The Somerset Coal Canal (originally known as the Somersetshire Coal Canal) was a narrow canal in England, built around 1800. Its route began in basins at
Paulton
Paulton () is a large village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish, with a population of 5,302, located to the north of the Mendip Hills, very close to Norton Radstock in the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset (BANES), Eng ...
and
Timsbury, ran to nearby
Camerton, over two
aqueducts
Aqueduct may refer to:
Structures
*Aqueduct (bridge), a bridge to convey water over an obstacle, such as a ravine or valley
*Navigable aqueduct, or water bridge, a structure to carry navigable waterway canals over other rivers, valleys, railw ...
at
Dunkerton, through a tunnel at
Combe Hay
Combe Hay is a village and civil parish in the English county of Somerset. It falls within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The parish has a population of 147.
History
Combe Hay was known in the Domesday Book as Cumb. The pa ...
, then via
Midford
Midford is a village approximately south-south-east of Bath, Somerset, England. Although relatively small, it extends over 2 counties (Wiltshire and Somerset), is part of two unitary authorities (Wiltshire and Bath and North East Somerset) and i ...
and
Monkton Combe
Monkton Combe is a village and civil parish in north Somerset, England, south of Bath. The parish, which includes the hamlet of Tucking Mill, had a population of 554 in 2013. It was formerly known as Combe, owing to its geography, while it was ...
to
Limpley Stoke where it joined the
Kennet and Avon Canal. This link gave the
Somerset coalfield (which at its peak contained 80 collieries) access east toward London. The longest arm was long with 23
locks. From Midford an arm also ran via
Writhlington
Writhlington is a suburb of Radstock and north-west of Frome in the Bath and North East Somerset district of Somerset, England.
History
The ancient parish of Writhlington was part of the Kilmersdon Hundred.
Church
The parish church was dedic ...
to
Radstock
Radstock is a town and civil parish on the northern slope of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, about south-west of Bath and north-west of Frome. It is within the area of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset. The Radsto ...
, with a tunnel at
Wellow.
A feature of the canal was
the variety of methods used at Combe Hay to overcome height differences between the upper and lower reaches: initially by the use of
caisson lock
The caisson lock is a type of canal lock in which a narrowboat is floated into a sealed watertight box and raised or lowered between two different canal water levels. It was invented in the late 18th century as a solution to the problem posed ...
s; when this method failed an inclined plane trackway; and finally a flight of 22 conventional
locks.
The Radstock arm was never commercially successful and was replaced first with a
tramway in 1815 and later incorporated into the
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, also known as the S&D, SDJR or S&DJR, was an English railway line connecting Bath (in north-east Somerset) and Bournemouth (now in south-east Dorset but then in Hampshire), with a branch from Evercreec ...
. The Paulton route flourished for nearly 100 years and was very profitable, carrying high tonnages of coal for many decades; this canal helped carry the fuel that powered the nearby city of Bath.
By the 1880s, coal production declined as the various pits either ran out of coal or were flooded and then closed. In 1896 the main pump at Dunkerton, which maintained the canal water level, failed. The resultant lowering in level meant that only small loads could be transported, which reduced revenue, thus the canal company could not afford a replacement pump.
The canal became disused after 1898 and officially closed in 1902, being sold off to the various railway companies who were expanding their networks.
In September 2014, restoration work began on the canal section from Paulton to Radford, with the aim of restoring the entire canal to navigation in the future. The largest canal drydock in England has been revealed at Paulton; culverts and bridges nearby are being reinstated or rebuilt; and about of canal from Paulton to Radford has been in water since mid-2015.
History
Background
In 1763 coal was discovered in
Radstock
Radstock is a town and civil parish on the northern slope of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, about south-west of Bath and north-west of Frome. It is within the area of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset. The Radsto ...
and mining began in the area, but transport was a major problem because of the poor state of the roads. This cost and the potential for cheaper delivery of coal from south
Wales via the
Monmouthshire Canal led to the proposal for a canal which could transport the coal to
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
and
Wiltshire. Initial surveys were conducted during 1793 by
William Jessop and
William Smith under the direction of
John Rennie who presented the report on 14 October 1793 estimating the cost of construction of the canal at £80,000. Smith, who also worked at the Mearns Pit at
High Littleton, made the original observations leading to his important
stratification theory
In mathematics, especially in topology, a stratified space is a topological space that admits or is equipped with a stratification, a decomposition into subspaces, which are nice in some sense (e.g., smooth or flat).
