Waterway map from 1880

[Pluto]

An interesting, if sometimes incorrect, map of English waterways published in a German book on the subject of 1880. The waterway colours are for independent canals, those under the influence of railway company, and those owned by a railway. Spot the mistakes…

[the grinch]

Interesting, seems to have a lot of proposed bits as Navigable! Dorset and Somerset,  Bishop Stortford to Cambridge for starters

[PeterScott]

The BRITISCHER CANAL looks almost wide enough to wind a seventy-footer ...

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Nothing in Scotland at all.

The Leominster canal  is shown all the way to Kington, despite never reaching there and also having been closed and drained long before 1880.

The Herefordshire and Gloucestershire canal is shown still going to Ledbury, but had only another year to go before closure and conversion to a railway.

[David Mack]

And the Thames is apparently unnavigable between Brentford and the mouth of the Wey.

[Pluto]

7 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Nothing in Scotland at all.

The Leominster canal  is shown all the way to Kington, despite never reaching there and also having been closed and drained long before 1880.

The Herefordshire and Gloucestershire canal is shown still going to Ledbury, but had only another year to go before closure and conversion to a railway.

The book it is from was only about English waterways. Scottish waterways do appear in several earlier books, though like many Georgian and Victorian English waterway books, they often relied upon published sources, such as promotional material, which proved too hopeful.

[magpie patrick]

This map navigates to the places mere British maps cannot reach - I hope they enjoyed the trip to Llanrwst! 

[Chris Lowe]

7 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Nothing in Scotland at all.

The Leominster canal  is shown all the way to Kington, despite never reaching there and also having been closed and drained long before 1880.

The Herefordshire and Gloucestershire canal is shown still going to Ledbury, but had only another year to go before closure and conversion to a railway.

I particularly would have enjoyed a trip through Southnett tunnel.

[agg221]

I wonder when they relocated Wolverhampton and Walsall...

 

Alec

[Heartland]

When Cary produced his maps of waterways at the end of the eighteenth century, parliamentary authorised routes were included even those not built.

[Pluto]

This is the map from the 1795 edition of Philips A general history of inland navigation, foreign and domestic.

[Mike Todd]

Burslem canal went northwards from a junction to north of Etruria. Junction is still marked with just a little indication if where it ran

[magpie patrick]

On 04/09/2024 at 17:22, Pluto said:

This is the map from the 1795 edition of Philips A general history of inland navigation, foreign and domestic.

One wonders how they planned to link the Glamorgan and Neath Canals - if we can find the details, I might resurrect the idea! 

 

It would be quite a job cataloging the canals and navigations on these plans that were eventually never built,  and an interesting parallel with waterway restoration now - I have guide books for canals that were expected to reopen and never have. 

[the grinch]

I have a list of canals never built but will have to open this map up on a bigger screen and see if I have missed many. It's often a case of very little detail survives unless it was submitted to parliament often just a line on a map! 

[Chris Lowe]

35 minutes ago, the grinch said:

I have a list of canals never built but will have to open this map up on a bigger screen and see if I have missed many. It's often a case of very little detail survives unless it was submitted to parliament often just a line on a map! 

There are a good few listed & mapped on this forum https://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php

[StephenA]

On 04/09/2024 at 17:22, Pluto said:

This is the map from the 1795 edition of Philips A general history of inland navigation, foreign and domestic.

 

At school when we were doing some history of the English Canals I included a map which in an attempt to make it as big as possible, I excluded Scotland because we weren't doing any Scottish Canals

 

I got marked down on the map with the note "Missing Scotland"

[Pluto]

8 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

One wonders how they planned to link the Glamorgan and Neath Canals - if we can find the details, I might resurrect the idea! 

Probably from mis-reading this 1824 map by Swires done for Baines History of Lancashire. The link should be by tramway.