CANAL.
The Ellesmere Canal, in North Wales, consists of a series of
navigations proceeding from the river Dee in the vale of Llangollen.
One branch passes northward, near the towns of Ellesmere, Whitchurch,
Nantwich, and the city of Chester, to Ellesmere Port on the Mersey;
another in a south-easterly direction, through the middle of Shropshire
towards Shrewsbury on the Severn, and a third in a south-westerly
direction, by the town of Oswestry, to the Montgomeryshire Canal,
near Llanymynech; its whole extent, including the Chester Canal,
incorporated with it, being about 112 miles. The heaviest and most
important part of the works occurred in carrying the canal through the
rugged hill country, between the rivers Dee and Ceriog, in the vale of
Llangollen. From Nantwich to Whitchurch the distance is 16 miles, and
the rise 132 feet, involving nineteen locks; and thence to Ellesmere,
Chirk, Pont Cysylltan, and the river Dee, 1¾ mile above Llangollen, the
distance is 38¼ miles, and the rise 13 feet, involving only two locks.
The latter part of the undertaking presented the greatest difficulties,
as, in order to avoid the expense of constructing numerous locks,
which would involve serious delay and heavy expense in working the
navigation, it became necessary to contrive means for carrying the
canal on the same level from one side of the respective valleys of the
Dee and the Ceriog to the other, and hence the magnificent aqueducts
of Chirk and Pont Cysylltan, characterised by Phillips as “among the
boldest efforts of human invention in modern times.”
The Chirk Aqueduct carries the canal across the valley of the Ceriog,
between Chirk Castle and the village of that name. At this point
the valley is above 700 feet wide; the banks are steep, with a flat
alluvial meadow between them, through which the river flows. The
country is finely wooded. Chirk Castle stands on an eminence on its
western side, with the Welsh mountains and Glen Ceriog as a background;
the whole composing a landscape of great beauty, in the centre of which
Telford’s aqueduct forms a highly picturesque object.
The aqueduct consists of ten arches of 4 feet span each. The level of
the water in the canal is 65 feet above the meadow, and 70 feet above
the level of the river Ceriog.
The proportions of this work far exceeded anything of the kind that
had up to that time been attempted in England. It was a very costly
structure; but Telford, like Brindley, thought it better to incur a
considerable capital outlay in maintaining the uniform level of the
canal than to raise and lower it up and down the sides of the valley
by locks at a heavy expense in works, and a still greater cost in time
and water. The aqueduct is an admirable specimen of the finest class of
masonry, and Telford showed himself a master of his profession by the
manner in which he carried out the whole details of the undertaking.
The piers were carried up solid to a certain height, above which they
were built hollow with cross walls. The spandrels also, above the
springing of the arches, were constructed with longitudinal walls, and
left hollow. The first stone was laid on the 17th of June, 1796, and
the work was completed in the year 1801.
AIRE AND CALDER CANAL.
The Aire and Calder Canal, in Yorkshire, which is connected with the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Leeds Bridge, and thence communicates with
the Mersey at Liverpool, was originally constructed with locks 60 feet
long by 15 feet wide, and with a depth of 3 feet 6 inches. It has been
subsequently twice reconstructed in all its main features. In 1820, the
diversion between Knottingley and Goole was constructed, with locks 72
feet long, 18 feet wide, and with 7 feet depth of water; but this being
found inefficient, the whole of the works between Goole and Leeds, on
the Aire branch of the navigation, and Wakefield on the Calder, have
been again reconstructed, with locks of 215 feet long, 22 feet wide,
and 9 feet on the sills. In addition to this, the undertakers have
purchased and improved the Barnsley Canal, and also, to some extent, as
lessees, they have extended their improvements to the Calder and Hebble
Navigation. From time to time, the port of Goole, which forms a part
of the Aire and Calder Navigation, has been improved, and its capacity
enlarged, new docks and entrance-locks have been built, and the channel
has been generally improved.
