Thames and Severn Canal

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The Thames and Severn Canal at Brimscombe. The Stroud to Chalford part of the canal is mostly still in water, though sections have been filled in for development.

The Thames and Severn Canal is a former canal in Gloucestershire in the south of England. Its eastern end is Inglesham Lock near Lechlade where it connects with the River Thames. Its western end is Wallbridge near Stroud, where it connects with the end of the Stroudwater Navigation. It has one short arm (branch), from Siddington to the town of Cirencester.

The canal was completed in 1789. With the Stroudwater Navigation, which had been completed in 1779, it completed a link between the River Severn and the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal in the west and the River Thames in the east. Both the Stroudwater Navigation and Thames and Severn Canal are "broad canals". This means that boats with a 14 foot beam could use them.

The Thames and Severn Canal is just under 29 miles long and has 44 locks. Its summit is 363 feet above sea level and includes the 2.1 mile long Sapperton tunnel. At the time of its completion, this tunnel was the longest in England.

The canal always had problems with its water supply due to springs breaking through the clay lining of the canal bed. This meant that in summer when the springs receded the rate of water loss was greater than the available supply. In one of the attempts to rectify this problem, the size of the locks was reduced which resulted in their unusual double headed appearance. In a further attempt to prevent water loss, directly after the Coates portal of the tunnel (know as the King's Reach) the canal was lined with concrete rather than the normal puddle clay.

In 1819 another canal company, the North Wilts Canal, completed a link between the Wilts and Berks Canal at Swindon and the Thames and Severn Canal at Latton.

As the 19th century progressed, railway competition took much traffic from the canals. The Thames and Severn Canal was in economic difficulties by the 1890's. Much of the canal, including Sapperton Tunnel, was abandoned in 1927. A western section survived in use until 1933, and the Stroudwater Navigation was not abandoned until 1941.

[edit] Restoration

The canal towpath at South Cerney near Cirencester. Large trees have grown up in the 70 years since the canal was abandoned.

Volunteers for the Cotswold Canal Trust have been working since 1972 to restore both the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames and Severn Canal. The trust has rebuilt a number of locks and bridges and some small sections of the route are now in water. The first phase will be the reopening of the Stroudwater Navigation between Stonehouse and Wallbridge and the Thames and Severn Canal between Wallbridge and Brimscombe Port.

The original line of the Stroudwater Navigation between Stonehouse and Saul Junction on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal has been divided by both the construction of the M5 motorway and development of the A38 trunk road. The trust will conserve this section of the route until alternative links under these roads can be devised and funded.

Restoring the central section of the Thames and Severn Canal will also pose engineering difficulties: firstly to overcome the water supply that was always inadequate, and secondly Sapperton tunnel is blocked by two rock falls.

Restoration of the eastern section between Latton and Lechlade could be more promising. It would form a link between the upper Thames, the North Wilts Canal and Wilts and Berks Canal.

[edit] Trivia

In 1953, C. S. Forester published Hornblower and the Atropos (ISBN 0-316-28929-9), a historical novel set during the Napoleonic Wars, in which Horatio Hornblower travels along the canal (including the tunnel) to London.

[edit] External links

• Cotswold Canals Trust
• Excerpt from Hornblower and the Atropos