Bude Canal
Encyclopedia
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
built to serve the hilly hinterland in the Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
and Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
border territory in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, chiefly to bring lime-bearing sand for agricultural fertiliser. The Bude Canal system was one of the most unusual in Britain.
It was remarkable in using inclined planes
Canal inclined plane
An inclined plane is a system used on some canals for raising boats between different water levels. Boats may be conveyed afloat, in caissons, or may be carried in cradles or slings. It can be considered as a specialised type of cable railway....
to haul tub boat
Tub boat
A tub boat was a type of unpowered cargo boat used on a number of the early English and German canals. The English boats were typically long and wide and generally carried to of cargo, though some extra deep ones could carry up to . They are also called compartment boats or container boats.The...
s on wheels to the upper levels. There were only two conventional locks
Lock (water transport)
A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...
, in the short broad canal section near the sea at Bude
Bude
Bude is a small seaside resort town in North Cornwall, England, at the mouth of the River Neet . It lies just south of Flexbury, north of Widemouth Bay and west of Stratton and is located along the A3073 road off the A39. Bude is twinned with Ergué-Gabéric in Brittany, France...
itself. It had a total extent of 35 miles (56.3 km), and it rose from sea level to an altitude of 433 feet (132 m).
The design of the canal influenced the design of the Rolle Canal
Rolle Canal
The Rolle Canal in North Devon, England runs 6 miles from Landcross, where it joins the River Torridge, to the limekilns at Rosemoor...
.
Origins
The coastal area at Bude has sandSand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
unusually rich in minerals and the poor agricultural land of the locality was found to benefit considerably from application of the sand. In the pre-industrial age, actually transporting it was difficult, even to land relatively close to the coast.
Several schemes were put forward for canals to bring the sand to the countryside, and these proposals did not lack ambition. One scheme, aimed at distributing Welsh coal from the port as far inland as Calstock
Calstock
Calstock is civil parish and a large village in south east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the border with Devon. The village is situated on the River Tamar south west of Tavistock and north of Plymouth....
on the River Tamar
River Tamar
The Tamar is a river in South West England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall . It is one of several British rivers whose ancient name is assumed to be derived from a prehistoric river word apparently meaning "dark flowing" and which it shares with the River Thames.The...
, gained parliamentary approval for construction in 1774, but financial problems frustrated the proposal.
In 1818, the West Country canal engineer James Green
James Green (engineer)
James Green was a noted civil engineer and canal engineer, who was particularly active in the South West of England, where he pioneered the building of tub boat canals, and inventive solutions for coping with hilly terrain, which included tub boat lifts and inclined planes...
produced a report for canal's backers, and an Act of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
was obtained for this more moderate proposal in 1819. After some difficulties in the construction phase the canal was completed and opened on 8 July 1823. Its cost was £118,000.
The canal system
The project:- improved the difficult exposed sea harbour at BudeBudeBude is a small seaside resort town in North Cornwall, England, at the mouth of the River Neet . It lies just south of Flexbury, north of Widemouth Bay and west of Stratton and is located along the A3073 road off the A39. Bude is twinned with Ergué-Gabéric in Brittany, France...
- built a broad canal capable of taking 50 feet (15.2 m) barges for 2 miles (3.2 km) to Helebridge Basin
- built the rest of the system for tub boatTub boatA tub boat was a type of unpowered cargo boat used on a number of the early English and German canals. The English boats were typically long and wide and generally carried to of cargo, though some extra deep ones could carry up to . They are also called compartment boats or container boats.The...
s, 20 feet (6.1 m) long by 5 in 6 in (1.68 m) wide - built a reservoir at Virworthy to feed water to the system
Holsworthy, Devon
Holsworthy is a market town in the north west of Devon, England. It is situated near the county border with Cornwall, and is 9 miles from the coastal resort of Bude. It is on the intersection of the A388 and A3072 roads, and lies on the River Deer, a tributary of the Tamar...
. There was a northerly feeder arm leading from a new reservoir at Virworthy, called the Tamar Lake.
There were two conventional locks in the short broad canal section, each with a vertical interval of 5 in 6 in (1.68 m). This section terminated at Helebridge, about 2 miles (3.2 km) from Bude, and ordinary coastal barges travelled this far up the canal.
The tub boats were designed to use the main part of the system, and they generally made the transit from the harbour at Bude, or from Helebridge if trans-shipping from coastal vessels there.
After Helebridge there were three inclined planes to the summit section; the whole of the central part of the system was at this level, 433 feet (132 m) above sea level. The main line to Druxton Wharf, near Launceston negotiated three descending inclined planes as it followed the southerly course of the River Tamar.
Having no intermediate locks on the tub boat sections, the canal had to follow the contours exactly between the inclined planes, and this made its route even more circuitous than most canals. However some relatively ambitious viaduct
Viaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
s and earthworks were constructed, particularly where side streams and small valleys entered the main watercourse and its valley.
The inclined planes
The tub boats were hauled up and let down the inclined planes by chains which were operated in most cases by waterwheels; the transit took five minutes or so. There were standby steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
s at some of the inclined planes. However the Hobbacott Inclined Plane used a different system of harnessing water power: water filled a very large bucket and it was simply the weight of the water that pulled the ascending tub boat up the incline. The bucket operated in a deep vertical shaft, and at the bottom a plug was opened and the water ran to waste along an adit which connected to the lower level of the canal; the descending bucket pulled an empty bucket up in the same operation. The full bucket had to be heavy enough to pull a loaded tub boat up the 1 in 4½ gradient as well as overcoming friction, and Green calculated that a weight of about fifteen tons was necessary. This was successful, and the bucket raised a boat up the plane in about four minutes, which was about one half of the time taken when the 16 hp standby steam engine was used.
| Name | Vertical interval | Length | System | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marhamchurch | 120 ft | 836 ft | Overshot waterwheel | |
| Hobbacott | 225 ft | 935 ft | Descending bucket | |
| Vealand | 58 ft | 500 ft | Overshot waterwheel | |
| Merrifield | 60 ft | 360 ft | Overshot waterwheel | |
| Tamerton | 59 ft | 360 ft | Overshot waterwheel | |
| Bridgetown | 51 ft | 259 ft | Overshot waterwheel |
The gradients of the planes differed somewhat, with Hobbacott being the steepest at 1 in 4½ and Vealand being the gentlest at 1 in 8.6.