The accompanying diagrams show the lines of canal communication
between the Severn at Bristol and the Thames, and between the ports of
Liverpool, Goole, and Hull. They give the length and profile of each
canal, and require but little explanation.
The Aire and Calder Canal has been in many respects one of the most
remarkable in England. Its original capital was 150,000_l._, but it
is now stated to amount to 1,697,000_l._ The difference has mainly
resulted from accumulations of profit. After deducting the cost of
maintenance, the sum available for distribution in 1888 was 85,000_l._
The gross yearly income is now as large as the original capital.
MIDLAND CANALS.
A glance at the canal map of England and Wales (p. 57) will show that
in the Midlands there are many existing canals, some of which are
still utilised to a large extent. The more important of these are the
Worcester and Birmingham, the Birmingham, and the Dudley Canals. The
first of these was constructed under an Act obtained in 1791, which
authorised the raising of a capital of 180,000_l._ for the purpose.
The length of the canal is 29 miles, and it has 6 feet depth of water
and 42 feet of top width. The canal is exceptional in passing through
no less than five tunnels in its course—the first at West Heath, the
second at Tardebigg, the third at Shortwood, the fourth at Oddingley,
and the fifth at Edgbaston. There is also a fall of 428 feet in 15
miles by 71 locks, which are 15 feet wide and 18 feet long, to the
level of the Severn. Priestley wrote of the canal that it was “the
channel for supplying Worcester and the borders of the Severn down to
Tewkesbury and Gloucester with coal, and, in return, conveys the hops
and cider of that part of the country northwards, and more particularly
affords a ready means for the export of the Birmingham manufactures,
through the port of Bristol, to any part of the world.”
[Illustration: SECTION OF THE LINE OF NAVIGATION FROM THE RIVER SEVERN
AT BRISTOL BY WAY OF DEVIZES TO THE RIVER THAMES AT LONDON BRIDGE.]
[Illustration: SECTION OF THE INLAND NAVIGATION BETWEEN THE PORTS OF
LIVERPOOL, GOOLE, AND HULL.]
The general direction of the Dudley Canal is nearly north-west by
a crooked course of 30 miles in Worcestershire, a detached part of
Shropshire, and Staffordshire; it is situate very high; its two ends
are on the eastern side of the grand ridge, while its middle, by means
of two very long tunnels, is on the western side of the same. The
communication of this canal with the Stourbridge Canal, by the Black
Delph branch, and the terminating canals, occasions a considerable
carrying trade thereon. This canal commences in the Worcester and
Birmingham Canal at Selly Oak, and terminates in the old Birmingham
at Tipton Green. From near Dudley there is a branch of two miles to
the Stourbridge Canal at Black Delph in Kingswinford; there is another
branch of 1¼ mile to near Dudley town, and a branch from this last of
three-quarters of a mile to the Dudley collieries. From the Worcester
and Birmingham Canal to the Black Delph branch 10½ miles are level,
thence to near the entrance of the Dudley Tunnel, about three-quarters
of a mile, there is a rise of 31 feet by five locks, thence through the
tunnel it is level, and thence again in the last one-eighth of a mile a
fall of 13 feet is overcome by two locks to the old Birmingham Canal.
The Black Delph branch has a fall of 85 feet by nine locks to the
Stourbridge Canal; the Dudley branch has a rise of 64 feet in the first
three-quarters of a mile, the remainder being level. The depth of water
in this canal is 5 to 6 feet; the width of the locks on the Black Delph
branch is 7 feet. To near Lapal, or Laplat, the canal passes through
a tunnel 3776 yards long; at Gorsty Hill it passes through another of
623 yards, under a collateral branch of the Grand Ridge; and at Dudley
there is another tunnel of 2926 yards in length, near the summit-level
of the canal. The arch of this last tunnel has a height of 13½ feet. At
Cradley Pool a large reservoir exists for supplying the lockage of
the Black Delph branch. It is provided, that level cuts may be made
from this canal towards any coal-mine to the extent of 2000 yards. A
stop-lock is erected at the junction with the Worcester and Birmingham
Canal, by which either company has a power of preventing the other
from drawing off their head of water. The Black Delph branch was
first executed, and this was then united with the Dudley part of the
canal, which had been constructed by Lord Dudley and Ward; these were
completed and in use before the extension or main length to Selly
Oak was designed. The company was authorised to raise a capital of
229,100_l._, the amount of the shares being originally 100_l._ each.
