The Stamford Canal book - Introduction

The Stamford Canal

(One of Britain's Earliest (Post Roman) Canals?)

The use of rivers as means of inland communication is probably as old as mankind. Certainly rivers were vital channels of communication in the ancient civilisations of the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. China is thought to be the first nation to build an artificial waterway (canal) with the opening, in 610 A.D., of the 600 mile long Grand Canal.

Careful reading of Charles Hadfield's book 'The Canal Age' has made it clear that there were earlier canals in England. It is nevertheless generally thought that the first post Roman canal was that built by the Earl of Bridgewater serving Manchester with coal from his mines and quarries. The Bridgewater canal was opened in 1776 (more than a hundred years after the first recorded transport of goods on the Stamford Canal). This fact led the Grantham Group to ponder the possibility that they were actually researching a canal that could claim to be the first real commercial canal in England, possibly the precursor of 'The Industrial Revolution'!

When, in the past, the Stamford to Market Deeping waterway has been referred to as a 'canal' it was dismissed, by some, as a mere 'navigation' (not a canal at all). It would appear that the term 'canal' had been reserved for a 'superior' type of waterway. A 'navigation' should not deem to rise above its station by claiming to be something it isn't! It is certainly true that the construction of the Stamford Canal came about because of the 'Navigation Act' signed by Queen Elizabeth I in 1571 followed by a Royal Charter during the reign of James I in 1621. This Charter specifically gave permission for the construction of a new cut (a canal?).

What is a 'navigation'?, what is a 'canal'? Is there really a difference between the two or are they just different names for the same type of construction? The unskilled men who manually dug out the channels for these waterways were called 'navigators' or 'navvies'. Therefore, as searchers after the truth, we have checked the words navigation and canal in two dictionaries.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary, 1983, says:-

Navvy: A labourer - originally a labourer on a navigation or canal.

Navigation: a canal or artificial waterway.

Canal: an artificial watercourse, especially for navigation

Webster's Third New International Dictionary, 1981 states:-

Navvy (from navigator) an unskilled labourer, especially one doing excavation or construction.

Navigation: a navigable waterway formed artificially.

Navigator: (British) a labourer employed in constructing a canal, a navvy.

Canal: an artificial waterway designed for navigation or for draining or irrigating land.

Perhaps one can define a canal as an artificial waterway separate from a natural river. A navigation, on the other hand, is an artificial waterway constructed on a river to enable passage around obstacles. In the case of the Stamford to Market Deeping waterway we are talking about a canal. The act signed by Queen Elizabeth I in 1571 was a navigation act. It was designed to make Stamford navigable to the sea, a distance of approximately 34 miles.

To make the River Welland navigable to the sea required work on the River Welland itself by, for example, the construction of two locks in Deeping St. James. It was also necessary to construct a new cut or channel, separate from the river, from a point just east of Stamford to a point just west of the crossroads in Market Deeping. This cut was approximately six and a half miles in length. If the people, who constructed this waterway, had merely constructed various short channels around each mill, it could be argued that it was a mere navigation. However, they did not do that, they created a new cut completely separate from the river. It left the River Welland at Hudd's mill, to the east of Stamford and remained completely separate from the river until just past the last watermill, on the outskirts of Market Deeping.

Whether one views this waterway as a navigation or as a canal is surely of little importance. The construction of a separate channel to run, independently, north of the River Welland for a distance of approximately six and a half miles would require no more or less labour and expertise than would any other similar construction. What gives this waterway its importance is the fact that its inception in the 16th century, and construction and opening in the middle of the 17th century, make it one of the earliest post Roman artificial water highways.

William G. Hoskins, in his book 'The Making of the English Landscape', claims that the earliest, post Roman canal, with locks and a towpath was that constructed by the municipal authorities of Exeter. Constructed between 1564 and 1567 it connected Exeter and Topsham and was designed to allow barges to pass around the weirs on the river and reach the city of Exeter. The waterway was sixteen feet wide, three feet deep and about three miles long with three pound locks (a lock with upper and lower gates that create a chamber in which the water level and the boat can be raised or lowered by the use of sluices). There are some who claim this waterway to be Britain's first post Roman canal.

A member of our group of researchers, with some knowledge of canal construction, visited the 'Exeter canal' some time ago. He felt that the 'canal' began just as a cutting parallel to the river with a sea lock at Topsham approximately three miles from the city centre. There appears to have been a dependence on the 'spring' tides to fill the cut itself, the connection to the river perhaps being closed by a single gate (now a modern type lock with gates at both ends). It would be opened for traffic and water in-flow on the tidal rise and closed after the high tide. The other water source for this cut was the river Ex which our researcher thought would be unreliable.

Before the Exeter canal (and after) the common way of serving the city from the sea was for sea-going craft off-loading at Topsham from where goods were carried by road or lighter. In the 1750's the canal service was improved by the construction of a very substantial masonry lock opposite Topsham, which seems to be an appendix to the canal, connecting it to the river at the highest point where it was reasonably navigable. This lock is still in use. When first opened the upper reaches of the canal seem to have been provided with sluices operating in pairs, in effect forming pound locks.

William G. Hoskins also claims that the Exeter canal remained the only one of its kind for almost two hundred years until, that is, the Bridgewater canal opened in 1761 we hope to show that there is much along the Welland valley, between Stamford and Market Deeping, on the boundaries of the present day Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, that can disprove this latter statement.

 

 The Stamford Canal << The earliest proper canal in England? <<

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