Somerset Coal Canal

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Somerset Coal Canal
Dry Canal Locks at Combe Hay.JPG
Disused locks at the Combe Hay flight
Somerset Coal Canal Map.png
Map of the Somerset Coal Canal
Specifications
Length10.6 miles (17.1 km)
(Length of Paulton branch)
Maximum boat beam 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)
Locks23
StatusUnder restoration
History
Former namesSomersetshire Coal Canal
Principal engineer William Jessop
William Smith
Construction began1795
Date of first use1798
Date completed1805
Date closed1898
Date restored2012–present
Geography
Start point Paulton / Timsbury
End point Dundas Aqueduct
Connects to Kennet and Avon Canal

The Somerset Coal Canal (originally known as the Somersetshire Coal Canal) was a narrow canal in England, built around 1800. Its route began in basins at Paulton and Timsbury, ran to nearby Camerton, over two aqueducts at Dunkerton, through a tunnel at Combe Hay, then via Midford and Monkton Combe to Limpley Stoke where it joined the Kennet and Avon Canal. This link gave the Somerset coalfield (which at its peak contained 80 collieries) access east toward London. The longest arm was 10.6 miles (17.1 km) long with 23  locks. From Midford an arm also ran via Writhlington to Radstock, with a tunnel at Wellow.

Contents

A feature of the canal was the variety of methods used at Combe Hay to overcome height differences between the upper and lower reaches: initially by the use of caisson locks; when this method failed an inclined plane trackway; and finally a flight of 22 conventional locks.

The Radstock arm was never commercially successful and was replaced first with a tramway in 1815 [1] and later incorporated into the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The Paulton route flourished for nearly 100 years and was very profitable, carrying high tonnages of coal for many decades; this canal helped carry the fuel that powered the nearby city of Bath.

By the 1880s, coal production declined as the various pits either ran out of coal or were flooded and then closed. In 1896 the main pump at Dunkerton, which maintained the canal water level, failed. The resultant lowering in level meant that only small loads could be transported, which reduced revenue, thus the canal company could not afford a replacement pump.

The canal became disused after 1898 and officially closed in 1902, being sold off to the various railway companies who were expanding their networks.

In September 2014, restoration work began on the canal section from Paulton to Radford, with the aim of restoring the entire canal to navigation in the future. The largest canal drydock in England has been revealed at Paulton; culverts and bridges nearby are being reinstated or rebuilt; and about 23 mile (1 km) of canal from Paulton to Radford has been in water since mid-2015. [2]

History

Background

House at Tucking Mill, next to the canal, reputedly lived in by William Smith Williamsmithshouse.jpg
House at Tucking Mill, next to the canal, reputedly lived in by William Smith

In 1763 coal was discovered in Radstock and mining began in the area, but transport was a major problem because of the poor state of the roads. This cost and the potential for cheaper delivery of coal from south Wales via the Monmouthshire Canal [3] led to the proposal for a canal which could transport the coal to Bath and Wiltshire. [4] Initial surveys were conducted during 1793 by William Jessop and William Smith under the direction of John Rennie who presented the report on 14 October 1793 estimating the cost of construction of the canal at £80,000. Smith, who also worked at the Mearns Pit at High Littleton, made the original observations leading to his important stratification theory by observing the dips in the geological strata through which the canal was cut. [5] [6] Smith became Surveyor to the company, but was dismissed in April 1799, apparently because he had used his position as surveyor to buy a local house at advantageous terms. [7] He then set himself up in a private practice in Bath but was re-engaged by the company in 1811, to provide advice when repairs became necessary to the canal bed. [8]

Derelict lock next to Caisson House, Combe Hay Combe hay lock.jpg
Derelict lock next to Caisson House, Combe Hay
Somersetshire Coal Canal Act 1794
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of Great Britain (1714-1801).svg
Long title An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Canal, with certain Railways, and Stone roads, from several Collieries, in the county of Somerset, to communicate with the intended Kennet and Avon Canal, in the parish of Bradford, in the county of Wilts.
Citation 34 Geo. 3. c. 86
Dates
Royal assent 17 April 1794

The canal was authorised by an act of Parliament, the Somersetshire Coal Canal Act 1794 (34 Geo. 3. c. 86), entitled "An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Canal, with certain Railways and Stone Roads, from several Collieries in the county of Somerset, to communicate with the intended Kennet and Avon Canal, in the parish of Bradford, in the county of Wilts" of 1794, [3] and further detailed surveys were carried out by Robert Whitworth and John Sutcliffe, who was then appointed as chief engineer.

