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The Engineers of the English River Navigations, 1620-1760

Excerpts from the Society's Transactions

The paper entitled "The Engineers of the English River Navigations, 1620-1760" by Professor A W Skempton, is published in the Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 1953-54 Vol 29.

In the 150 years before the construction of the earliest canals of the Industrial Revolution, considerable works were carried out to improve and extend the river navigations in England. In this paper, the author outlines the early development of what may be called the organization of civil engineering, from the work of the somewhat amateur pioneers of the 17th century to that of the professional consultants, such as John Smeaton and his contemporaries of the mid 18th century.

"The significance of the river navigations and the later canals was due primarily to their functions as the most natural inland communication with the sea-ports from which all foreign trade and the very important coastal trade were handled; coupled with the high mechanical efficiency of water transport which, before the days of steam railways and motor vehicles, was the only satisfactory means of carrying heavy and bulky goods."

Typical Loads carried by a single horse Pack horse 1/8 ton Stage waggon on "soft" roads 5/8 ton Stage waggon on macadam roads 2 ton Waggon on iron rails 8 tons Barge on river 30 tons Barge on canal 50 tons This table shows the loads which could be carried or drawn by a single horse with the forms of inland transport available before about 1830. Note the vastly greater efficiency of water as compared with land carriage.

Map showing (in black) land more than 15 miles from the sea or navigable river, c1600. Total length of navigable rivers: 700 miles.

"At the beginning of the 17th century about 700 miles of river transport were available, and on few of these rivers had engineering work of any magnitude been carried out. Thus the Severn was an 'open' river up to Shrewsbury. The Trent likewise was naturally navigable to Nottingham, and the Ouse to York. On the Thames, the fourth and greatest of the royal rivers of England, sea-going vessels could ascend to London Bridge and the 'western barges' could travel thence to Windsor without any obstructions. From Windsor to Oxford, however, there were by the 16th century 21 mill weirs across the river, through which the barges had to pass by means of stanches or flash locks. These were chiefly necessitated by the weirs. When closed they increased the depth for navigation upstream and built up a head for mill wheels. The 'flash' of water released by opening the stanch was at many sites essential for taking the barges over the shallows downstream.

In some of the steeper parts of the Thames flash locks were provided exclusively for navigation purposes but, in general, milling was the more important activity in the Middle Ages, and the boats often had to wait two or three days when grinding was in progress before the miller would condescend, for a suitable toll, to open his weir...

Map showing (in black) land more than 15 miles from the sea or navigable river, c1760. Total length of navigable rivers: 1300 miles.

These disadvantages were not keenly felt in the Middle Ages, but increasing population, increasing need for coal, a gradual rise in the standard of living and a tendency towards urban life, all characteristic of the Renaissance, began to impose a strain on the existing system. Consequently, we find about the year 1600 a definite and conscious effort to improve the navigations, and, more important, an attempt to open up entirely new navigations by canalizing rivers.

Almost without exception the 17th century navigation works were situated in the south, and the trade of this period consisted chiefly of coal and agricultural produce. Thus coal from the staithes at Newcastle was brought to London by sea and then up the Thames to such towns as Windsor, Reading and Oxford. Other goods carried on the river included timber, building stone, corn and malt. And from Lechlade at the head of the Thames navigation in the 17th century, where the river could carry a barge of 50 tons,

"besides Corn of all sorts which they lade to go down stream, here comes from the Severn and Avon, landed at Tewkesbury...and brought on horses and in Carts by land, great weights of Cheese....especially Cheshire Cheese."

Of the technical features of the navigations in the 17th and 18th centuries the pound lock and the lateral cut were the most important. The use of stanches or flash locks on the rivers continued from mediaeval times until the 19th century, although to a limited extent, and chiefly owing to the value of the 'flash' of water which helped to take the barges over the shallows and thereby reduced or eliminated the need for repeated and costly dredging operations. But the stanches had usually been built in mill weirs, and more as an adjunct to the mills than as works designed to improve navigation. When navigation interests began to dominate, the pound lock was "almost as important for economic development as the discovery of steam power".

With the single-door stanch a period of an hour or two elapsed before there was a sufficient "abatement of the fall" for boats to pass, and a vast quantity of water (the 'flash') escaped from the river above. This loss of water was so great as to prohibit the use of stanches on canals, where the supply of water was often the critical problem. When the pound locks were used, only the small volume contained within the lock chamber, between the two doors, was lost; and the time required to operate a pound lock was a few minutes instead of hours."

The author describes some of the engineers responsible for developing these river navigations, many of them moderately wealthy men,"undertaker-engineers", who had a taste for civil engineering and hoped for financial return for their expenditure in time, skill and capital. He concludes:

"With these constructions of the period (pound locks and lateral cuts) and the various ancillary works such as waste-weirs, floodgates, bridges and wharves, the engineers of the river navigations not only provided an important system of commercial transport in their own day, but also created the prototypes for much of the canal engineering of the later 18th century. Too often the work of Brindley and his contemporaries are thought to have been without precedent".

The complete text of this paper can be purchased on line from our archive.

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