Owing to the different Acts under which the parts of the canal were
progressively undertaken, the rates of tonnage differ considerably.
CANALS IN WALES.
The principal artificial waterways in Wales are the Swansea Canal,
about 19 miles in length, which was opened in 1798, and which connects
the harbour of Swansea with the various copper and other works between
that point and Pen Tawe; the Neath Canal, which is about 14 miles in
length, and which, commencing near Abernant, and terminating at Neath
river harbour, with a branch to a short canal called the Briton Canal,
near Giant’s Grave, Pill; the Aberdare Canal, which, about 6½ miles
in length, connects the Glamorganshire Canal with Aberdare, and runs
through a district of great mineral and manufacturing resources; and
the Glamorganshire Canal, which in a total length of 25 miles has a
rise of about 611 feet, and which, commencing on the east side of the
Taff river, and near its entrance into Penarth harbour, terminates
in the town of Merthyr Tydfil. The canal was opened between Merthyr
and Cardiff in 1794, and at the end of the canal, which terminates in
the Taff river, there is a sea-lock, with a floating dock, capable of
admitting vessels of considerable tonnage.
In May 1885 the Glamorganshire and Aberdare Canals, in South Wales,
were transferred to the Bute Dock Company, who formally commenced
working them in September 1887. The old system of conducting the
traffic on these canals was to charge toll rates, but the Marquis of
Bute has adopted the system of charging through rates from any place on
the Bristol Channel to Cardiff.
There are many continuous lines of water communication between
different commercial points of importance in England, as, for example,
between London and Liverpool, Liverpool and Hull, Birmingham and
London, Leeds and Liverpool, &c.; but it often happens upon such
through routes that there are great differences in the sizes of the
locks, which are shorter or narrower at one point than at another.
Thus, for example, between the Derbyshire district and London, the
canal communication is in the hands of seven different companies, with
four different gauges at least, the effect of which is to limit the
carrying capacity of the boats to the very low maximum of 24 tons. A
considerable number of canal boats continue to navigate these through
routes in spite of all these drawbacks, but they have very little
encouragement to do so, inasmuch as the different canal companies
impose different rates of toll, the aggregate of which comes to almost,
if not quite, as much as would be paid to the railway companies for
the service. It is hopeless to expect to see this condition of affairs
quite remedied until all these through routes pass into the hands of
the same companies. It has been computed by capable engineers that an
average expenditure of 10,000_l._ or 12,000_l._ would enable the canal
system of England to become efficient, and it is probable that before
long this expenditure will be found worth while.
According to the most recent returns available, the canal mileage owned
by the principal railway companies in England and Wales, and the number
of employés thereon, were as under:—
───────────────────────────────────┬──────────────┬────────────────
│ Miles of │ No. of Employés
│ Canal Owned. │ thereon.
───────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┼────────────────
Great Western │ 258 │ 270
London and North-Western │ 488 │ 214
Midland │ 50 │ ···
Manchester, Sheffield, │ │
and Lincolnshire │ 180½ │ 538
North Staffordshire │ 121 │ 263
Caledonian │ 60 │ 340
───────────────────────────────────┴──────────────┴────────────────
The total number of employés on the canals of England and Wales in 1884
was 1479 for 1333 miles owned, being an average of little more than one
employé to the mile. On the railways of England and Wales for the same
year the number of employés was 310,568 for 18,000 miles worked, being
an average of 17·2 employés per mile. As, however, there are no returns
of canal traffic available, we cannot say how the two sets of figures
compare in the matter of results.
