The English Canal () was a planned and partially completed

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 ...

project that would connect the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

fields around

Kiruna (; ; ; ) is the northernmost Stad (Sweden), city in Sweden, situated in the province of Lapland, Sweden, Lapland. It had 17,002 inhabitants in 2016 and is the seat of Kiruna Municipality (population: 23,167 in 2016) in Norrbotten County. The c ...

and

Gällivare Gällivare (; ; or ; or ; ) is a locality and the seat of Gällivare Municipality in Norrbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 8,449 inhabitants in 2010. The town was founded in the 17th century. Together with nearby towns Malmberget ...

with

Luleå Luleå ( , , locally ; ; ) is a Cities in Sweden, city on the coast of northern Sweden, and the County Administrative Boards of Sweden, capital of Norrbotten County, the northernmost county in Sweden. Luleå has 48,728 inhabitants in its urban ...

and the

Gulf of Bothnia The Gulf of Bothnia (; ; ) is divided into the Bothnian Bay and the Bothnian Sea, and it is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea, between Finland's west coast ( East Bothnia) and the northern part of Sweden's east coast ( West Bothnia an ...

. The ore fields were discovered as early as in the 1650s, but due to their remote location in the sparsely populated areas in northern Sweden, far from both the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

coast and the coast of the Bothnian Gulf, it was very hard to transport the ore to any port from where it could be shipped to its ultimate destination. All attempts during the centuries to efficiently transport the ore failed. But with the introduction of the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, new possibilities arose. Some earlier plans included horse-drawn trains and regular roads, but in the end it was decided to combine the new railway technology with the ancient boat transport. A railway line was planned for the stretch from the iron ore fields to the place where Stora Lule River and Lilla Lule River joined at Storbacken. The remaining length of the transport could be made possible by canalising the rest of

Lule River Lule River (, , ''Luleälven'') is a major river in Sweden, rising in northern Sweden and flowing southeast for before reaching the Gulf of Bothnia at Luleå. It is the second largest river by watershed area and length in Norrbotten County (afte ...

from Storbacken down to Luleå. This would bypass the rapids of Edefors and Hedenforsarna which would allow the ore to be transported by boat all the way to the Gulf of Bothnia. The decision to construct the canal was taken 1863, and the Gellivare Company Limited based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

was contracted for the project. They were backed by

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of property. Types of in ...

s and also received investments from the Swedish state. The excavation was started 14 October 1864 and by 1865 no less than 1,486 men were working on the project. But the English company soon experienced an economic crisis, which led to the stagnation of the construction in 1866 and 1867, until the company went bankrupt on

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

1867 which marked the end of the project. In 1884-1888 a railway was built all the way between Gällivare and Luleå, the

Iron Ore Line The Iron Ore Line () is a long railway line between Riksgränsen and Boden in Norrbotten County, Sweden, owned by Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration). The line also contains two branches, from Kiruna to Svappavaara and from G� ...

. Remains of the canal project can still be seen on several places in

Norrbotten Norrbotten (), sometimes called North Bothnia, is a Swedish province (''landskap'') in northernmost Sweden. It borders south to Västerbotten, west to Swedish Lapland, and east to Finland. Administration The traditional provinces of Swede ...

and

Swedish Lapland Lapland, also known by its Swedish name Lappland, is a province in northernmost Sweden. It borders the Swedish provinces of Jämtland, Ångermanland, Västerbotten, and Norrbotten, as well as Norway and Finland. Nearly a quarter of Sweden's ...

, for example in Boden. These remains are sometimes called ''Engelska graven'', which is a play on the Swedish word ''grav'' which can mean both "

ditch A ditch is a small to moderate trench created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ...

"/"

trench A trench is a type of digging, excavation or depression in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a swale (landform), swale or a bar ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or trapping ...

" and "

grave A grave is a location where a cadaver, dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is burial, buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of buria ...

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

References

;Print * Nyström, Bror Oscar (ed.) & Skeppstedt, Sven (ed.) (1990). ''Boden: fästningen, garnisonen, samhället.'' Västervik: Ekblad. ISBN N/A. ;Online * Arnholm, Bosse (2003)
Engelska kanalen
Retrieved 4 Mar., 2006. {{coord missing, Sweden Canals in Sweden Norrbotten Lapland (Sweden) Abandoned canal projects 1860s in Sweden 19th century in Norrbotten County

See also

References