Stover Canal | |
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![]() The north side of the bridge at Teignbridge | |
Specifications | |
Maximum boat length | 56 ft 0 in (17.07 m) |
Locks | 5 |
Status | Restoration pending |
History | |
Original owner | James Templer |
Principal engineer | Thomas Gray |
Date of first use | 1792 |
Date closed | 1937 |
Geography | |
Start point | Jetty Marsh, Newton Abbot |
End point | Ventiford |
Connects to | River Teign |
Stover Canal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Stover Canal is a canal located in Devon, England. It was opened in 1792 and served the ball clay industry until it closed in the early 1940s. Today it is derelict, but the Stover Canal Society is aiming to restore it and reopen it to navigation.
The canal was built at a time when the ball clay industry was expanding, but transport of the bulky product was difficult. James Templer (1748–1813) of Stover House, Teigngrace, saw this as an opportunity, and began to construct the canal at his own expense in January 1790. He planned to reach Bovey Tracey, passing through Jewsbridge, near Heathfield en route, and to construct a branch to Chudleigh. Having invested over £1,000 in the project, he sought an Act of Parliament which would allow him to raise more capital, but although the Act was passed on 11 June 1792, he did not invoke its powers, as the canal had already reached Ventiford, Teigngrace and he did not extend it further. [1]
As built, the canal was 1.7 miles (2.7 km) long and included five locks. It was supplied with water from three feeders, one from Ventiford Brook, a stream which also supplies Stover Lake (now in Stover Country Park) and one from the River Bovey at Jewsbridge, both of which fed the top pound, and one from the River Teign at Fishwick, which entered the canal just below lock 4. The exit from the canal was on to the tidal Whitelake channel, and from there to the River Teign and the docks. The first three locks did not originally have side walls, but used earth banks instead, which were replaced with timber or brick walls in due course. [2] The Graving Dock lock was only 56 ft (17 m) long, and so could take a single barge, but all the others were long enough to take two barges end to end. The first Jetty Marsh lock was much bigger, at 215 ft long and 45 ft wide (65m by 13.7m), but carries the inscription Duke of Somerset, 1841, and so it would appear that it was reconstructed as a basin, so that barges could wait in it for the tide. [3] The Graving Dock lock is probably unique in the United Kingdom, in that it was reconstructed with a dock at its side, which could be used as a dry dock when the lock was empty. Both Jetty Marsh lock and Graving Dock lock are currently Grade 2 listed. [4]
Having invested most of his capital in the project, James Templer was rewarded by the success of the canal. A major contract with Josiah Wedgwood and Sons was re-established in 1798. Wedgwood remained the major recipient of the ball clay until 1815, after which trade was established with other pottery manufacturers and other ports. [5]
James' son, George Templer built the Haytor Granite Tramway to connect his granite quarries at Haytor Rocks to the canal basin at Ventiford. It opened on 16 September 1820, [6] and for the next 40 years, the traffic in granite supplemented the ball clay trade. [7] The canal was sold in 1829 by George Templer, along with the Stover estate and the quarries and tramway, to Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset (1775-1855). [6] When plans to build the Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway were proposed, his son the 12th Duke of Somerset, who by then had inherited the Stover estate, sought to sell both the canal and the trackbed of the derelict Granite Tramway to the fledgling railway company. [8] It was duly sold for £8,000 on 4 June 1862, by which time the section above Teignbridge was effectively redundant, and so the railway company was not required to maintain it. [9] However, the section up to Graving Dock lock was retained, so that users of the canal could still repair their barges, and it was at this point that the new dock was constructed which gave the Graving Dock lock its name. The canal was almost immediately leased to Watts, Blake and Co., a company who sank clay-pits. [10]
