Chard Canal

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The Chard Canal was a 13½ mile tub boat canal in Somerset, England, that ran from the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Creech St. Michael, over two aqueducts, through three tunnels and four inclined planes to Chard.

Work in the canal stated in 1835 and the canal was completed in 1842 at a cost of about £140,000. It was thus the last major canal (other than the Manchester Ship Canal) to be constructed in England. The line was originally surveyed by James Green and included boat lifts. He was later replace as engineer by Sydney Hall who decided not to use boat lifts,^[1] and replaced them with inclined planes.^[2] The main cargos of the canal were coal and stone. The canal was heavily over budget and as income was only a third of what had been expected the canal company was never able to meet even the interest payments on its debts. As a result the canal went into receivership in 1853. It closed in 1866.

During World War II part of the Taunton Stop Line ran along the canal.

[edit] References

^ Lost canals of England and Wales Ronald Russell page 68 ISBN 0-7153-5417-5
^ Dunning, Robert (1983). A History of Somerset. Chichester: Phillimore & Co. ISBN 0-85033-461-6.