George Hayne (died 1723) was a merchant and entrepreneur who was responsible for the creation of the Trent Navigation in England and hence the development of

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The ...

as the pre-eminent beer brewing and exporting town. Hayne was the son of John and Elizabeth Hayne of Ashbourne Green at

Ashbourne, Derbyshire Ashbourne is a market town in the Derbyshire Dales district in Derbyshire, England. Its population was measured at 8,377 in the 2011 census and was estimated to have grown to 9,163 by 2019. It has many historical buildings and independent sho ...

, and was originally a merchant at

Wirksworth Wirksworth is a market town in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England. Its population of 5,038 in the 2011 census was estimated at 5,180 in 2019. Wirksworth contains the source of the River Ecclesbourne. The town was granted a mar ...

. In 1711, he obtained the lease of rights to undertake the Trent Navigation from Lord Paget. Paget had revived a scheme to make the River Trent navigable between Burton and Wilden Ferry, in

Castle Donington Castle Donington is a market town and civil parish in Leicestershire, England, on the edge of the National Forest and close to East Midlands Airport. History The name 'Donington' means 'farm/settlement connected with Dunna'. Another sugge ...

. Paget was named as undertaker in an Act of 1699, which empowered a toll of up to three pence per ton and authorised a levy of £600 from the inhabitants of Burton, but by 1711 had made little progress. Hayne was to pay £10 a year for the 31-year lease and went into partnership with Leonard Fosbrooke, a carrier based at Wilden Ferry. He set about quickly creating and opening the navigation and by 1713 had built a warehouse near Burton Bridge. He leased part of Burton Abbey to construct a wharf and extended the navigation to there. The Trent navigation was opened for general merchandise and trade, giving a direct navigation route for large boats to

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south- ...

on the east coast and onwards by the coastal route to London and across the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

to countries bordering the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. The opportunities provided by a relatively gentle way of transporting of bottles of ale, were not missed by the

brewers of Burton Burton upon Trent has a long history of brewing, at one time exporting beer throughout the world and accounting for a quarter of UK beer production; emulation of Burton water in brewing is called Burtonisation. Much of the town was given over t ...

whose ale already had a high reputation. The earliest commercial breweries were set up in the High Street and Horninglow Street specifically to be near the river. An extensive timber trade also developed using the boats returning from the Baltic. Hayne, with his partner, operated the navigation as a strongly defended monopoly, causing discontent among merchants and encouraging interloping. He died in 1723 and the lease, and the navigation rights passed to his brother Henry and business was continued as the "Burton Boat Company". After the opening of the

Trent and Mersey Canal The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of M ...

and the

Napoleonic blockade The Continental Blockade (), or Continental System, was a large-scale embargo against British trade by Napoleon Bonaparte against the British Empire from 21 November 1806 until 11 April 1814, during the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon issued the Berlin ...

of Continental trade the Boat Company were unable to compete and closed the navigation in 1805.C. C. Owen, ''Burton on Trent: the development of industry'' (Phillimore, Chichester 1978), 13–20.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayne, George 1723 deaths People from Ashbourne, Derbyshire English businesspeople English canal engineers 17th-century births