While several new canal projects are in process of incubation the
existing canal property of the United Kingdom, which has cost not less
than sixty millions sterling, has been allowed to go to rack and ruin
by reason of defects and neglect that are quite inexcusable, and which
seriously prejudice not only the canals themselves, but the trade and
commerce of the country as a whole.
The unsatisfactory condition of the waterways of the United Kingdom is
sufficiently proved by a few returns that were presented to the Select
Committee on canals[50] (1883). At that date there were fifty-seven
canals in England and Wales belonging to independent companies,
twenty-seven canals and navigations under public trusts, forty-five
owned or controlled by railway companies, and fourteen that were either
derelict, or had been converted into railways.
Of the canals under the control of independent companies, a
considerable number were in anything but a flourishing condition, and
most of them, apparently, because they entirely failed to meet the
requirements of commerce.
So far as mere mileage is concerned, the waterways of England,
including canals and canalised rivers, are really of very considerable,
if not sufficient extent, as the following figures show:—
Miles.
Owned by public trusts 927¼
Independent canals 1445¼
Guaranteed and owned by railways 1333
Derelict 118½
Ownership not known 36¾
Besides these, there have been about 120 miles of canals converted
into railways. But these canals are of very limited use, because of
the haphazard and unsystematic way in which they have been laid out.
Scarcely any two canals have a common gauge, and upon the same canal
several gauges of locks may often be found.
The four great industrial rivers of England, and the four most
important maritime outlets, are connected with each other by 650 miles
of inland waterway. The Thames and the Humber, the Severn and the
Mersey, and the Severn, Mersey and the Humber, ought to be placed in
communication with each other by as perfect a system of waterways as
it is possible to provide. But this desirable end has been frustrated
by railway action. In the first group, 175 miles of canal have been
acquired by railway companies; in the second group, 490 miles; and in
the third group, 360 miles. It has been computed that the average cost
of the canals in the first group was 5000_l._, and in the second group
9000_l._ per mile. The railways that connect the same four maritime
points have a total mileage of about 9500 miles, and an aggregate
capital of about 360 millions.
The history of British canals, with all the most interesting
information bearing upon their extent, capacity, and traffic, has
been written by Priestley in a work that is to this day the standard
authority on the subject. The same subject has been dealt with very
extensively in Rees’s ‘Cyclopædia,’ under the heading of “Canals.” With
these sources of information open to all the world, it would be quite
supererogatory to go into much detail relative to these waterways of
Great Britain, except in so far as they are of cardinal importance, or
are likely to exercise an influence in the future development of canal
navigations. It will be understood, therefore, that in these notes no
attempt is made to afford minute details of the different canals dealt
with; while many of the canals that have either been abandoned, or have
become the property of railway companies, or have otherwise ceased to
be of public importance, have been entirely disregarded.
It is an axiom in water transport that the larger the vessel employed,
within certain limits, the more inexpensive is the cost of the service
performed. It has been calculated[51] that at the present time, the cost
of transporting fifty tons of material between London and Liverpool,
a distance of 180 miles, is 25_l._, or 10_s._ per ton exclusive of
tolls. But then the boats employed are only 25-ton craft, which take
eight days on the journey, with one day to load, and one day to
unload, making, with two spare days, twelve days in all. If, however,
large craft were substituted, capable of carrying 120 tons each, and
towed by a steam barge carrying 90 tons—making a total load of 450
tons—the cost would be reduced to about 2_s._ 6⅕_d._ per ton, or about
one-fourth of the existing cost, and the time occupied by the journey
would be lessened by two days. In both cases profit is included, at the
rate of 25 per cent.