Construction

In May 1795, tenders were invited for the first section to be built from the meadows near Goosehard (or Gooseyard) near Paulton to Hopyard in the parish of Camerton. In June 1795 a contractor, Houghton & Son from Shropshire, started the terminus at Paulton meadows using local labour. This first section of the canal was completed on Monday 1 October 1798; the first load of coal carried on the canal was delivered to Bath via Dunkerton. Some 14 collieries at Timsbury and Paulton were connected to their respective basins in the meadow terminus by tramways; this required the construction of three tramway bridges over the Cam brook. A further bridge at Upper Radford was required over the canal; at this point tramways connected the Withy Mills and Radford workings. The course of the Cam brook was modified at various places to protect the canal from erosion. In 1799 William Whitmore and his partner, Norton, offered to build a balance (or geometrical) lift without payment, on condition that if successful they were to have £17,300 and a royalty of 4 pence per ton of goods passed. [9]

Somersetshire Coal Canal Navigation Act 1802
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (1801-1816).svg
Long title An Act for enabling the Company of Proprietors of the Somersetshire Coal Canal Navigation, to vary and alter the Lines of the said Canal; to raise Money for completing the said Canal and Works; and to alter and amend the Powers and Provisions the several Acts passed for making the said Canal.
Citation 42 Geo. 3. c. xxxv
Dates
Royal assent 30 April 1802
Text of statute as originally enacted

The design of the caisson lock at Combe Hay was not a success: on 15 February 1798 the first descent failed. Mr Weldon (the inventor) made one successful descent on 7 June and said "I will undertake to pass 1,500  tons of goods through the lock in 12 hrs". Tenders were invited on 28 June for further constructions. Two more attempts to use the lock took place on 11 April and 2 May, but only the latter was successful. By 22 August 1799 the second rebuilding of the caisson had been abandoned. It was replaced by three locks and an inclined plane trackway, but the trackway was not successful either, and the company proposed to raise more money to finance the building of a flight of 19 locks to replace it, the use of which would incur an additional toll of one shilling per ton on all traffic. [3] This was vigorously opposed by the owners of the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Wilts and Berks Canal, on the grounds that the price of coal to their customers would be too high. After negotiation, the company obtained a new act of Parliament, the Somersetshire Coal Canal Navigation Act 1802 (42 Geo. 3. c. xxxv), on 30 April 1802, which authorised the formation of a separate body called "The Lock Fund of the Somerset Coal Canal Company", with powers to raise the sum of £45,000. The money was raised by the Kennet and Avon, the Wilts and Berks and the Somerset Coal Canal each contributing £15,000, and the one shilling surcharge was to be levied until the capital had been repaid, after which it would cease. [10] The act set the tonnage rates to be charged:

Somerset Coal Canal at Dundas Aqueduct Somerset caol canal.JPG
Somerset Coal Canal at Dundas Aqueduct
Tonnage rates on the Somerset Coal Canal in 1805 [11]
CargoRate
For all Coal, Coke, &c2+12d per Ton, per Mile.
For all Iron, Lead, Ores, Cinders, &c4d ditto. ditto.
For all Stones, Tiles, Bricks, Slate, Timber, &c3d ditto. ditto.
For all Cattle, Sheep, Swine and other Beasts4d ditto. ditto.
For all other Goods4d ditto. ditto.
For every Horse or Ass Travelling on the Railway1d each.
For every Cow or other Neat Cattle ditto12d ditto. ditto.
For Sheep, Swine and Calves ditto5d per Score.

