The original junction at Braunston

[Pluto]

58 minutes ago, Richard Carter said:

Sadly we are not great Heuriger customers, as traditionally they don't offer enough for non-drinking vegetarians ...

Although I do drink and eat meat (though vegetarian a few days a week), I like the traditional, non-touristy Heurigers for their general ambiance. For a guide to walking around Vienna, you could look at the site of my friend Heinrich Tinhofer, who has some excellent guides - http://www.walkinginside.at/spaziergange/ This restaurant alongside the old river in the city centre is worth visiting. It is in the old weir house, and has some interesting plans and photos of the old lock and navigation in this area.

[Chris Lowe]

15 hours ago, Richard Carter said:

How am I going to get to bed now? You do know it's an hour later where I am?

 

I can see I'll be spending a lot of time with this, thanks!

You can switch the background to Lidar as well helping you find even more things.

[jake_crew]

1 hour ago, buccaneer66 said:

You can switch the background to Lidar as well helping you find even more things.

I can't see any options to do that ?

 

[Chris Lowe]

See highlighted button, they haven't added lidar data for everywhere yet but its not bad.

 

 

[Heartland]

Charles Smith's Map of the Grand Junction Canal 1810 shows the junction with the Oxford Canal as it was and also tramway connections. The Northampton Arm was a tramway then, but as to Daventry,, was that tramway ever built?

 

[Chris Lowe]

First map that I've ever seen showing the Northampton tramway.

[IanM]

On 23/04/2021 at 14:01, Heartland said:

Charles Smith's Map of the Grand Junction Canal 1810 shows the junction with the Oxford Canal as it was and also tramway connections. The Northampton Arm was a tramway then, but as to Daventry,, was that tramway ever built?

 

 

Crick appears to be the wrong side of the canal.  Is that the alignment as planned?

[Captain Pegg]

11 minutes ago, IanM said:

 

Crick appears to be the wrong side of the canal.  Is that the alignment as planned?

Good spot. I think the answer is probably yes since it hadn’t been built in 1810.

 

As for the junction at Braunston the map is useful as it’s the first we’ve seen that shows the arrangement after construction of the GJC but prior to the Oxford widening. It seems that the original junction was sited directly at a point that had been a sharp bend in the alignment of the Oxford (which was essentially unchanged) but does the evidence of the submerged brickwork referenced in posts above suggest that the exact location was immediately east of the current junction of the residual arm, thus suggesting that the area was slightly remodelled as part of the Oxford widening and therefore has a bridge dating from that time?

[Richard Carter]

On 23/04/2021 at 15:01, Heartland said:

Charles Smith's Map of the Grand Junction Canal 1810 shows the junction with the Oxford Canal as it was and also tramway connections. The Northampton Arm was a tramway then, but as to Daventry,, was that tramway ever built?

 

This is really interesting, many thanks for posting. It does appear to show the original junction and confirm that sharp bend in the Oxford. Shame it doesn't have any detail of the wharf arrangements or a horse bridge.

 

As others have already pointed out there are some other questions of detail, here a couple more:

 

Little Braunston is placed near the bottom lock on the 19th century OS maps and nowadays. not on the Turnpike as here.

 

The reservoirs, although evidently built in 1805, are not marked here, and this also appears to show the Bragborough Stream running separately from the Grand Junction Canal. And no sign of the Braunston Branch Canal either ...

 

The building of Crick Tunnel ran into difficulties with quicksand, did it not? (and later Kilsby Railway Tunnel and the M45, as described by Tom Rolt). So a re-routing from this projected course entirely possible.

[Ray T]

@Richard Carter

 

Richard, I don't know if you have seen this series of articles "A Highway laid With Water?"

 

Chapter VIII. (tringlocalhistory.org.uk)

 

THE GRAND JUNCTION CANAL (tringlocalhistory.org.uk)

 

Keep you busy for a while. 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2021 by Ray T

[Richard Carter]

1 hour ago, Ray T said:

@Richard Carter

 

Richard, I don't know if you have seen this series of articles "A Highway laid With Water?"

 

Chapter VIII. (tringlocalhistory.org.uk)

 

THE GRAND JUNCTION CANAL (tringlocalhistory.org.uk)

 

Keep you busy for a while. 

 

 

Thanks - going for a walk now, but I'll be back ...

[Richard Carter]

7 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

As for the junction at Braunston the map is useful as it’s the first we’ve seen that shows the arrangement after construction of the GJC but prior to the Oxford widening. It seems that the original junction was sited directly at a point that had been a sharp bend in the alignment of the Oxford (which was essentially unchanged) but does the evidence of the submerged brickwork referenced in posts above suggest that the exact location was immediately east of the current junction of the residual arm, thus suggesting that the area was slightly remodelled as part of the Oxford widening and therefore has a bridge dating from that time?

A towpath bridge provided in 1796 would presumably have meant a bridge narrows - the impression I get is that is the earlier days of canal building bridge spans were kept to a minimum, or could there have been a bridge which would take horses and which spanned the original line of the Oxford without reducing the navigation width? The brickwork in the photos posted above could easily be interpreted as relating to an earlier bridge.

[Captain Pegg]

2 minutes ago, Richard Carter said:

A towpath bridge provided in 1796 would presumably have meant a bridge narrows - the impression I get is that is the earlier days of canal building bridge spans were kept to a minimum, or could there have been a bridge which would take horses and which spanned the original line of the Oxford without reducing the navigation width? The brickwork in the photos posted above could easily be interpreted as relating to an earlier bridge.

Good point. I was thinking it was perhaps the inside line of the Oxford at the original junction. Ease of access to the dock would also be a valid reason to replace a narrow bridge with something more state of the art once the technology permitted.

[Richard Carter]

4 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

Good point. I was thinking it was perhaps the inside line of the Oxford at the original junction. Ease of access to the dock would also be a valid reason to replace a narrow bridge with something more state of the art once the technology permitted.

The OCC clearly liked their signature statement iron bridges, that had to come!

 

The more I think about this the more I think the Braunston Branch Canal will have affected the layout of the junction, and there are so many unanswered questions about that: e.g. if the eastern end of the loop of the Branch Canal coexisted with the reservoirs the feed from the extra bottom lock paddle must have gone under the Branch in a syphon; and why was that eastern half of the loop converted into a causeway between reservoir sections and not just incorporated into them, except for the short linking channels visible on the old OS maps? Was the Branch perhaps a very early feature, giving the Grand Junction Company a wharf near the turnpike from the get go, and the eastern end was then sacrificed to the reservoirs?  I have even imagined an early version of the junction with two towpath bridges, one over the entrance to the Branch, and one over the main line of the Oxford - so that the Branch was accessed from the Grand Junction at both ends (i.e. not exactly what David Blagrove in the extract from his book posted above ... )