The H&G Canal Trust                                                    You are here::  The H&G Canal:  Stephen Ballard

In 1827 a young man from Malvern Link, Stephen Ballard, had been appointed as clerk to the company. He engaged in various projects to gain canal experience - inspecting established canals, bridges and locks, conducting survey work and constructing reservoirs, drainage schemes and water supplies. By 1837 he was the company’s engineer and was surveying the proposed canal extension to Hereford.

He turned out to have the drive and enthusiasm necessary to see the project through. Excavation began again in 1839, with Ballard working 16 hour days surveying and supervising the proceedings. He constantly had to tussle with the shortage of funds for continuing the work.

The canal basin at Hereford was filled with water in May 1845. The momentous event was greeted by not a single onlooker: the canal was completed 50 years too late - in the mid 1800s, this was already the age of the train.

On the completion of his task Ballard wrote:

Stephen Ballard’s greatest engineering achievement and the Trust’s showpiece, is Skew Bridge at Monkhide. It is built at an angle of more than 60 degrees to the road that crosses the canal at this point and it is the most askew bridge on the entire waterways system. It is a remarkable building feat with the brick work running in diagonal lines and it is now a Grade II "listed building". Ballard must have built it for the satisfaction it gave him – he could much more easily have changed the line of the canal or the road to make a skewed bridge unnecessary!