Tub boats
The tub boats were 20 feet (6.1 m) long and 5 in 6 in (1.68 m) wide, and carried about 20 tons payload; the usage of tub boats was not confined to the Bude Canal. They were commonly operated by coupling between 4 and 6 together and hauling them – by horse power – together. A "train" of boats could therefore be 120 feet (36.6 m) long, and on the very sinuous alignment of the canal, the train must have been difficult to pass round sharp curves. Steering was possible by manually altering the connection between adjacent boats, using handspikes.Each boat had four wheels 14 inches (35.6 cm) in diameter for running on the inclined planes; the boats were hauled up and down individually.
The operation of lining the tub boats up with the rails, at transfer from canal to plane, must have been difficult. Once engaged with the continuous chain, it would have been impracticable to stop the motion momentarily while the wheels were guided to the rail channels; but no record is available as to how this was achieved.
Operation
On completion of the canal, the owning company was constantly short of cash, and inevitably income did not reach the levels predicted at the stage of promoting the canal. In addition, serious problems with the state of the newly finished works were discovered, although in the circumstances of a locally promoted scheme with novel technological aspects, the canal as built was better engineered than it might have been. The chains on the inclined planes were constantly breaking, the rails broke, and other mechanical failures were frequent, and physical damage from careless boat handling was also common.However the rich sand was successfully carried to farms near the various wharves in large quantities, and other merchandise was also carried, particularly coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
from South Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
. Traffic picked up in the 1880s, and when the London and South Western Railway
London and South Western Railway
The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in...
reached Holsworthy
Holsworthy, Devon
Holsworthy is a market town in the north west of Devon, England. It is situated near the county border with Cornwall, and is 9 miles from the coastal resort of Bude. It is on the intersection of the A388 and A3072 roads, and lies on the River Deer, a tributary of the Tamar...
, the canal carried significant volumes of the sand to Stanbury Wharf for onward conveyance by railway; the mile or so between the wharf and the railway station must have been negotiated by horse and cart.
Nonetheless the arrival of the railway soon spelt the ultimate doom of the canal: manufactured fertilisers had become commonplace and cheap, and they could be brought in by railway, so that the demand for the local sand was diminished considerably.
When it became obvious that the canal could not survive, some directors proposed obtaining parliamentary authority for abandonment, or selling the canal outright to the railway company, or anyone else. However legal conditions agreed at the time of construction gave certain landowners rights to take water from the canal, and they would not give up these rights without compensation, so for the time being the proposals for disposal were frustrated. Finally abandonment of the tub boat operation took place on 14 November 1891 with the Launceston main line and the Holsworthy branch being abandoned, but the Feeder arm continuing to be kept open because of the water rights. After protracted negotiations the remainder of the canal was bought by Stratton and Bude Urban District Council, on 1 January 1902, and this enabled them to supply domestic water in due course to the villages in the district from the canal's Tamar reservoir. The works became the responsibility of North Cornwall District Council http://www.ncdc.gov.uk when English local government was reorganised in 1974.
The canal today
An exhaustive list of locations where the canal's remains can be seen may be found in Harris and Ellis.
Plans for restoration
In 2005 major plans were approved to re-develop the canal, including renewal of the two locks between the sea lock and the first inclined planeCanal inclined plane
An inclined plane is a system used on some canals for raising boats between different water levels. Boats may be conveyed afloat, in caissons, or may be carried in cradles or slings. It can be considered as a specialised type of cable railway....
. £3.8 million in funding for this project was provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
, Objective One and the South West Regional Development Agency. The plan states that work will start in 2007 and finish in 2009.
Also worthy of note is that the towpath from the Sea Lock is navigable via powered wheelchair or a mobility carriage (with reasonable ground clearance) all the way to where the A39 crosses over it by Helebridge (approx 2.5 miles (4 km)), allowing less mobile users to enjoy the views of the surrounding countryside and wild life. This will also improve when the new tow path extension is completed underneath the A39.
March 2008 damage
On Monday 10 March 2008 powerful storms wrenched one of the lock gates off its fixings. As the water started to drain out, a dam made of sandbags was built. The following day, four-tonne concrete pipes were placed in the canal basin to dissipate the power of waves coming in from the sea.The water continued to flow out until the lower end of the canal was practically empty. This revealed some interesting finds in the mud, including a shotgun.
The North Cornwall District Council used the opportunity to repair the canal walls and dredge the basin. During the course of the dredging 6000 cubic metres of silt was removed.
The lock gates were closed and the canal started to refill on 9 July 2008
See also
- Canals of the United KingdomCanals of the United KingdomThe canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a colourful history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the Industrial Revolution, to today's role for recreational boating...
- History of the British canal systemHistory of the British canal systemThe British canal system of water transport played a vital role in the United Kingdom's Industrial Revolution at a time when roads were only just emerging from the medieval mud and long trains of pack horses were the only means of "mass" transit by road of raw materials and finished products The...