On Friday, April 27, 2007 9:25 AM [GMT+1=CET], Adrian Stott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> "Mike Stevens" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> But in practice it never really functioned as a barge canal for the >> whole of >> its length. As early as 1805, when plans for the (Old) Grand Union >> (i.e. >> Norton to Foxton) were being made, the Grand Junction Company >> successfully >> blocked its being built to barge width, as they didn't want the >> problem of >> barges off the Trent & the links throgh Leicestyer using Blisworth & >> Braunston tunnels, necessitating one-way working. So the broad >> locks on the >> northern sections of the GJC were used not by broad boats but by >> pairs of >> narrowboats. This use of "buttying" long predates the introduction >> of motor >> boats. > > Mike, IIRC this was Act 2 of the saga. I believe that in Act 1 the > GJCC originally very much wanted a barge route to Brum and the Trent, > but various other canal companies went ahead with building to narrow > gauge. It was only when GJCC realised its hopes were unlikely to be > achieved that it started worrying about one-way working through the > tunnels. They must have realised that from the date their Act was passed, because the (almost exactly contemporary) Warwick Canals were always planned as narrow, I believe. > Of course, much later, it worked hard again to achieve broad gauge on > the Leicester line (the channel and bridgeholes of which are all > broad) by building the Foxton plane broad and planning to do the same > at Watford, as these are the only narrow locks on that route. That's > still a very good idea today. Oh, yes, they changed their mind a number of times, which why the history was so complicated. I wonder whether, had they done trials in 1900 like they did in the 1930s whether they would still have built Foxton plane to broad gauge. Possibly they would have done, to pass pairs of narrowboats. Mike Stevens narrowboat Felis Catus III web-site www.mike-stevens.co.uk Defend the waterways. Visit the web site www.saveourwaterways.org.uk
