Tixall Wide, also known as Tixall Broad or The Broad Water, is a body of water that forms part of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal near

Tixall Tixall is a small village and civil parish in the Stafford district, in the English county of Staffordshire lying on the western side of the Trent valley between Rugeley and Stone, Staffordshire and roughly 4 miles east of Stafford. The populat ...

in Staffordshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, to the south of the former Tixall Hall. The lake was probably created during the construction of the canal in 1771. At that time, the hall was owned by Thomas Clifford, the fourth son of

Hugh Clifford, 3rd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh Hugh Clifford, 3rd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (14 April 1700- 26 March 1732) of Ugbrooke House near Chudleigh in Devon, was a peer. Origins He was the son of Hugh Clifford, 2nd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (d.1730) by his wife Anne Preston. C ...

, and the grounds had been designed on the advice of the landscape architect Lancelot "Capability" Brown. It is said Clifford "gave permission for the canal to pass through his land on the condition that it was made ... wide enough to look like a lake from the house". and thus in order not to spoil the view. The towpath is a very popular overnight mooring spot. Boaters moored here, or just passing through, have an excellent view of the magnificent Elizabethan

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mo ...

that is the only remaining part of Tixall Hall. It has also been suggested that the canal was routed to utilise a lake that already existed, in which the

angler Angler may refer to: * A fisherman who uses the fishing technique of angling * ''Angler'' (video game) * The angler, ''Lophius piscatorius'', a monkfish * More generally, any anglerfish in the order Lophiiformes * '' Angler: The Cheney Vice Pres ...

and writer Izaak Walton had learned to fish.

References

Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal {{UK-canal-stub