A basic example is a subset o ...
by observing the
dips in the
geological strata through which the canal was cut. Smith became Surveyor to the company, but was dismissed in April 1799, apparently because he had used his position as surveyor to buy a local house at advantageous terms. He then set himself up in a private practice in Bath but was re-engaged by the company in 1811, to provide advice when repairs became necessary to the canal bed.
The canal was authorised by an
Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliament be ...
entitled "An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Canal, with certain Railways and Stone Roads, from several Collieries in the county of Somerset, to communicate with the intended Kennet and Avon Canal, in the parish of
Bradford, in the county of Wilts" of 1794,
and further detailed surveys were carried out by Robert Whitworth and John Sutcliffe, who was then appointed as chief engineer.
Construction
In May 1795, tenders were invited for the first section to be built from the meadows near Goosehard (or Gooseyard) near Paulton to Hopyard in the parish of Camerton. In June 1795 a contractor, Houghton & Son from Shropshire, started the terminus at Paulton meadows using local labour. This first section of the canal was completed on Monday 1 October 1798; the first load of coal carried on the canal was delivered to Bath via Dunkerton. Some 14 collieries at Timsbury and Paulton were connected to their respective basins in the meadow terminus by tramways; this required the construction of three tramway bridges over the Cam brook. A further bridge at Upper Radford was required over the canal; at this point tramways connected the Withy Mills and Radford workings. The course of the Cam brook was modified at various places to protect the canal from erosion. In 1799 William Whitmore and his partner, Norton, offered to build a balance (or geometrical) lift without payment, on condition that if successful they were to have £17,300 and a royalty of 4 pence per ton of goods passed.
The design of the
caisson lock
The caisson lock is a type of canal lock in which a narrowboat is floated into a sealed watertight box and raised or lowered between two different canal water levels. It was invented in the late 18th century as a solution to the problem posed ...
at
Combe Hay
Combe Hay is a village and civil parish in the English county of Somerset. It falls within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The parish has a population of 147.
History
Combe Hay was known in the Domesday Book as Cumb. The pa ...
was not a success: on 15 February 1798 the first descent failed. Mr Weldon (the inventor) made one successful descent on 7 June and said "I will undertake to pass 1,500
tons of goods through the lock in 12 hrs". Tenders were invited on 28 June for further constructions. Two more attempts to use the lock took place on 11 April and 2 May, but only the latter was successful. By 22 August 1799 the second rebuilding of the caisson had been abandoned. It was replaced by three locks and an inclined plane trackway, but the trackway was not successful either, and the company proposed to raise more money to finance the building of a flight of 19 locks to replace it, the use of which would incur an additional toll of one shilling per ton on all traffic.
This was vigorously opposed by the owners of the
Kennet and Avon Canal and the
Wilts and Berks Canal
The Wilts & Berks Canal is a canal in the historic counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, linking the Kennet and Avon Canal at Semington near Melksham, to the River Thames at Abingdon. The North Wilts Canal merged with it to become a ...
, on the grounds that the price of coal to their customers would be too high. After negotiation, the company obtained a new Act of Parliament on 30 April 1802, which authorised the formation of a separate body called "The Lock Fund of the Somerset Coal Canal Company", with powers to raise the sum of £45,000. The money was raised by the Kennet and Avon, the Wilts and Berks and the Somerset Coal Canal each contributing £15,000, and the one shilling surcharge was to be levied until the capital had been repaid, after which it would cease.
[L. J. Dalby (2000) ''The Wilts and Berks Canal'', Oakwood Press, ] The act set the tonnage rates to be charged:
Fractions of a Mile to pay for Half a Mile, and of a Ton as a Quarter of a Ton; Rates for Wharfage to be determined by the Company. In addition to the above Rates, One Shilling per Ton is paid on all Goods to the Lock Fund, which also receives Three Farthings per Ton from the Coal Canal company.
The boats were weighed at Midford, where a
weigh house
A weighhouse or weighing house is a public building at or within which goods are weighed. Most of these buildings were built before 1800, prior to the establishment of international standards for weights, and were often a large and representative ...
was built in 1831. Boats were floated into a one-ended lock, the gate closed and the water drained. This left the boat resting on a cradle suspended by angled rods attached to a beam which took the weight of the boat. One-pound weights were then added to a pan, with one pound being equivalent to one
hundredweight
The hundredweight (abbreviation: cwt), formerly also known as the centum weight or quintal, is a British imperial and US customary unit of weight or mass. Its value differs between the US and British imperial systems. The two values are disti ...
