(Ad 1)
The Bude canal was a project promoted by John Edyvean, who
wanted to provide a link between the Bristol and English Channels by
building a canal a canal inland to junction with the river Tamar Calstock
thus both shortening the journey and
avoiding some dangerous waters.
The necessary act was given Royal assent in 1774,but with
numerous plans being drawn up and advances
made the Act lapsed in 1784 and it was another 30 years before the idea was
taken up again.
1817 saw renewed interest and James Green
( Engineer ) and Thomas Sheaton ( surveyor) approached to devise a
plan. Green recommended that with the height of land to be crossed ,
together with the shortage of water the best solution would be a series of
inclined planes , which would also be cheaper to construct than the
necessary number of locks as well as saving water.
From the sea the
plan was that the canal would first of all present a broad 2 miles of water
fit for 40 to 50 ton boats, with a seaward entrance provided with a sea lock
allowing sailing vessels of 70 to 100 tons passage. A breakwater was also
recommended to improve the harbour, which required the diversion of the
River Neet to its current passage to give a greater depth of water for
vessels in neep tides.
Further inland the canal would be narrow and boats draw by
wheel tugboats that could transvers the inclined planes drawn by continuous
chains, powered by underground waterwheels in wheelpits. With the large
planes using a system of counter balanced buckets.
Costs were estimated at £128,341 and an Act of Parliament
passed in 1819, with work commencing in 23rd July 1819 and
finishing 1825. The final cost being just under £120,000, a bit of a novelty
for such projects as it was actually within budget! The finished canal was
35.5 miles long.
As with other canals used again declined with the arrival
of the Railways, locally in about 1879, with the general improvement in
roads being another factor and the canl went into decline until in 1891 an
Act of Parliament was obtained to abandon the branches from RedPost to
Druxton and Brendon Moor to Blagdonmoor. The Railway reached Bude in 1898
and a few years later ( 1902 ) the canal passed into the hands of Bude
district council who used it to improve local drinking water supplies ,
which was much needed.
The barge (wider) canal section from the sea lock to t
Helenbridge basin survives in the hands of the North Cornwall District
Council and is used for recreation.
One of the Bude tugs still survives, complete with wheels
and is being accessed for restoration and preservation.