The canal passed into the ownership of the Great Western Railway in 1877, but continued to be leased to Watts, Blake and Co., who paid a fixed price for its use, and were also required to maintain it. Traffic dwindled and finally ceased in 1937, but Watts, Blake and Company's latest 14-year lease did not end until 1942, [11] and so it was not formally abandoned until March 1943. [12] It remained in water until 1951, when one of the banks was breached, flooding a clay pit. [13]
In the late 1980s, parts of the towpath were incorporated into the Templer Way historical trail, created by Teignbridge District Council, who were by then owners of Jetty Marsh Lock and Ventiford Basin. The rest of the canal was owned by Railtrack. [14] In early 1999, the West Country Branch of the Inland Waterways Association and the Newton Abbot Fishing Association approached Teignbridge District Council to suggest that they negotiate with Railtrack to obtain the rest of the canal. Plans for a local canal society came out of these talks, and the Stover Canal Society was formed in February 1999. [15]
After negotiation, Railtrack agreed to hand over the canal to the District Council for leisure use. The Stover Canal Society worked with the District Council to formulate a strategy for its restoration, and this led to the creation of a Charitable Trust, on which the District Council, other local authorities and the Canal Society are all represented. Control of the remains passed to the Trust in February 2010, when a formal lease was signed. [14] In 2013 the towpath was opened to public access; in 2014 the remains of a barge were excavated in Ventiford Basin and a new stretch of the granite tramway was discovered. [14] Work was carried out on the Graving Dock Lock in 2015, aided by a grant from the Association for Industrial Archaeology. With labour provided by the Waterway Recovery Group, some of the stonework was dismantled, to allow tree roots to be removed, after which it was reinstated and the blockwork was repointed. Subsequently, a grant was received from the Tesco 'Bags of Help' scheme, and local craftsmen completed the work in 2016. [16] Ventiford Basin was cleared of silt by staff from a local clay company in 2016, with the work uncovering the remains of two more barges and another section of the Haytor Granite Tramway. After the stonework had been repointed, a dam was built at the southern end of the basin, and it was relined with puddle clay, allowing it to refill with water during 2019. [17]
Point | Coordinates (Links to map resources) | OS Grid Ref | Notes |
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Ventiford Basin | 50°33′40″N3°37′39″W / 50.5612°N 3.6275°W | SX848747 | |
Teigngrace Lock | 50°33′21″N3°37′30″W / 50.5557°N 3.6250°W | SX849741 | |
Graving Dock Lock | 50°33′10″N3°37′15″W / 50.5529°N 3.6207°W | SX852738 | |
Teignbridge Lock | 50°32′55″N3°36′55″W / 50.5485°N 3.6154°W | SX856733 | |
Jn with WhiteLake Channel | 50°32′16″N3°36′29″W / 50.5379°N 3.6080°W | SX861721 | Jetty Marsh Lock |
The River Teign is a river in the county of Devon, England. It is 31 mi (50 km) long and rises on Dartmoor, becomes an estuary just below Newton Abbot and reaches the English Channel at Teignmouth.
Teignmouth is a seaside town, fishing port and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about 12 miles south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14,749 at the 2011 census.
Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the South Devon Railway locomotive works. This later became a major steam engine shed, retained to service British Railways diesel locomotives until 1981. It now houses the Brunel industrial estate. The town has a race course nearby, the most westerly in England, and a country park, Decoy. It is twinned with Besigheim in Germany and Ay in France.
Ilsington is a village and civil parish situated on the eastern edge of Dartmoor, Devon, England. It is one of the largest parishes in the county, and includes the villages of Ilsington, Haytor Vale, Liverton and South Knighton. The parish is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Bovey Tracey, Teigngrace, Newton Abbot, Ogwell, Bickington, Ashburton, Widecombe-in-the-Moor and Manaton. In 2001 the population of the parish was 2,444, greatly increased from the 886 residents recorded in 1901. The parish is represented in parliament by Mel Stride, as part of the Central Devon constituency.
Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset, styled Lord Seymour until 1793, of Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire and Stover House, Teigngrace, Devon, was a British peer, landowner, astrologer and mathematician.