(), until the system was in equilibrium, then the weight was recorded. The weigh house at Midford was one of only four known to have been built in England and Wales.
Operation
The canal opened in 1805
and was used for passenger traffic as well as coal. In 1814 the
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, found ...
monks who came to
Downside Abbey
Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged eleven to eighteen. Both ...
are said to have used the canal for the last stage of their journey. Another cargo carried by the canal was limestone from
Combe Down
Combe Down is a village on the outskirts of Bath, England in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Somerset.
Combe Down village consists predominantly of 18th and 19th century Bath stone-built villas ...
. The peak level of cargo carried was in 1838 at 138,403 tons
resulting in over £17,000 of tolls being paid. Cargoes of over 100,000 tons were common until the 1870s when the decline in output of coal from the various Somerset coalpits, along with competition from the railways, dramatically reduced the canal's profitability. When the main pump at Dunkerton failed it was not replaced and there was not sufficient water for continual operation of the locks. The canal went into liquidation in 1894; it closed in 1898 and was finally abandoned in 1904 when it was sold to the Great Western Railway for £2,000, and used as a branch of the Bristol and North Somerset Railway. The closure caused problems across the Somerset coalfield especially to the pits along the Paulton branch, which had relied on the canal for transportation.
The Radstock branch
When the Radstock branch was constructed, it was intended to link it to the main line of the Paulton branch at Midford, which was at a lower level at this point. The Lock Fund created in 1802 was to have paid for the construction of the locks, but because there was little regular traffic on the branch, the company built one lock, an aqueduct over the Midford Brook, and a short tramway to bridge the gap.
[ This contributed to the economic failure of the branch, and its replacement by a tramway in 1815. The tramway was laid along the former canal's towpath. It was single-line with passing places every , and was originally laid using cast iron plates on stone block sleepers, but was relaid using wrought iron plates.]
Engineers and surveyors
* William Bennet (d. 1826)
* John Hodgkinson
* Benjamin Outram
Benjamin Outram (1 April 1764 – 22 May 1805) was an English civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. He was a pioneer in the building of canals and tramways.
Life
Born at Alfreton in Derbyshire, he began his career assisting his father J ...
(1764–1805)
* John Rennie (1761–1821)
* William Smith (1769–1839)
* John Sutcliffe
* Robert Weldon
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
(?1754–1810)
* Robert Whitworth (d. 1799)
Data from Jim Shead's Waterways Information.[
]
Combe Hay and the caisson lock
The fall over the route is , which meant problems with supplying adequate water. The Cam brook
The Cam brook is a small river in Somerset, England. It rises near Hinton Blewitt, flows through Cameley, Temple Cloud, Camerton, Dunkerton and Combe Hay. It then joins the Wellow Brook at Midford to form Midford Brook before joining the ...
was an inadequate source of water above Camerton, and the mills along it had water rights. Each narrow boat
A narrowboat is a particular type of canal boat, built to fit the narrow locks of the United Kingdom. The UK's canal system provided a nationwide transport network during the Industrial Revolution, but with the advent of the railways, commer ...
travelling through the series of locks (22 of them each deep) with a 25-ton load of coal caused 85 tons of water to be discharged into the brook below the locks. As a result, the canal was designed with all 22 locks in one flight near Combe Hay and a pumping engine to raise water from the Cam; this was the first canal to depend entirely on pumping.
A potential solution to the water supply problem was the use of caisson locks as proposed by Robert Weldon
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, three of which could replace the 22 conventional locks, because it wasted no water, but the technology had only been tried in a one-third scale prototype. Each lock was long and deep and contained a closed wooden box which could take a barge. This box moved up and down in the deep pool of water, which never left the lock. The box was demonstrated to the Prince Regent (later George IV), but had engineering problems and was never successful commercially or built elsewhere.
It was temporarily replaced with an inclined plane by Benjamin Outram
Benjamin Outram (1 April 1764 – 22 May 1805) was an English civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. He was a pioneer in the building of canals and tramways.