In order, however, to have this substitution generally effected, a
large number of the existing canals would require to be deepened and
widened. The size of the craft suggested for the more economical trip
would be 84 feet by 12 feet by 6 feet 3 inches draft. A smaller vessel
would not answer the purpose. Now, there are comparatively few canals
that would at the present time admit of the passage of such craft, and
in some cases waterways that are nominally adapted for even larger
boats, are in such an imperfect condition of repair that they are not
suited for use. The canals of the independent companies that profess to
be adapted for vessels of this size, and the size of craft which they
severally admit, are—
───────────────────────────────┬───────────┬─────────────────────
│ Length of │
Canal. │Navigation.│ Size of Craft.
───────────────────────────────┼───────────┼─────────────────────
│ miles. │ ft. in. ft. in.
├───────────┼──────────────────────
Aire and Calder │ 80 │ 212 0 by 22 0
Bridgwater │ 97 │ 84 0 ” 15 0
Bude[52] │ 35½ │ 104 0 ” 29 6
Gloucester │ 16 │ 163 0 ” 29 6
Leicester and Northampton │ 24 │ 88 0 ” 15 6
Louth │ 11¾ │ 87 6 ” 15 6
Medway Navigation │ 7¾ │ 86 0 ” 23 0
Regent’s and Hertford Union │ 10¼ │ 90 0 ” 15 0
Stort │ 13½ │ 100 0 ” 13 6
Thames and Medway │ 9 │ 94 8 ” 22 8
Trent River │ 72 │ 90 0 ” 15 0
───────────────────────────────┼───────────┼─────────────────────
Total[53] │ 306¾ │
───────────────────────────────┴───────────┴─────────────────────
Here then we have only 306¾ miles of canal suited to the passage of
craft 84 feet by 12 feet, including the river Trent, which, of itself,
contributes 72 miles to the total. In other words, only about twenty
per cent. of the total independent waterways of the country can admit
craft that would enable them to realise the full value of economical
transport. Of the remainder, a great part of the navigations vary from
60 to 75 feet in width, so that presumably they could be adapted for
the larger sizes of craft without very material expense.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE CANALS AND NAVIGATIONS IN ENGLAND
AND WALES.]
The canals and navigations managed by public trusts are in a decidedly
better position. Commencing with the noble Severn, which, for a great
part of its canalised course of forty-four miles, admits craft 270
feet by 35 feet, there are the Thames (from London Bridge), the Lea,
the Weaver, and the Wye, which are suited to craft of considerable
dimensions, but these for the most part can hardly be described as
canals proper.
The canals that have passed into the possession of the railway
companies are not, as a rule, so well adapted for navigation as those
controlled by independent companies. On the face of it, indeed, there
is a presumption that the railways could not have acquired the property
if it had been as it should have been. The only railway canals that are
capable of admitting craft exceeding 84 feet in length are the Kennet
and Avon, 85 miles long; the Grantham Canal, 33½ miles long; and the
Nottingham Canal, 15 miles in length—about 133 miles in all. Out of
a total of 1333 miles of the derelict and converted canals, only the
Melton Mowbray, 14¾ miles in length, was adapted for the larger size of
vessels.
The preceding map shows the canals in England and Wales that are in the
hands of independent owners or public trusts, and in the possession of
railway companies, respectively.
Under the circumstances stated, it is perfectly evident that the canals
of England and Wales have not had a fair chance. Out of a total of
over 4000 miles of canal and river navigations, the proportion that is
suited to craft of 200 tons burden is almost fractional. With such a
size of vessel, cheap transport is difficult.
Between London and Birmingham the following canals form a system of
communication:—
───────────────────────────────────┬────────┬────────────────────────
│ Length │
Canal. │of Navi-│ Size of Locks.
│ gation.│
───────────────────────────────────┼────────┼────────────────────────
│ miles. │ ft. ft. in. ft. in.
