Bude Canal
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The Bude Canal was originally planned as a highly ambitious project to build about 95 miles of canal for taking mineral-rich sand from Bude, United Kingdom to the Cornish hinterland, to improve the quality of the land.
An Act of Parliament was gained in support of this proposal in 1774. A number of factors meant that this project came to nothing until 1819, when a second Act was obtained to allow for the building of a shorter canal a little over 40 miles in length, mainly based on "tub boats". When the canal was completed in 1825, it consisted of 2 miles of barge canal connecting the sea to the base of a string of inclined planes, which transported the flat-bottomed tub boats that were used on the rest of the canal between the various levels of the network.
In 1891 competition from the railways forced the canal owners to obtain an Act of Closure on the tub boat section of the canal, and in 1901 the remainder of the canal was bought by Stratton and Bude Urban District Council. It became the responsibility of North Cornwall District Council (www.ncdc.gov.uk) when English local government was reorganised in 1974. Today the sea lock is still in working order, and the canal is in water as far as the base of the first inclined plane. The sea lock, though, is the only lock on this section still in working order, and, as such, navigation is not possible along the whole network. In 2005, however, major plans were approved to re-develop the canal, including renewal of the locks between the sea lock and the first inclined plane.
The design of the canal influenced the design of the Rolle Canal.