Life
Born at Alfreton in Derbyshire, he began his career assisting his father J ...
who had successfully installed inclined planes at the Peak Forest Canal
The Peak Forest Canal is a narrow ( gauge) locked artificial waterway in northern England. It is long and forms part of the connected English/Welsh inland waterway network.
Route and features
General description
The canal consists of two leve ...
in Derbyshire, whilst 22 locks and a Boulton & Watt Steam Pumping Station, capable of lifting 5,000 tons of water in 12 hours, were built to the latest design with metal plate clad wooden gates.
Construction
The two images show a spillway drain from 1796 (uncovered in 2009–10) at Upper Midford, a location where a caisson to take the canal from the level to the level at Midford Aqueduct was proposed.
Each caisson would have had such a drain for maintenance purposes over the exit arch made to the same dimensions. The following extract from the ''Bath Herald'' newspaper provides the details of the chosen sites:
''14 Jun 1798 Travel: Somerset coal canal – caisson cisterns to be formed at Combe Hay & nr. Midford. Sealed proposals reqd. on embanking & excavation with the masonry; or each separately – send to sub-committee, Waldegrave Arms, Radstock 20 Jul Plans & specs. on appl.''
For further Newspaper articles see s:Bath Georgian Newspaper - Somerset Coal Canal
Paulton and Timsbury basins
located between the villages of Paulton
Paulton () is a large village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish, with a population of 5,302, located to the north of the Mendip Hills, very close to Norton Radstock in the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset (BANES), Eng ...
and Timsbury was the terminus of the northern branch of the Somerset Coal Canal and was a central point for at least 15 collieries around Paulton
Paulton () is a large village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish, with a population of 5,302, located to the north of the Mendip Hills, very close to Norton Radstock in the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset (BANES), Eng ...
, Timsbury and High Littleton, which were connected to the canal by tramroads. Timsbury basin was some to the west of Paulton basin.
On the northern side of Timsbury basin was the terminus for the tramroads which served Old Grove, Prior's, Tyning and Hayeswood pits, with a branch line to Amesbury and Mearns pits. Parts of this line were still in use in 1873, probably all carrying horse-drawn wagons of coal. Tramroads on the southern side of the Paulton basin served Brittens, Littleborrok, Paulton Ham, Paulton Hill, Simons Hill terminating at Salisbury Colliery. In addition the Paulton Foundry used this line. The entire line was disused by 1871 as were the collieries it served.
The area has been designated as an 'area of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance' under section 69 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.
Coming of the railway
The first railway to affect the canal was the Bristol and North Somerset Railway
The Bristol and North Somerset Railway was a railway line in the West of England that connected Bristol with Radstock, through Pensford and further into northern Somerset, to allow access to the Somerset Coalfield. The line ran almost due so ...
's Frome to Radstock line completed in 1854 which took traffic away from the tramway. It finally closed in 1874 with the Somerset and Dorset Railway
The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, also known as the S&D, SDJR or S&DJR, was an English railway line connecting Bath (in north-east Somerset) and Bournemouth (now in south-east Dorset but then in Hampshire), with a branch from Evercreech ...
's extension to Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
, built along its route from Radstock to Midford. Another branch line was constructed in 1882 from Hallatrow to Camerton, running alongside the canal for the last of its route.
The Great Western Railway built a railway line (the Bristol and North Somerset Railway
The Bristol and North Somerset Railway was a railway line in the West of England that connected Bristol with Radstock, through Pensford and further into northern Somerset, to allow access to the Somerset Coalfield. The line ran almost due so ...
) over some parts of the canal route from Limpley Stoke to Camerton, where it joined the existing 1882 branch line from Hallatrow to Camerton. This opened in 1910 for passenger and goods traffic, closed for the First World War, re-opened after the war, ran for passengers only for two more years in the mid-1920s and finally closed to all traffic in the 1950s. The line was used in the 1950s Ealing comedy
The Ealing comedies is an informal name for a series of comedy films produced by the London-based Ealing Studios during a ten-year period from 1947 to 1957. Often considered to reflect Britain's post-war spirit, the most celebrated films in the ...
film ''The Titfield Thunderbolt
''The Titfield Thunderbolt'' is a 1953 British comedy film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Stanley Holloway, Naunton Wayne, George Relph and John Gregson. The screenplay concerns a group of villagers trying to keep their branch line ...
''.