Grand Junction, between Brentford │ 92 │ 80 by 14 6 by 4 6
and Braunston │ │
Oxford, between Braunston and │ 5½ │ no lock.
Napton Warwick and Napton, │ │
between those places │ 13½ │ 72 by 7 by 4 0
Warwick and Birmingham │ 21½ │ 72 by 7 by 4 0
├────────┤
│ 132½ │
│ │
Paddington Arm of the Grand │ │
Junction │ 13½ │
├────────┤
│ 146 │
───────────────────────────────────┴────────┴────────────────────────
The diagram on the next page shows the section of the line of canal
navigation between the Mersey and the Thames by way of Birmingham, the
total distance being 260 miles. It will be observed that the system is
an extensive one, embracing no fewer than twelve different waterways,
the more important of which are the Trent and Mersey, and the Grand
Junction canals.
[Illustration: SECTION OF THE LINE OF NAVIGATION FROM THE RIVER MERSEY
AT LIVERPOOL BY WAY OF BIRMINGHAM TO THE RIVER THAMES AT LIMEHOUSE,
LONDON.]
The principal advantages afforded by canals are thus concisely stated
by General Rundall:—
1. They admit of any class of goods being carried in the
manner and at the speed which proves to be most economical
and suitable for it, without the slightest interference with
any other class.
2. The landing or shipment of cargo is not necessarily
confined to certain fixed stations, as is obligatory on
railways, but boats can stop at any point on their journey
to load and unload, and discharge their cargoes direct over
the ship’s side.
3. The dead weight to be moved in proportion to the load is
much less.
4. The capacity for traffic is practically unlimited,
provided the locks are properly designed.
5. There is no obligation to maintain enormous or expensive
plant or establishments, as all those can, and would be,
provided by separate agencies and distinct capital. Thus a
large outlay in first cost and subsequent maintenance of
rolling stock is avoided.
6. There is an almost total absence of risk, and the
reduction of damage to cargo in transit, and consequently of
insurance, to a minimum.
On the other hand, the defects, besides those of original construction,
in existing British canals, are:—
1. A total absence of unity of management. For example, on
one of the routes from London to Liverpool there are seven
different canals and navigations; on another also there are
nine, and on a third ten different companies.
2. A want of uniformity of gauge in the locks, as well as in
the canals themselves.
3. With few exceptions they are not capable of being worked
by steam.
4. An unequal system of tolls.
5. The many links in the communications in the hands of the
railways paralyses any unity of action, and renders any
scheme of amalgamation between the several lines impossible.
If a restoration, or an extension of its ancient water lines, is to be
undertaken in Great Britain, it is essential that it should be devised
on the most improved principles. The chief points requiring attention
are the dimensions to be given to the main lines, with the best
relative proportion of width to depth; uniformity of gauge in the locks
or lifts, which should be so designed as to ensure changes of
level being overcome in the quickest time; the remodelling of the
cargo boats; the use of the electric light for night navigation; a
readjustment of the rates of toll; and suitable provision for loading
and discharging cargo.
The works of the canal and river engineer are of the most varied,
difficult, and onerous character. He has to deepen the beds of rivers,
so as to secure uniform depths and absolute immunity from dangers
of projecting rocks, reefs, or sandbanks. He has to divert the beds
of torrential streams, and construct new channels, as has been done
with the Thames, the Danube, the Tees, and many other rivers. He
has to overcome the obstacles to navigation presented by cataracts
like Niagara, St. Anthony’s, and other falls, by laying down a new
waterway, where locks or lifts will overcome the differences of level
or gradient represented by the cataracts. He has to feed artificial
waterways in such a fashion that they are never short of water. He has
to carry canals under mountains by tunnels, and through valleys by
aqueducts. He has to raise the level of his waterways for navigation
or for irrigation by barrage works, like those that are now being
carried out on the Nile at Damietta and Rosetta. He has to overcome
the differences of level in inland seas, as has been done by the St.
