The Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal was first formed in 1929 and
extended in 1932, it was a
conglomeration of existing canals bought under one banner with the hope of
providing a large commercial transport system capable of
recovering something from the competing railways and general
benefitting from economies of scale, making redundant for instance many of
the toll gates, which not only cost money to run but also slowed the traffic
through the canal as boats queued to get through them.
Canals involved were:
|
Regents
Canal |
Warwick and Birmingham
Canal |
Leicestershire and
Northamptonshire Union Canal
|
|
Hertford Union Canal |
Grand Junction Canal |
Leicester Navigation |
|
Warwick and Napton
Canal |
Old Grand Union Canal |
Loughborough
Navigation |
|
Erewash Canal |
|
|
Many of which would have been underperforming and bought
at cost or less. The initial intention was to include the Oxford Canal and
the Coventry canal as well, though this did not happen before the canals
were nationalised.
The Grand Junction joining Braunston and Brentford was a
broad canal with locks capable of carrying a barge 14ft wide, but everything
north of Braunston was narrow restricting use to narrow boats.
1931 saw an Act of parliament authorising the
modernisation of the Grand Union which was supported by Government funding
and included was the rebuilding and widening of locks
between Napton and Camp Hill top Lock in Birmingham, the canal was
also dredged to 5ft 6 inches and width increased to 26 ft
to allow wider boats to pass.
Sadly the improvements did not encourage more traffic,
even though the Grand Union Company did actually get several broad boats
built to take advantage of the wider system.
With Nationalisation in 1948 the Grand Union canals passed
into the hands of the British transport Commission and then on to the
administration of British waterways in 1962. Commercial traffic continued to
decline until virtually non-existent. However, from the late nineteen
fifties there began to develop an interest in
restoring the canals both for leisure use and because of their
historical significance, with some people still believing in future
commercial possibilities as well. From the late fifties onward Canal
preservation societies started to spring up right across the country,
mobilising small armies of volunteers to clear canals, repair locks and
campaign for recognition and funding for canal restoration projects.
It was from these beginnings that the canal leisure
industry we have today has been established, which currently leaves us with
about 2000 miles navigable inland waterways. The knock on effect has been to
drastically improve city centres such as Birmingham where the now clean
canals provide both a pleasant visual feature to enhance the area plus miles
of quiet towpaths for walkers, cyclists fishermen and joggers. It has also
increased property values, with properties now being built to face the
canal, rather than having their backs to what was previously considered a
rather undesirable industrial feature
… at least in many cases.