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A canal that never was built

The article mentions one of several schemes proposed to improve inland navigation in the UK using incline planes or boat lifts that were not proceeded with although dicussed at length at the time.

The route to the Severn from Birmingham involved either the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal to Stourport or the more direct line via the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. As originally conceived the Worcester and Birmingham Canal would have been a barge canal throughout. That scheme was cut back to a barge width waterway from Birmingham to Tardebigge and boat lifts then to the Severn at Worcester. The Tardebigge boat lift after trial was replaced by a deep lock and all the way to Diglis narrow locks were made.

There were 57 locks between Tardebigge and the Severn with only the last two being barge width. Proposals for improvement failed to happen.
 
I remember a while ago, more than 20 years now, a friend bought a canal boat from up country, quite a long one. I volunteered to help her bring it back down to moorings. We came through the Tardebigge flight, about 30 locks I think. We took turns at each lock cranking the handle and pushing the beams. We were fitter then. I also remember going through a very long tunnel on the same trip, (Kings Norton ??) completely black apart from the Lucas square eight light mounted on the front. She sat right at the front like some sort of figurehead and left me at the back doing the driving. I turned the light off a few times just for giggles, and to learn a few new words. We were so dark adapted, that when we came out, we had to park (collide) with the bank for 15 mins so we could see again to move on.

Andrew.
 
Manchester ship canal was built and used a lot till very recently for quite large ships
 
The Manchester Ship Canal still has traffic along it including container ships, but nothing like it was. The Gloucester & Sharpness Canal also had ships of a certain size that went up to Gloucester, but that traffic ceased some years ago. The River Weaver also had large craft that went as far as the Salt Works near Anderton
 
Forms of ship canals were proposed in different parts of the country during the 1880's and later. Sheffield was one place where a scheme was suggested. This canal was to link the existing canal at Tinsley with the Don near the various steelworks which were served by rail. The number of weirs up to that point led to a new route being proposed.

The line would have joined the Don near the Crown Steel and Wire Works. Such was their need for navigation access then included a wharf, not built, in the engraving made in 1879 of their premises!
 

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Heartland said:
Forms of ship canals were proposed in different parts of the country during the 1880's and later. Sheffield was one place where a scheme was suggested. This canal was to link the existing canal at Tinsley with the Don near the various steelworks which were served by rail. The number of weirs up to that point led to a new route being proposed.

The line would have joined the Don near the Crown Steel and Wire Works. Such was their need for navigation access then included a wharf, not built, in the engraving made in 1879 of their premises!
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Heartland, that is a very nice illustration.
 
It is from a Sheffield Guide of 1879, and has formed a matter of discussion on another website.

As noted the Midlands featured in various canal improvement schemes and canals continue to be altered to suit new infrastructure. In recent times new roads have led to alterations and canal restoration projects also lead to new lines of canal being contemplated. The Lichfield & Hatherton Canal plan with the help of HS 2 to make a link with the Coventry Canal is a example.

There is also the work started at Typhoo Basin which will see alterations to the former tea factory there.
 
The origininal post concerned the proposal for what was dubbed the “Birmingham Ship Canal” In 1886…argued for a ship-canal standard route from Birmingham to the Severn/Channel (often framed as enlarging and rationalising the Worcester & Birmingham/Severn route). The item is catalogued as R. Capper, Proposed Birmingham Ship Canal. Sea Ports, Canal Ports & River Ports (1886/7) in the Birmingham Collection.

Here is a sarcastic view from the time from The Town Crier, March 1886.


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Pedrocut said:
The origininal post concerned the proposal for what was dubbed the “Birmingham Ship Canal” In 1886…argued for a ship-canal standard route from Birmingham to the Severn/Channel (often framed as enlarging and rationalising the Worcester & Birmingham/Severn route). The item is catalogued as R. Capper, Proposed Birmingham Ship Canal. Sea Ports, Canal Ports & River Ports (1886/7) in the Birmingham Collection.

Here is a sarcastic view from the time from The Town Crier, March 1886.


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Interesting, whatever happened or what did not happen to all of this, do we know?
 
Writers of the period note that Birmingham Town Council in 1888 appointed a committee and pressed the Board of Trade for improved canal communication between the Midlands and the sea—but “all attempts…proved abortive.”
The engineering journals of the time carried reports that the “proposed Birmingham Ship Canal scheme” was being reconsidered by local committees.

None of these “ship canal to Birmingham” projects got beyond the bill/advocacy stage. The Manchester Ship Canal (authorised 1885/87) succeeded; Birmingham’s efforts stalled amid cost, engineering difficulty (summit levels into Birmingham), and fierce railway opposition. Contemporary summaries lament that the BCN still had “small locks, shallow water, and horse haulage… and all attempts to open up an improved waterway to the sea-ports [had] proved abortive.”
 
Pedrocut said:
Writers of the period note that Birmingham Town Council in 1888 appointed a committee and pressed the Board of Trade for improved canal communication between the Midlands and the sea—but “all attempts…proved abortive.”
The engineering journals of the time carried reports that the “proposed Birmingham Ship Canal scheme” was being reconsidered by local committees.

None of these “ship canal to Birmingham” projects got beyond the bill/advocacy stage. The Manchester Ship Canal (authorised 1885/87) succeeded; Birmingham’s efforts stalled amid cost, engineering difficulty (summit levels into Birmingham), and fierce railway opposition. Contemporary summaries lament that the BCN still had “small locks, shallow water, and horse haulage… and all attempts to open up an improved waterway to the sea-ports [had] proved abortive.”
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By 1888 the railways were in full swing providing faster and more timely transportation of both goods and people!
 
Pedrocut said:
So the question arises as to why the scheme was proposed in the first place.
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That did cross my mine too. When you consider that Gas Street to Worcester and the Severn is I think about 52 locks lower, the technical challenges would have been significant.
 
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