Pluto

I have found the mention of fords, from the second edition of Brindley's 'History'. The best description of the operation of flash locks I have found is: Aufbau und Funktion einer historischen Stauschleuse in der Stecknitzfahrt, Patrick Keilholz und Bastian Albert , in Ifl vol.15, 2011, which has graphs showing the variation in river levels over time whilst a flash lock is in operation, attached below. J L Hogrewe, a Hanoverian engineer who wrote a book about English canals, published in 1780, had just produced plans for improving the Stecknitzfahrt at the request of George III. The ideas were not taken up, but Hogrewe did rebuild one of the flash locks, retaining its design as a flash lock. The French were also still building flash locks at this time. 2011 Aufbau und Funktion Dükerschleuse (dragged).pdf

But that is the point of flash locks, you do not have to keep steady-state conditions. Boats operate on the flash of water, travelling in groups. Midland entrepreneurs were much less sure about the returns from inland waterways, which was why they went for the seven foot wide boat, unlike the more confident Lancs and Yorks investors, who saw the need for 14 feet wide canals. In the initial planning, fords were planned for roads crossing the new canal in order to keep down costs, and I would suspect that it was only during discussion that this was abandoned in favour of the canals we know today. This could well have happened between the original suggestion for a canal from the Potteries to the Trent, and the extended schene to the Mersey. I have attached a page showing the dimensions of the boats.

The Smeaton/Brindley scheme does not appear to go further north than the Potteries. Note that he talks about fording places being 2ft 6in deep, with other documents published at this time suggest that the boat width would be 6 feet, the same as Brindley's boats using the Worsley mine tunnel. The use of fords instead of bridges could mean that flash locks were envisaged. However water mills were increasing in number and improving in design. 2 feet 6 ins depth would have been fine for the old undershot water wheel, but more efficient high breast water wheels were now beginning to be used, partly because of Smeaton's work on establishing the power from different types of wind and water mill. For a breast shot wheel, the fall would have to be at least five feet, and this would have meant that fords on a canal were not suitable, and chamber locks were required, making construction more expensive as bridges would also have to be used. The width of boat was increased to seven feet, half the width of many of the coastal and river boats of the time, on the basis that two narrow boats would fit into existing locks, such as on the Mersey & Irwell Navigation.

The fireless remains of some engine boilers, at Central Wagon Works, Wigan, in the 1960s.

This year it is 300 years since the birth of John Smeaton, the first 'civil engineer'. He worked on several canals, most notably the C&HN. The Institute of Civil Engineers has a couple of blogs about some of his work at https://www.ice.org.uk/news-insight/news-and-blogs/ice-blogs/ice-community-blog/john-smeaton-influence-spans-from-nasa-to-hit-song and https://www.ice.org.uk/news-insight/news-and-blogs/ice-blogs/ice-community-blog/peep-into-smeaton-world-invention-of-copying-press. Not much about canals, but they are of interest. I can add that this is a copy letter from the L&LC Foulridge office in 1919. Would it have been the first cycling permit for on the towpath?

Post 1914 and the two world wars, all the decent timber in this country had been used, and subsequent agricultural economics did not encourage growing trees for timber. The result is today, this country is sadly lacking in decent home-grown timber.

Average freight train loads were surprisingly low, and it was on the initial phase ex-colliery that bulk coal was in large trains. The figures I have are: 1871 56.9 tons 1880 61.4 tons 1890 63.6 tons 1900 63.3 tons 1911 95.9 tons Taken from: From Cain, Private Enterprise or Public Utility? Jour. Trans. Hist. 3rd ser 1980 So it was only by c1870 that a train carried more than a L&LC short boat. The First World War was probably the main factor in the decline of traffic on successful canals, when what became the Ministry of Transport in 1919 actively ignored or discouraged canal transport for much of the war. The lack of government support given to railways resulted in the sale of several large canal company fleets in 1921. The rise in road transport - many small purchasers of ex-army lorries charged rates which were uneconomic for large companies who now had to work to the eight hour day - and the decline in traditional industries resulted in the pre-2WW further decline in canals, and post war canalside collieries became worked out, and those producing gas coal had to stop with the introduction of North Sea gas. Railways only had a minor role in the decline of canal carrying.

