1777 - Robert Whitworth, (a
pupil of James Brindley), suggested a canal from Stourport-on-Severn
to Hereford, via Leominster, with a return link to the Severn near
Gloucester, making a semi-circular route of at least seventy miles.
1789 - Richard Hall submitted plans for a route from Hereford, via
Ledbury to the Severn near Gloucester.
Shortly afterwards the course east of Ledbury was revised down the
Leadon Valley to Gloucester, with a branch to Newent.
1790 - At a meeting held on the 18th March, Hall’s plan met with
general approval and a share subscription of £100 shares was opened.
The presence of a coalfield of sorts near Newent, may have been used
as a ruse to encourage investment in the canal company. Josiah
Clowes was appointed as engineer and he estimated the cost of a
canal following Hall’s route, for boats 70’x 8’x 3’6’’ draught, to
carry 35 tons as £69,997.13.6d.
1791 - In April the enabling Act of Parliament was passed without
amendment.
1792 - The capital was fully subscribed by the summer and Hugh
Henshall, (James Brindley’s brother-in-law), was asked to re-survey
the route: Henshall advised taking the canal by way of Newent,
necessitating the construction of a third tunnel on the line of the
canal, at Oxenhall.
1793 - The enabling Act for the revised route was approved and by
the autumn the first three and a half miles of canal from the Severn
at Over, near Gloucester, was completed.
1795 - The canal was opened to Newent, but construction was falling
behind schedule.
1796 - The construction of Oxenhall tunnel was meeting considerable
difficulty and incurring ruinous expenditure. At a meeting in
November, the shareholders were informed of the company’s
predicament; for an expenditure of £100,000 - more than Clowes’s
original estimate for the whole line, the half-way town of Ledbury
had not yet been reached.
1798 - As a result of raising a further £4,000 the canal was opened
to one mile short of Ledbury, on the Ross-on-Wye road.
1827 - Stephen Ballard, (aged 23), was appointed clerk.
1829 - Ballard submits a detailed report on the completion of the
canal, which he estimates would cost £53,000.
1832 - The canal was extended from the Ross road to the Little
Marcle road, in Ledbury, in order to convey coal to the recently
opened Ledbury gas works.
1838 - On the 29th September, Ballard and the civil engineer James
Walker, walk an alternative route from Prior’s Court to Hereford,
which Ballard had proposed. However, Walker advised adherence to the
original line of the canal
1839 - In May, the Act enabling the company to raise £50,000 by
mortgage and £45,000 by a further share issue, in order to complete
the canal to Hereford, was passed: on the 17th November re-building
commenced.
1841 - In February the first barge loaded with coal arrived at the
Bye Street wharf, in Ledbury.
1842 - In August, the feeder from the River Frome, (within the
grounds of Canon Frome Court) to the summit level of the canal was
completed.
1843 - The canal was opened to Canon Frome wharf, in January.
1844 - In February the canal was opened to Withington wharf.
1845 - On the 22nd May the Hereford basin was filled with water and
the canal was completed. The cost of completion was £141,436 -
virtually three times Ballard’s estimate. Following completion,
trade barely improved at all and the company sought to sell the
canal to one of the railway companies, for conversion into a
railway. However, the initial schemes to build a railway to the city
of Hereford came to nothing. Consequently, the company concentrated
on bolstering trade as best as it could
1847 - Income was sufficient to pay mortgage and interest charges.
1849 - After March, trade had increased to such an extent that it
was necessary to introduce a timetable for the passage of boats
through Oxenhall tunnel, which had been built to a bore of only 9’
and proved to be a troublesome bottleneck.
1851 - The delivery in September of 130 tons of rails for the
Hereford to Shrewsbury railway, brought a transient increase in
income.
1853 - The Hereford to Shrewsbury railway was opened in December.
1854 - The Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford railway was opened.
1855 - The rails of Brunel’s broad gauge reach Hereford in June,
from Gloucester, via Ross-on-Wye.
1858 - Traffic on the canal during the year reaches 47,560 tons, but
only as a result of rate-cutting incentives.
1860 - Financially the most successful year for the company, with
income amounting to £7,061, but largely due to carrying materials
for the Worcester and Hereford Railway.
1861 - The Worcester and Hereford railway was completed.
1862 - On the 17th January the company concluded an agreement with
the Great Western and West Midland railways, for the future
conversion of the canal to a railway. The railway company was to pay
the canal company £5,000 per annum rent, in perpetuity.
1880 - The last complete year of business on the canal.
1881 - On the 30th June the canal was closed to permit the
construction of the Ledbury to Gloucester railway. The canal company
continues distributing the annual rent of £5,000 received from the
Great Western Railway.
1948 - Nationalisation of the railways and the closure of the canal
company’s books.
The above is very largely taken from David Bick’s book, entitled,
“The Hereford & Gloucester Canal”, published by the Pound House,
Newent, Gloucestershire.
Nigel C. Jefferies - March 1984, revised December 1996 |
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