Fractions of a Mile to pay for Half a Mile, and of a Ton as a Quarter of a Ton; Rates for Wharfage to be determined by the Company. In addition to the above Rates, One Shilling per Ton is paid on all Goods to the Lock Fund, which also receives Three Farthings per Ton from the Coal Canal company. [11]

The boats were weighed at Midford, where a weigh house was built in 1831. Boats were floated into a one-ended lock, the gate closed and the water drained. This left the boat resting on a cradle suspended by angled rods attached to a beam which took the weight of the boat. One-pound weights were then added to a pan, with one pound being equivalent to one hundredweight (112 pounds or 51 kilograms), until the system was in equilibrium, then the weight was recorded. The weigh house at Midford was one of only four known to have been built in England and Wales. [3]

Somerset Coal Canal
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Kennet and Avon Canal
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Dundas aqueduct
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Stop lock
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River Avon
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Limpley Stoke moorings
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End of navigable section
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A36 bridge
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Tucking Mill Wharf
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Toll point (weigh house)
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B3110 bridge
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S&D Railway (from 1874)
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Radstock Branch
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Midford Aqueduct
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Midford Basin
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Tramway
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Twinhoe Basin
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Wellow Tunnel
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Stoney Littleton Aqueduct
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Radstock Basin
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Combe Hay Locks 20–22
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Adit to pumping engine
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Temporary inclined plane (1801-1806)
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Combe Hay Locks 1–19
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Combe Hay pumping engine
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Combe Hay Aqueduct
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Combe Hay Tunnel
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A367 Dunkerton Tunnel
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Dunkerton Big Aqueduct
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Dunkerton Little Aqueduct
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Dunkerton pumping engine
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Dunkerton Colliery Wharf
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Camerton Colliery Wharf
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Radford Colliery Wharf
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Withy Mills Colliery Wharf
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Dry Dock
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Paulton Basin
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Timsbury Basin

Operation

The canal opened in 1805 [3] and was used for passenger traffic as well as coal. In 1814 the Benedictine monks who came to Downside Abbey are said to have used the canal for the last stage of their journey. [12] Another cargo carried by the canal was limestone from Combe Down. [13] The peak level of cargo carried was in 1838 at 138,403 tons [14] resulting in over £17,000 of tolls being paid. Cargoes of over 100,000 tons were common until the 1870s when the decline in output of coal from the various Somerset coalpits, along with competition from the railways, dramatically reduced the canal's profitability. When the main pump at Dunkerton failed it was not replaced and there was not sufficient water for continual operation of the locks. The canal went into liquidation in 1894; it closed in 1898 and was finally abandoned in 1904 when it was sold to the Great Western Railway for £2,000, [15] and used as a branch of the Bristol and North Somerset Railway. The closure caused problems across the Somerset coalfield especially to the pits along the Paulton branch, which had relied on the canal for transportation. [16]

The Radstock branch

When the Radstock branch was constructed, it was intended to link it to the main line of the Paulton branch at Midford, which was at a lower level at this point. The Lock Fund created in 1802 was to have paid for the construction of the locks, but because there was little regular traffic on the branch, the company built one lock, an aqueduct over the Midford Brook, and a short tramway to bridge the gap. [10] This contributed to the economic failure of the branch, and its replacement by a tramway in 1815. [17] The tramway was laid along the former canal's towpath. It was single-line with passing places every 600 yards (550 m), and was originally laid using cast iron plates on stone block sleepers, but was relaid using wrought iron plates. [3]

Engineers and surveyors

Portrait of John Rennie, 1810, by Sir Henry Raeburn John Rennie (Engineer).jpg
Portrait of John Rennie, 1810, by Sir Henry Raeburn
William Smith William Smith.g.jpg
William Smith

Data from Jim Shead's Waterways Information. [9]

Combe Hay and the caisson lock

Operation of caisson lock Caisson lockenglish.svg
Operation of caisson lock

The fall over the route is 135 ft (41 m), which meant problems with supplying adequate water. The Cam brook was an inadequate source of water above Camerton, and the mills along it had water rights. Each narrow boat travelling through the series of locks (22 of them each 6 ft (1.8 m) deep) with a 25-ton load of coal caused 85 tons of water to be discharged into the brook below the locks. As a result, the canal was designed with all 22 locks in one flight near Combe Hay and a pumping engine to raise water from the Cam; this was the first canal to depend entirely on pumping.

A potential solution to the water supply problem was the use of caisson locks as proposed by Robert Weldon, three of which could replace the 22 conventional locks, because it wasted no water, but the technology had only been tried in a one-third scale prototype. Each lock was 80 ft (24 m) long and 60 ft (18 m) deep and contained a closed wooden box which could take a barge. This box moved up and down in the 60 ft (18 m) deep pool of water, which never left the lock. The box was demonstrated to the Prince Regent (later George IV), but had engineering problems and was never successful commercially or built elsewhere.