The c1960 proposal:

It could be 57ft 6in long as it was an A&CN short boat, rather than a L&LC short boat. That said, I don't know if the A&CN had boats specifically for the Bradford Canal trade. Having checked in the A&CN boat records I have, the following are the iron boats which they kept post 1921. A&CN iron fly boats on company’s books after 1921 1, short, built 1876, coal boat 5, long, built 1879 8, long, built 1877 10, long, built 1877 11, long, built 1877 12, long, built 1877 13, long, built 1878 14, long, built 1879 20, long, built 1877 21, short, built?, coal boat 27, short, built 1869, June 32, long, built 1871 59, barge, built 1875 60, barge, built 1875 61, barge, built 1875 62, barge, built 1875 68, short, built 1876, Pauline 73, long, built 1876 81, barge, built 1877 85, short, built 1878, Fair Maiden 94, long, built 1879 95, long, built 1879 96, long, built 1879 97, long, built 1879 99, long, built 1879, lengthened 1913, Water Wanderer

I have just been sorting some of my digital archive, and have found these: a BW plan and section from 1986, and one from the 1838 Allgemeine Bauzeitung, with a translation of the text which went with it. 1838 General Building Journal.pdf

The photo dates from 1956, when Coronation Road School, Crosby, hired Crucis, Plover and Darlington, for a trip to Boston, with 25 people on each boat. No on-board toilets seem to have been provided! A BBC crew started filming the trip, but the programme was cancelled. A newspaper report suggests they averaged about 80 miles per day, so no hanging about.

The problem I have with such programmes is that I get telephoned by a researcher, spend an hour or so giving detailed and up-to-date historical information, and then they totally ignore it because it doesn't fit with the directors 'ideas'. When they used film, directors had a clear script to follow, nowadays the script is on the back of a fag packet and they take vast amounts of digital video and make it up when it comes to editing.

The usual TV twaddle, completely lacking a detailed understanding of canal and industrial history, which could then be refined into something entertaining.

This is the oldest Rochdale paddle gear I found when researching the paddle gear in 2004. It is on the water supply at Summit West. The ground plan of the stand is identical to the remaining indentations on some locks where new paddles have been installed. The XL file lists all the different types I found, and whether the lock had intermediate gate recesses for C&HN length boats. paddle:lock details.pdf You may find the text from my report on the Rochdale paddle gear of interest, along with incomplete detailed history of each lock. Lock details.pdf Report 2.docx

Don't forget the Bridgewater six-planker motor conversions. I could only find this photo in the Waterways Archive collection. Note that the counter on Alice is formed by vertical planking fitted around the conventional horse boat stern.

When discussing heritage and how to restore a historic structure, it is important to realise there was change over time, and restoration needs to be as at a specific date to be really worthwhile. At one time, I did suggest that three lock sites on the L&LC should be identified for restoration to how they were at a specific time. This could then be used for interpreting the canal's history, both for boaters and towpath users. Unfortunately this would be more expensive than simply using 'standard' gates. BW's engineers did have long discussions on how to develop standard gates in 1959/1960. As I have mentioned previously, I wrote a report on surviving lock gate drawings back in 2007, but it is too large to attache here, at 47Mb. I will attach a couple of drawings, one for a BCN gate, and one for an early Rochdale gate.

Having checked through my collection Leigh Branch 1819 and 1821 Maps suggests one lock at Dover 7ft 2in, and one at Plank Lane 8ft 1826 Survey shows two locks at Dover and one at Plank Lane 1901 First Poolstock lock built. 1905 Lock at Leigh at junction with Bridgewater propose under MSC Bill. 1915 Plank Lane Lock removed. 1916 Second lock at Poolstock built. 1927 Only one lock at Dover, so probably removed sometime in the early 1920s. 1950s Final Dover Lock removed. The attached map appears to be the first in this sort of format, dating from 1884. The next is probably from the early 1890s, and includes the section, which was done for the Winterburn scheme application to Parliament originally circa 1890. Most of the non-L&LC material was removed, though some railways remained, as per Canalmaps example. A later version, with fewer railways, the table of Acts removed, and an outline of St Paul's inserted in the section was then created, possibly in the early 1900s. On some maps, the three branches (Leigh, Rufford and Bradford) are included in the sections, in some editions they are removed. The second map is smaller, and from the Leigh branch section, which is possibly incorrect, the date is circa 1915. The White family worked for the L&LC for many years: 1870, 1 Mar, Charles White engineer 1897, 18 Nov, Charles White retires and R H White appointed engineer 1907, 28 May, R H White dies, A W Stansfield appointed general manager & engineer 1925, 18 Nov, Robert Davidson appointed