Haytor, also known as Haytor Rocks, Hay Tor, or occasionally Hey Tor, is a granite tor on the eastern edge of Dartmoor in the English county of Devon.
The River Bovey rises on the eastern side of Dartmoor in Devon, England, and is the largest tributary to the River Teign. The river has two main source streams, both rising within a mile of each other, either side of the B3212 road between Moretonhampstead and Postbridge, before joining at Jurston.
The Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway was a 7 ft 1⁄4 in broad gauge railway which linked the South Devon Railway at Newton Abbot railway station with Bovey, Lustleigh and Moretonhampstead, Devon, England.
The Haytor Granite Tramway was a tramway built to convey granite from Haytor Down, Dartmoor, Devon to the Stover Canal. It was very unusual in that the track was formed of granite sections, shaped to guide the wheels of horse-drawn wagons.
The Hackney Canal was a short canal in Devon, England, that linked the Hackney Clay Cellars to the River Teign. It was privately built by Lord Clifford in 1843, and throughout its life carried ball clay for use in the production of pottery. It closed in 1928, when its function was replaced by road vehicles.
Chudleigh Knighton Halt was on the Teign Valley Line serving the small village of Chudleigh Knighton, Devon, England. The halt, built by the Great Western Railway at a later date than most of the other stations on the line, was located on the west side of Pipehouse Lane off the B3344, to the south of the village.
Sir John William de la Pole, 6th Baronet of Shute in the parish of Colyton, Devon, was a Member of Parliament for the rotten borough of West Looe. In 1791 he published, under the title Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, the researches on the history and genealogy of Devonshire made by his ancestor the antiquary Sir William Pole (d.1635), which he did not publish in his lifetime and which were enlarged by his son Sir John Pole, 1st Baronet, but which were partly destroyed during the Civil War at Colcombe Castle.
James Templer (1748–1813) of Stover House, Teigngrace, Devon, was a Devon landowner and the builder of the Stover Canal.
George Templer was a landowner in Devon, England, and the builder of the Haytor Granite Tramway. His father was the second James Templer (1748–1813) who had built the Stover Canal.
Teigngrace is a civil parish centred on a hamlet that lies about two miles north of the town of Newton Abbot in Devon, England. According to the 2001 census, its population was 235, compared to 190 a century earlier. The western boundary of the parish mostly runs along the A382 road; its short northern boundary along the A38; and its eastern partly along the rivers Bovey and Teign. It comes to a point at its southern extremity, near Newton Abbot Racecourse. The parish is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Bovey Tracey, Kingsteignton, Newton Abbot and a small part of Ilsington.
Teigngrace Halt was a railway station opened as Teigngrace in 1867 by the Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway.
Hackney Marshes is a local nature reserve in Devon, England. It comprises a low-lying area of flood meadows located at the head of the Teign Estuary by Kingsteignton.
James Templer (1722–1782) of Stover House, Teigngrace, Devon, was a self-made magnate, a civil engineer who made his fortune building dockyards.
Stover is a historic estate in the parish of Teigngrace, about half way between the towns of Newton Abbot and Bovey Tracey in South Devon, England. It was bought by James Templer (1722–1782) in 1765 and passed through three generations of that family before being bought by Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset in 1829.
This article describes the geology of Dartmoor National Park in Devon, in south-west England. Dartmoor gained national park status in 1951 but the designated area of 954 km2 (368 sq mi) extends beyond the upland of Dartmoor itself to include much of the surrounding land, particularly in the northeast. The geology of the national park consists of a 625 km2 (241 sq mi) core of granite intruded during the early Permian period into a sequence of sedimentary rocks originating in the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. These rocks were faulted and folded, sometimes, intensely, during the Variscan orogeny. Thermal metamorphism has also taken place around the margins of the granite pluton altering the character of the sedimentary rocks whilst mineral veins were emplaced within the granite. A small outlier of Palaeogene sediments occurs on the eastern boundary of the national park.
Media related to Stover Canal at Wikimedia Commons