It was temporarily replaced with an inclined plane by Benjamin Outram who had successfully installed inclined planes at the Peak Forest Canal in Derbyshire, whilst 22 locks and a Boulton & Watt Steam Pumping Station, capable of lifting 5,000 tons of water in 12 hours, were built to the latest design with metal plate clad wooden gates. [18] [19] [20]

Construction

Outlet view of spillway drain 25 feet (8 m) long and 10 feet (3 m) wide SCC Upper Midford Object1 front.JPG
Outlet view of spillway drain 25 feet (8 m) long and 10 feet (3 m) wide
Internal view of spillway drain about 66 feet (20 m) in length SCC Upper Midford Object1 internal.JPG
Internal view of spillway drain about 66 feet (20 m) in length

The two images show a spillway drain from c. 1796 (uncovered in 2009–10) at Upper Midford, a location where a caisson to take the canal from the 180 ft (55 m) level to the 134 ft (41 m) level at Midford Aqueduct was proposed.

Each caisson would have had such a drain for maintenance purposes over the exit arch made to the same dimensions. The following extract from the Bath Herald newspaper provides the details of the chosen sites:

14 Jun 1798 Travel: Somerset coal canal – caisson cisterns to be formed at Combe Hay & nr. Midford. Sealed proposals reqd. on embanking & excavation with the masonry; or each separately – send to sub-committee, Waldegrave Arms, Radstock 20 Jul Plans & specs. on appl.

For further Newspaper articles see s:Bath Georgian Newspaper - Somerset Coal Canal

Paulton and Timsbury basins

The spoil tip in Paulton, referred to locally as "The Batch" PaultonBatch.jpg
The spoil tip in Paulton, referred to locally as "The Batch"

located between the villages of Paulton and Timsbury was the terminus of the northern branch of the Somerset Coal Canal and was a central point for at least 15 collieries around Paulton, Timsbury and High Littleton, which were connected to the canal by tramroads. Timsbury basin was some 600 ft (180 m) to the west of Paulton basin.

On the northern side of Timsbury basin was the terminus for the tramroads which served Old Grove, Prior's, Tyning and Hayeswood pits, with a branch line to Amesbury and Mearns pits. Parts of this line were still in use in 1873, probably all carrying horse-drawn wagons of coal. Tramroads on the southern side of the Paulton basin served Brittens, Littleborrok, Paulton Ham, Paulton Hill, Simons Hill terminating at Salisbury Colliery. In addition the Paulton Foundry used this line. The entire line was disused by 1871 as were the collieries it served. [16]

The area has been designated as an 'area of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance' under section 69 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. [21]

Coming of the railway

Aqueduct on the Somerset Coal Canal at Dunkerton Dunkertonaqueduct.jpg
Aqueduct on the Somerset Coal Canal at Dunkerton

The first railway to affect the canal was the Bristol and North Somerset Railway's Frome to Radstock line completed in 1854 which took traffic away from the tramway. It finally closed in 1874 with the Somerset and Dorset Railway's extension to Bath, built along its route from Radstock to Midford. Another branch line was constructed in 1882 from Hallatrow to Camerton, running alongside the canal for the last 1+12 miles (2 km) of its route. [3]

The Great Western Railway built a railway line (the Bristol and North Somerset Railway) over some parts of the canal route from Limpley Stoke to Camerton, where it joined the existing 1882 branch line from Hallatrow to Camerton. This opened in 1910 for passenger and goods traffic, closed for the First World War, re-opened after the war, ran for passengers only for two more years in the mid-1920s and finally closed to all traffic in the 1950s. The line was used in the 1950s Ealing comedy film The Titfield Thunderbolt . [22] [23]

Present day

The route of the canal lies in a largely agricultural area, dotted with small villages linked by minor roads. [24] Several stretches of the Paulton and Timsbury basins branch are easily visible, and various stretches and features were surveyed in 2014.[ citation needed ] Full restoration of the entire length from Paulton to Dundas is being explored.[ by whom? ] Four locks on the original canal route at Combe Hay have been buried; one by a 20-foot (6 m) railway embankment, and three overfilled by 10 to 20 feet (3–6 m) with building waste since the 1960s. It may no longer be feasible to reinstate the original locks 16, 17, 18 and 19 structures for this section.[ why? ]

At Upper Midford the canal is blocked entirely at the accommodation bridge [25] by the 40-foot (12 m) high embankment of the railway that crosses it. [26] Most of the canal features along the entire route are on private land but the towpath survives in places as a right of way, while the later railway between Midford to Wellow has been surfaced to form part of National Cycle Route 24. [27] It has been proposed[ by whom? ] that a statue, commissioned by Sustrans, of William Smith, the father of English Geology, will be sited next to the path on the line of the canal commemorating his work as its surveyor and his recognition of the significance of rock strata.

