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 67,000l. 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 1,200,000l. 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.