Mary’s Falls and Welland Canals on the American continent. He has to
join together seas that have been sundered by Nature, as in the case of
the Suez, Corinth, Panama, Nicaragua, and other canals. He has to build
training-walls, close passes, direct and confine currents, throw dams
across minor channels, concentrate low-water flows, rectify shifting
sandbars, equalise and distribute water-power, cleave through mountains
(as in the case of the Culebra Col, on the line of the Panama Canal),
raise rivers to the level of lakes, and lower lakes to sea-level
(as in the case of the proposed Nicaraguan Canal), and to deal with
many other phenomena that appear to the ordinary mind to be so many
impossibilities. The engineering history of some rivers is an epitome
of engineering achievements. The case of the Mississippi river, in
the United States, is a notable case in point. That splendid highway,
with its navigation of some 15,000 miles, and its infinite number of
tributaries, each of them a noble river in itself, has been regulated,
canalised, and otherwise improved at a hundred different points along
its course, with results that are notable in the annals of engineering
precedents. Most of our rivers, lakes, and canals have gone through the
same process. It has been the work of the engineer, and that alone,
which has conferred upon them the advantages possessed by our great
maritime highways at the present day. The extent of that work, and the
means whereby it has been accomplished, are the noblest memorial of
nineteenth century science.
One of the most important applications of canal navigation has been
in enabling the navigation of important rivers to be continued, where
Nature had interposed a barrier in the form of impassable cataracts or
otherwise. Examples of this sort are the Welland Canal between Lake
Erie and Ontario, which provides a navigation parallel to the Niagara
river, rendered impassable by the Falls of that name; the Des Moines
Canal, which overcomes the barrier interposed by the Des Moines Rapids,
on the Mississippi; the canal that overcomes, in the same way, the
difference of level in the Mississippi caused by the St. Anthony’s
Falls[54] near Minneapolis; and the Gotha Canal, which overcomes the
difficulties of Trolhätta Falls on the Gotha river in Sweden.
These achievements and responsibilities have not been carried so far in
Great Britain as in some other countries. The existing canal system of
that country is more primitive than that of any other leading European
State, and it is very much more imperfectly developed than those of
Canada and the United States. The Manchester Canal project, described
at a later stage of this work, will do something to wipe away this
reproach.
FOOTNOTES:
[40] ‘Journal of the Society of Arts,’ 1888.
[41] ‘Lives of the Engineers.’
[42] An excellent summary of these and other matters connected with
the early history of this enterprise is given in a little work
published in 1766, entitled “The History of Inland Navigation.”
[43] ‘History of Inland Navigations.’
[44] This refers to the South Staffordshire mine, which is hardly
worked now. The iron trade of that period was chiefly carried on in
Staffordshire, and nothing except a little charcoal iron was made
in the Cumberland district, where the annual production, including
Furness, is now over a million and a half tons per annum.
[45] It was thought a great thing that over five million quarters of
corn were exported from Great Britain in the five years ending 1750.
[46] ‘The History of Inland Navigations,’ &c., London, 1769.
[47] Ibid., p. 58.
[48] In the same district over a million tons are now annually sent
down the river Weaver.
[49] A detailed description of this Navigation is given in
Priestley’s ‘Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and
Railways of Great Britain,’ p. 385.
[50] Appendix to Report, p. 206.
[51] Report of Canal Committee of 1882, Appendix No. 9, p. 230.
[52] This, however, is not a canal of uniform size, and part of it
will only admit vessels 63 ft. by 14 ft. 7 in.
[53] This total does not include the Thames and Severn, the Wey, and
the Wisbech canals, because each of these has two dimensions, the
smaller of which is too limited to admit the passage of large craft,
and they are therefore unsuited, without trans-shipment of traffic,
for the purpose in view.
[54] At these falls 790,000 cubic feet of water drops from a height
of 75 feet every minute, giving some 112,000 horse-power, which is
utilised in manufactures of different kinds.