The canal in 2006: moorings on the only navigable section of the canal, near its junction with the Kennet and Avon Canal. This stretch at Brassknocker, 200 metres (660 ft) long, is used for moorings, a cafe, and boat and cycle hire. Moorings.on.the.somerset.coal.canal.arp.jpg
The canal in 2006: moorings on the only navigable section of the canal, near its junction with the Kennet and Avon Canal. This stretch at Brassknocker, 200 metres (660 ft) long, is used for moorings, a café, and boat and cycle hire.

Restoration works

Limpley Stoke

The 14-mile (400 m) stretch at Brassknocker Basin where the canal joins the Kennet and Avon at Dundas Aqueduct was restored during the 1980s and is now a thriving marina with moorings. Excavations of the old stop lock (at the junction with the Kennet and Avon Canal) showed that this had originally been a broad (14 feet, 4.3 m) lock that at some point was narrowed to 7 feet (2.1 m) by moving the lock wall. [3]

Excavated canal dry dock and restored entrance arch at Paulton Basin, on the Somerset Coal Canal. Excavated Canal Dry Dock at Paulton Basin.jpg
Excavated canal dry dock and restored entrance arch at Paulton Basin, on the Somerset Coal Canal.

Paulton and Timsbury basins

Work started in 2013 to reveal and excavate the drydock next to the eastern Paulton Basin. This drydock appears to be the largest drydock anywhere on the canal system in England, being about 30 feet (9.1 m) wide and 83 feet (25 m) long, large enough for three full-length narrowboats to be worked on at the same time. [28]

The drainage culvert at the southeast corner of the drydock was rebuilt in December 2013, and the drydock itself completely excavated in April 2014. The entrance to the drydock, at the western end, was surmounted by a bridge, partially demolished in 2002 but rebuilt during 2014. [28]

Withy Mills

Excavations began in May 2014 at Terminus Bridge; the abutments were found to be in poor condition; an earth bund between the abutments carried the public footpath and stopped the water draining from the Paulton and Timsbury Basins. A new earth bund was installed about 25 m (27 yd) west of Terminus Bridge to stop the water and allow work to continue on the bridge. [29]

During excavations a drainage culvert was discovered about 20 m (22 yd) west of Terminus bridge. [30] Work resumed in September and November 2014 to batter and reshape the canal embankments. Excess topsoil was removed and the towpath reinstated on the stretch to the east from Terminus bridge for about 200 m (220 yd). On the same stretch a retaining wall was discovered in the south embankment continuing for about 100 m (110 yd), possibly built as a repair to a weak section of canal banking. Vertical infills of white clay have been used along this wall.

Grant to study history of the canal

The restored canal bed at Upper Midford to the west of the recently uncovered Georgian spillway drain Canal west of spillway drain.JPG
The restored canal bed at Upper Midford to the west of the recently uncovered Georgian spillway drain

The canal has been studied for many years with exploration and restoration work being undertaken in Wellow and elsewhere. Particular effort, so far unsuccessful, has been put into trying to find the site of the second and third caisson locks at Combe Hay. In October 2006 a grant of £20,000 was obtained from the Heritage Lottery Fund, by the Somersetshire Coal Canal Society in association with Bath & North East Somerset Council and the Avon Industrial Buildings Trust to carry out a technical study on one of the locks and associated structures at Combe Hay. [31] [32] Many of the locks and associated workings are listed buildings. [33] [34]