It will be a copy originally from the L&LC office in Liverpool. I have seen other archive material with the same cover. The map itself seems to have originated around 1890, when they were looking to improve Liverpool to Burnley to 100 ton standard. There is also an approx A3 map from this time, and they were used, for example, to promote Winterburn reservoir construction and the 1891 Act. The map was up-dated as subsidence affected the Leigh arm. Your map probably dates from around 1920, following the construction of the second Poolstock lock, and the removal of Plank Lane Lock. I would suspect that John Freeman gave the map to the IWA during an office clear-out, such as the move to Wigan in the early 1970s. The map is not particularly rare, and I have come across a number of examples, often rolled and uncut, in several archives. BW did have new examples printed circa 1970, and the transparent copy used for printing is in the Waterways Archive. The company also produced two booklets; one in the 1920s showing which carrier to use for specific general cargo trade after the company's carrying fleet and traffics had been divided between four private companies. These were coerced to form Canal Transport Ltd in 1930, and in the mid-1930s a map book showing businesses using the canal was produced, and I had an A5 copy printed for sale on Kennet some 15 or so years ago, now sold out. The GUC had a similar book printed.

The Barcroft semi-submersible propellor was tried out in the 1890s, mainly in Ireland.

Yes, with what became a brewery being built on the left, and the new turnpike to Bradford crossing the canal.

He painted a couple of L&LC views as well, of which this is one, but where?

The drawings are probably in Warwickshire County Record Office, which holds some of the records from Hatton Yard (I think). Shropshire RO holds those from Ellesmere Yard. The best search engine for UK records is https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk

If you follow this: https://heritage.ecoledesponts.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10481216f.r=écluse?rk=21459;2 you shou;ld get some nice lock drawings, some 18th century.

Jessop trained under Smeaton, whose drawings for locks on the Calder & Hebble survive in the Royal Society Archive. No doubt he passed on the benefit of engineering drawings to Jessop, and a few survive by John Rennie, who was encouraged by Jessop. These three early engineers all had some form of academic training, which has supported the idea that academic learning was essential for training engineers. However, if you look at all our early civil engineers, the one thing which seems to unite them is that they have all had some form of training with master craftsmen. Civil engineering in the UK was led by craftsmen engineers, basing their knowledge on what had been passed on to them. Their ideas developed from existing knowledge through trial and error, with little coming from academic processes. Interestingly, on the continent, the engineering profession was very much academically-based, though most did not have the skills necessary to put their ideas into action. In terms of technology transfer, they were hoping to get skilled craftsmen from the UK, which is where we excelled. UK academic engineering training only really began after the railway age began, so they were years behind the continent. For example, calculus was not widely accepted by British mathematicians and academic engineers until thirty or forty years after the continentals. For about sixty years, from 1760-1830, it was British craftsman engineers who led the world in engineering excellence - its a pity our society does not value those skills sufficiently today.

The L&LC Society needs volunteers to help with Kennet, both moving between events, and staffing when we open to the public. We have been very successful since taking on Kennet back in 2008, and she is now in excellent condition. Can you help maintain that success? We are having an open evening for potential volunteers on 6pm Tuesday 12th March in the Lowerhouse Pub/Canteen, Lowerhouse Lane, Burnley, BB12 6NB, or see: https://www.leedsandliverpoolcanalsociety.co.uk/kennet-looking-forward/#more-1481 If you can't make it, you can contact us by email: friendsofkennet(at)gmail.com or at events. We are hoping to be at Bingley on Saturday 23 March for the 250th anniversary of the 5-rise opening. Unfortunately, we have two lock closures between our mooring at Greenberfield and Bingley, so we may just be there with our displays. Can you help?