Present day
The route of the canal lies in a largely agricultural area, dotted with small villages linked by minor roads. Several stretches of the Paulton and Timsbury basins branch are easily visible, and various stretches and features were surveyed in 2014. Full restoration of the entire length from Paulton to Dundas is being explored. Four locks on the original canal route at Combe Hay have been buried; one by a railway embankment, and three overfilled by with building waste since the 1960s. It may no longer be feasible to reinstate the original locks 16, 17, 18 and 19 structures for this section.
At Upper Midford the canal is blocked entirely at the accommodation bridge by the high embankment of the railway that crosses it. Most of the canal features along the entire route are on private land but the towpath survives in places as a right of way, while the later railway between Midford to Wellow has been surfaced to form part of National Cycle Route 24
National Cycle Route 24, otherwise known as the ''Colliers Way'' currently runs from Dundas Aqueduct to Frome via Radstock, although it is intended to provide a continuous cycle route from Bristol and South Wales to Southampton and Portsmouth.
...
. It has been proposed that a statue, commissioned by Sustrans
Sustrans is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network.
Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United Kin ...
, of William Smith, the father of English Geology, will be sited next to the path on the line of the canal commemorating his work as its surveyor and his recognition of the significance of rock strata.
Restoration works
Limpley Stoke
The stretch at Brassknocker Basin where the canal joins the Kennet and Avon at Dundas Aqueduct
Dundas Aqueduct () carries the Kennet and Avon Canal over the River Avon (the Somerset / Wiltshire border) and the Wessex Main Line railway from Bath to Westbury. The aqueduct is near Monkton Combe, Somerset, and is about southeast of the ci ...
was restored during the 1980s and is now a thriving marina with moorings. Excavations of the old stop lock (at the junction with the Kennet and Avon Canal) showed that this had originally been a broad () lock that at some point was narrowed to by moving the lock wall.
Paulton and Timsbury basins
Work started in 2013 to reveal and excavate the drydock next to the eastern Paulton Basin. This drydock appears to be the largest drydock anywhere on the canal system in England, being about wide and long, large enough for three full-length narrowboats to be worked on at the same time.
The drainage culvert at the southeast corner of the drydock was rebuilt in December 2013, and the drydock itself completely excavated in April 2014. The entrance to the drydock, at the western end, was surmounted by a bridge, partially demolished in 2002 but rebuilt during 2014.[
]
Withy Mills
Excavations began in May 2014 at Terminus Bridge; the arch was missing and the abutments were found to be in poor condition; an earth bund between the abutments carried the public footpath and stopped the water draining from the Paulton and Timsbury Basins. A new earth bund was installed about west of Terminus Bridge to stop the water and allow work to continue on the bridge.
During excavations a drainage culvert was discovered about west of Terminus bridge. Work resumed in September and November 2014 to batter and reshape the canal embankments. Excess topsoil was removed and the towpath reinstated on the stretch to the east from Terminus bridge for about . On the same stretch a retaining wall was discovered in the south embankment continuing for about , possibly built as a repair to a weak section of canal banking. Vertical infills of white clay have been used along this wall.
Grant to study history of the canal
The canal has been studied for many years with exploration and restoration work being undertaken in Wellow and elsewhere. Particular effort, so far unsuccessful, has been put into trying to find the site of the second and third caisson locks at Combe Hay. In October 2006 a grant of £20,000 was obtained from the Heritage Lottery Fund, by the Somersetshire Coal Canal Society in association with Bath & North East Somerset Council
Bath and North East Somerset Council is the local council for the district of Bath and North East Somerset in Somerset, England.
It is a unitary authority, with the powers and functions of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined ...
and the Avon Industrial Buildings Trust to carry out a technical study on one of the locks and associated structures at Combe Hay. Many of the locks and associated workings are listed buildings.
Route and points of interest
See also
*Canals of Great Britain
The canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a varied history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the Industrial Revolution, to today's ro ...
*History of the British canal system
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Somersetshire Coal Canal Society website
Download a detailed route map of the Somersetshire Coal Canal
image & map of mile marker seen nr the route of the Somerset Coal Canal
{{good article
1805 establishments in England
1904 disestablishments in England
Bath and North East Somerset
Canals in Somerset
History of Somerset
Industrial archaeological sites in Somerset
Somerset coalfield
Canals opened in 1805
fr:Canal à charbon du Somersetshire