Route and points of interest

Point Coordinates
(Links to map resources)
OS Grid Ref Notes
Site of basin 51°18′14″N2°29′38″W / 51.304°N 2.494°W / 51.304; -2.494 (Site of basin) ST655563 Paulton
Site of aqueduct 51°20′02″N2°24′32″W / 51.334°N 2.409°W / 51.334; -2.409 (Site of aqueduct) ST715595 Dunkerton
Site of caisson lock 51°20′13″N2°22′59″W / 51.337°N 2.383°W / 51.337; -2.383 (Site of Caison lock) ST733598 Combe Hay
Junction of branches and tramway connection 51°20′35″N2°20′35″W / 51.343°N 2.343°W / 51.343; -2.343 (Junction of branches) ST761605 Midford
Junction with Kennet and Avon Canal 51°21′40″N2°18′43″W / 51.361°N 2.312°W / 51.361; -2.312 (Junction with Kennet and Avon Canal) ST783625 Limpley Stoke

See also

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The Cam brook is a small river in Somerset, England. It rises near Hinton Blewitt, flows through Cameley, Temple Cloud, Camerton, Dunkerton and Combe Hay. It then joins the Wellow Brook at Midford to form Midford Brook before joining the River Avon close to the Dundas Aqueduct.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caisson lock</span> Type of canal lock

The caisson lock is a type of canal lock in which a narrowboat is floated into a sealed watertight box and raised or lowered between two different canal water levels. It was invented in the late 18th century as a solution to the problem posed by the excessive demand for water when conventional locks were used to raise and lower canal boats through large height differences. Such locks, each of which would only raise and lower boats through small height differences of a few feet, would not suffice when large height differences had to be tackled nor when water was in short supply. The caisson was thought to be one solution, although it transpired that the technology of the day was not capable of achieving this type of construction economically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somerset Coalfield</span> Coalfield in northern Somerset, England

The Somerset Coalfield in northern Somerset, England is an area where coal was mined from the 15th century until 1973. It is part of a larger coalfield which stretched into southern Gloucestershire. The Somerset coalfield stretched from Cromhall in the north to the Mendip Hills in the south, and from Bath in the east to Nailsea in the west, a total area of about 240 square miles (622 km2). Most of the pits on the coalfield were concentrated in the Cam Brook, Wellow Brook and Nettlebridge Valleys and around Radstock and Farrington Gurney. The pits were grouped geographically, with clusters of pits close together working the same coal seams often under the same ownership. Many pits shared the trackways and tramways which connected them to the Somerset Coal Canal or railways for distribution.

The Bristol and North Somerset Railway was a railway line in the West of England that connected Bristol with Radstock, through Pensford and further into northern Somerset, to allow access to the Somerset Coalfield. The line ran almost due south from Bristol and was 16 miles (26 km) long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midford Castle</span> Building in Bath, Somerset, England

Midford Castle is a folly castle in the village of Midford, and the parish of Southstoke 3 miles (5 km) south of Bath, Somerset, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport in Somerset</span> Overview of transport in Somerset

The earliest known infrastructure for transport in Somerset is a series of wooden trackways laid across the Somerset Levels, an area of low-lying marshy ground. To the west of this district lies the Bristol Channel, while the other boundaries of the county of Somerset are along chains of hills that were once exploited for their mineral deposits. These natural features have all influenced the evolution of the transport network. Roads and railways either followed the hills, or needed causeways to cross the Levels. Harbours were developed, rivers improved, and linked to sources of traffic by canals. Railways were constructed throughout the area, influenced by the needs of the city of Bristol, which lies just to the north of Somerset, and to link the ports of the far south-west with the rest of England.

William Bennet was an English civil engineer, noted for his work on canals. Nothing is known of his early life or family history, but details of his work from about 1790 until 1826 are documented. His major projects were for the Dorset and Somerset Canal and the Somersetshire Coal Canal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tucking Mill</span> Human settlement in England

Tucking Mill is a small hamlet within the parish of Monkton Combe, Somerset, England. It lies on Midford Brook and was a key point on the now disused Somerset Coal Canal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Combe Hay Locks</span> Lock flight in Somerset, England

The Combe Hay Locks is a derelict flight of locks on the Somerset Coal Canal near Combe Hay, Somerset, England. Twenty two locks raised the canal 134 feet (41 m) over approximately 1.6 miles (2.6 km). The lock flight was predated in the immediate area by two other methods of canal lifts—first by a series of caisson locks, then by an inclined plane. The lock flight opened in 1805, and was in operation until 1899.

References

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  2. "Restoration". Somerset Coal Canal Society. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
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Bibliography

51°20′02″N2°24′32″W / 51.334°N 2.409°W / 51.334; -2.409