GRAND UNION CANAL
TIMELINE
0-1760 -Britain’s first canals are built by the Romans, they were mainly for irrigation but some were built to link rivers and used for transport.
- Great Britain's navigable waterway network is steadily increased by making existing rivers navigable, though not by cutting canals.
1761 -Britain’s first completely artificial canal, The Bridgewater canal is opened.
1783-1790 -Britain emerging from recession caused by the US war of independence.
-Booming manufacturing industry demands efficient transport, roads at this time are unsuitable for large volumes of traffic.
-Following Archimedes' Principles of displacement efficient transport means canals. A horse that can pull two tons on a road can pull 50 tons on a canal.
-Period of ‘canal mania’ those who have grown rich from manufacturing have nothing to invest their money in and canals are seen as potential gold mines. This situation leads to a boom in canal construction including many ill-fated canals that will never turn a profit or even be completed.
-Canals are key to the pace of the industrial revolution.
1792 -two surveys of a route from Brentford on the Thames to Braunston on the Oxford Canal are carried out. One by James Barnes and another by William Jessop.
1793 -Parliament authorises William Jessop’s plans for the ‘Grand Junction canal’ from Birmingham to London. At this time it was possible to get from London to Birmingham but only by taking a lengthy and meandering route via the Oxford canal and the river Thames. The new canal is to be direct and is to run straight, bridging and cutting through obstacles rather than meandering around them like the canals of old.
-Jessop also envisages wider, more ambitious canals, capable of taking river barges.
-Construction begins from both ends, almost immediately.
1794 -On the North end there are problems with the construction of the Bilsworth tunnel when quicksand is encountered.
-On the South end a deep cutting through the Chilterns is successful, dug largely by hand the canal workers earn the name ‘navies’ short for navigators.
1796 - Opening of Braunston Tunnel, line now open from the Oxford Canal to Weedon Bec.
-Bilsworth tunnel collapses.
1800 -The bulk of the Grand Junction is open, except for the Bilsworth tunnel, which continues to cause problems. A road, and later a Tram, runs over the top of Bilsworth hill to bridge the gap in the line.
1802 -Construction begins on a new Bilsworth tunnel.
1805 -Bisworth Tunnel opens.
- The Grand Junction Canal had reduced the distance to London from the Midlands by 60 miles and made the journey reliable. As a result it thrives.
1808 -Stone aqueduct over the river Ouse collapses, a wooden trough is used as a temporary replacement and an Iron aqueduct is planned.
1811 -New Iron aqueduct opens over the river Ouse.
1812-1830-Period of Posterity. At it’s peak the canal carries 343,560 tons of goods throughLondon annually, with roughly equal amounts into and out of the capital.
-Canal drivers much like HGV drivers today, live at home and work away for several days at a time.
1830 -Opening of Liverpool and Manchester rail line, run by Stephenson’s locomotive ‘rocket’.
-The rail line is a resounding success (Despite the MP for Liverpool being struck and killed by Rocket during the opening ceremony).
1833 -Grand Junction railway authorised by parliament, London to Birmingham stretch follows the line of the Grand Junction canal.
-From here on the canals are fighting a slow loosing battle with the railways which are much faster.
1837 -Grand Junction Railway opens in direct competition with the Grand Junction Canal.
1845 -The canal now only carries about 40% of Britain’s haulage.
-Cuts in rates for transport force canal drivers to live on their boats with their families. They decorate them proudly and the drinking establishments along the canal become known as ‘public house’ or ‘pub’ for the first time as they become shared communal space for the boat families.
-The canals survive the 19th century only by occupying the niches in the transport market that the railways had missed, or by supplying local markets such as the coal-hungry factories and mills of the big cities.
1853 -The Canal is first used for pleasure cruising.
-Canals in other European countries are radically widened and modernised, enabling them to take loads of up to 2000 tons (compared to 30-100 tons for an English narrowboat) This keeps the European canals commercially viable right up until the present day but in England it never occurrs.
1897 -In the first of several mergers the Grand Junction takes over the Leicester line.
1929 -The Grand Junction joins with Regents Canal in London and with the Birmingham Canal to form the ‘Grand Union Canal.
1949 -The Grand union canal is no longer profitable and is nationalized.
-Canal is increasingly used for pleasure cruising and holidays as large numbers of canal boats are converted for this use.
1956 -Clean air act forces the few waterside factories still taking canal deliveries of coal to change to other fuels.
-Mass road transport delivers the final blow to canal haulage.
1971 -The last commercial canal carrying contract (to a Jam factory near London) comes to an end.
1993 -The first Grand Union Canal race is won by Dick Kearn (32:50:00).
written by Chris Keys
