51875
The Grand Union Canal in Small Heath, Birmingham, West Midlands.
The Grand Union Canal is essentially composed of no fewer than eight separate canals, and was built to link the major cities of London, Birmingham, Nottingham and Leicester. The most important part of this network of watery highways was the Grand Junction Canal. This was started at around 1793 in order to create a ‘short cut’ between Brentford, on the western outskirts of London to Braunston in Northamptonshire. Unlike many of its predecessors, the Grand Junction was constructed with 14 foot ‘wide locks’ meaning that for the first time, boats travelling down to London were able to be breasted up, side by side in the locks, making for a much speedier passage.
Until then, most canal freight had been travelling to London via the Oxford Canal, which only had narrow locks, and which was plagued with interruptions to its water supplies from the beginning.
That is not to say that the Grand Junction was not beset with problems of its own – the engineer, William Jessop, suffered almost insurmountable difficulties when trying to drive tunnels through the outcrops of ironstone encountered near Braunston and Blisworth. As a result, a temporary tramway was constructed over the hill at Blisworth, until the tunnel was finally able to be opened on 25th March 1805.
In those days, the only way of getting the boats through the 3000 yard tunnel was by ‘legging’ – a laborious practice involving two individuals lying on their back on a board across the boat, propelling the craft through the tunnel by effectively walking along the walls. Eventually, a steam tug was introduced, and this continued to operate until 1936.
With competition from the railways having taken a large share of traffic in the second half of the 19th century, improvements in roads and vehicle technology in the early part of the 20th century meant that the lorry was also becoming a threat to the canals. Tolls had been reduced to compete with the railways, but there was little scope for further reduction. The Regent's Canal and the Grand Junction Canal agreed that amalgamation and modernisation were the only way to remain competitive.
The Grand Union Canal in its current form came into being in 1929 and was further extended in 1932. It was formed from the amalgamation of several different canals, and at 286 miles, is by far the longest merged canal in the UK, whilst the Leeds & Liverpool Canal for being 127 miles (204 km) and having parts of the now-extinct southern end of the Lancaster Canal, is considered the longest single Canal in the UK.
Information Sources:
narrowboatinfo.co.uk/the-grand-union-across-the-chilterns/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Union_Canal#The_Birmingham_%2...
51875
The Grand Union Canal in Small Heath, Birmingham, West Midlands.
The Grand Union Canal is essentially composed of no fewer than eight separate canals, and was built to link the major cities of London, Birmingham, Nottingham and Leicester. The most important part of this network of watery highways was the Grand Junction Canal. This was started at around 1793 in order to create a ‘short cut’ between Brentford, on the western outskirts of London to Braunston in Northamptonshire. Unlike many of its predecessors, the Grand Junction was constructed with 14 foot ‘wide locks’ meaning that for the first time, boats travelling down to London were able to be breasted up, side by side in the locks, making for a much speedier passage.
Until then, most canal freight had been travelling to London via the Oxford Canal, which only had narrow locks, and which was plagued with interruptions to its water supplies from the beginning.
That is not to say that the Grand Junction was not beset with problems of its own – the engineer, William Jessop, suffered almost insurmountable difficulties when trying to drive tunnels through the outcrops of ironstone encountered near Braunston and Blisworth. As a result, a temporary tramway was constructed over the hill at Blisworth, until the tunnel was finally able to be opened on 25th March 1805.
In those days, the only way of getting the boats through the 3000 yard tunnel was by ‘legging’ – a laborious practice involving two individuals lying on their back on a board across the boat, propelling the craft through the tunnel by effectively walking along the walls. Eventually, a steam tug was introduced, and this continued to operate until 1936.
With competition from the railways having taken a large share of traffic in the second half of the 19th century, improvements in roads and vehicle technology in the early part of the 20th century meant that the lorry was also becoming a threat to the canals. Tolls had been reduced to compete with the railways, but there was little scope for further reduction. The Regent's Canal and the Grand Junction Canal agreed that amalgamation and modernisation were the only way to remain competitive.
The Grand Union Canal in its current form came into being in 1929 and was further extended in 1932. It was formed from the amalgamation of several different canals, and at 286 miles, is by far the longest merged canal in the UK, whilst the Leeds & Liverpool Canal for being 127 miles (204 km) and having parts of the now-extinct southern end of the Lancaster Canal, is considered the longest single Canal in the UK.
Information Sources:
narrowboatinfo.co.uk/the-grand-union-across-the-chilterns/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Union_Canal#The_Birmingham_%2...