The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal (also known as the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal) is a

ship canal A ship canal is a canal especially intended to accommodate ships used on the oceans, seas, or lakes to which it is connected. Definition Ship canals can be distinguished from barge canals, which are intended to carry barges and other vessel ...

in the west of England, between

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

and

Sharpness Sharpness ( ) is an English port in Gloucestershire, one of the most inland in Britain, and eighth largest in the South West. It is on the River Severn at , at a point where the tidal range, though less than at Avonmouth downstream ( typical sp ...

; for much of its length it runs close to the tidal

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

, but cuts off a significant loop in the river, at a once-dangerous bend near

Arlingham Arlingham is a village and civil parish in the Stroud District of Gloucestershire, England. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 410, increasing to 459 at the 2011 census (226 males, 233 females with 176 Households). The parish contai ...

. It was once the broadest and deepest canal in the world. The canal is long.

Canal planning and construction

Conceived in the

canal mania Canal Mania was the period of intense canal building in England and Wales between the 1790s and 1810s, and the speculative frenzy that ensued in the early 1790s.British Canals. The Standard History. Joseph Boughey and Charles Hadfield. Backgro ...

period of the late 18th century, the Gloucester and

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

Ship Canal scheme (as it was originally named) was started by

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

Robert Mylne. In 1793 an Act of Parliament was obtained authorising the raising of a total of £200,000.Hadfield (1969), p.342 The project rapidly encountered financial difficulties – to such an extent that Mylne left the project in 1798. By mid-1799 costs had reached £112,000 but only of the canal had been completed.Hadfield (1969), p.344 Robert Mylne's role was taken over by

James Dadford James Dadford (born 1769) was an English canal engineer. Career He was engineer of the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal from 1795 to 1800. His father Thomas Dadford, and brothers Thomas Dadford, Jr. and John Dadford were also canal engineers. ...

who had originally been engaged as resident engineer on the project in 1795.Hadfield (1969), p.343 Lack of funds resulted in the company ceasing to employ Dadford in 1800.

Decade of capital raising

Between 1800 and 1810 various attempts were made to raise money to allow further building but they came to nothing. Money from tolls and rents allowed for some improvements to be made to the basin at Gloucester in 1813.Hadfield (1969), p.345

Eventual completion

From 1817 onwards the

Poor Employment Act The Poor Employment Act 1817 (officially the Public Works Loans Act 1817), 57 Geo III was an act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act was passed in order ''"to authorise the issue of Exchequer Bills and the Advance of Money out ...

meant it was possible for the company to borrow money from the

Exchequer Bill Loan Commission The Exchequer Bill Loan Commission of the United Kingdom was set up under the Poor Employment Act, Poor Employment Act 1817, to help finance public work projects that would generate employment. Commissioners included Thomas Telford and Francis Ludl ...

. This along with further share issues provided enough money to bring the scheme to completion.Hadfield (1969), p.346 After these significant delays, the canal opened in April 1827. In the course of its construction the canal had cost £440,000 (). As opened the canal was wide, deep and could take craft of up to . The longer of the two locks onto the canal proper was long.Hadfield (1969), p.348

Eventual dividends

By the middle of the 19th century it proved possible to pay a small dividend, the debt to the Exchequer Bill Loan Commission having been repaid with the help of a loan of £60,000 from the

Pelican Life Assurance Company Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before s ...

. In 1871 the last of the debts incurred in the course of funding the canal including the Pelican loan were paid off.Hadfield (1969), p.351 Where the

Severn Railway Bridge The Severn Railway Bridge (historically called the Severn Bridge) was a bridge carrying the railway across the River Severn between Sharpness and Lydney in Gloucestershire, England. It was built in the 1870s by the Severn Bridge Railway Co ...

(completed in 1879) passed over the canal, a swing section was constructed to avoid restricting headroom.

Purton hulks

In 1909, following a collapse in the bank of the river, the canal company's chief engineer A. J. Cullis called for old vessels to be run aground along the bank of the Severn, near

Purton Purton is a large village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about northwest of the centre of Swindon. The parish includes the village of Purton Stoke and the hamlets of Bentham, Hayes Knoll, Purton Common, Restrop, The Fox and Widham. Th ...

, to create a makeshift tidal erosion barrier to reinforce the narrow strip of land between the river and canal.

Barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

trow A trow was a type of cargo boat found in the past on the rivers Severn and Wye in Great Britain and used to transport goods. Features The mast could be taken down so that the trow could go under bridges, such as the bridge at Worcester and ...

s and

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

s were "hulked" at high tide, and have since filled with

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

. More boats have been added, including the schooner ''Katherine Ellen'' which was impounded in 1921 for running guns to the

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

, the Kennet barge ''Harriett'', and ferrocement barges built in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1999 Paul Barnett started a privately funded research project to record the 81 vessels at the site, recognised as the largest ships' graveyard in mainland Britain. In 2010

British Waterways British Waterways, often shortened to BW, was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom. It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks in England, Scotland ...

took control of the site in an attempt to protect it.

Modern times

In 1905 traffic exceeded one million tons for the first time.Hadfield (1969), p.352 Oil was added to the list of cargoes carried by the canal, with bulk oil carriers taking fuel to storage tanks sited to the south of Gloucester. In 1937 the canal was navigated by the

submarines A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely o ...

and . The canal was nationalized in 1948. At the same time the Sharpness Dock Police which had policed the dock since 1874 were absorbed into the

British Transport Police , nativename = , abbreviation = BTP , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = British Transport Police Logo.svg , logocaption = Logo of the British Transport Police , badge = , badgecaption = , f ...

. In 1955 the Board of Survey of Canals and Inland Waterways released a report that, among other things, described the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal as carrying substantial traffic and offering scope for commercial development. The River Cam, which is subject to accretion due to industrial and agricultural runoff, is an important feeder for Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. Today, the canal can be used by boats up to in length, in beam and in height. The maximum draft is . By the mid-1980s commercial traffic had largely come to a halt with the canal being given over to pleasure cruisers with the exception of a few passages by grain barges.Green (1999), p.27 The oil trade ceased in 1985 with the closure of the petroleum depot at

Quedgeley Quedgeley is a suburban town of Gloucester, located 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southwest of the city centre, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. A thin strip of land between the Severn and the Gloucester Ship Canal occupies the west, and the ...

.Paget-Tomlinson (2006), pp.124–125 In order to allow the A430 Gloucester southwestern bypass to be built the canal had to be diverted. This new cut eliminated a major problem which had plagued commercial traffic since opening: the sharp double bend in the canal. The new section of channel was opened on 6 May 2006. In January 2009 a project began to replace the Patch Bridge

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

with a motor powered design instead of the former hand-cranked system. The canal links directly to the

Stroudwater Navigation The Stroudwater Navigation is a canal in Gloucestershire, England which linked Stroud to the River Severn. It was authorised in 1776, although part had already been built, as the proprietors believed that an Act of Parliament obtained in 173 ...

at Saul Junction. File:Dutch Barge passing a swing bridge, on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.jpg, Motorised Dutch Barge passing a

on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal File:Gloucester and Sharpness Canal at Patch Bridge.jpg, The canal at Patch Bridge, near the Wildfowl Reserve at

Slimbridge Slimbridge is a village and civil parish near Dursley in Gloucestershire, England. It is best known as the home of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's WWT Slimbridge, Slimbridge Reserve which was started by Sir Peter Scott. Canal and Patch Bridg ...

File:Berkeley.and.sharpness.canal.ts.jerwood.arp.jpg, The

Sea Cadet Sea cadets are members of a sea cadet corps, a formal uniformed youth organisation for young people with an interest in waterborne activities and or the national navy. The organisation may be sponsored in whole or in part by the navy or a naval s ...

training ship TS ''John Jerwood'' passes through Patch Bridge on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal, on its way to the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

File:Gloucester and Sharpness.JPG, The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal at Saul Junction File:G&SCanal.JPG, The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal at the entrance to Gloucester docks

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Gloucester Docks and the Sharpness Canal Past, Present and Future
* ttp://gsms.mister.red/ images & map of mile pegs (milestones) seen along the Gloucester & Sharpness canalbr> Stroud Voices (of local canals) - oral history site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gloucester And Sharpness Canal Canals linked to the River Severn Canals in England

Canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

Stroud District Canals in Gloucestershire Works of Thomas Telford Canals opened in 1827 CGloucester 1827 establishments in England Gloucester Docks