A Talk by Tony Conder on 11 February 2025.
Report by Stan Morrissey.
Tall ships yes, but who knew that two submarines sailed up the canal to Gloucester in 1937?
Tony Conder was curator of the British Waterways Collection for 25 years. In 1988 he opened the National Waterways Museum at Gloucester and in 1999 became curator to the Waterways Trust. He explained that much happened before those submarines.
In the 18th century Gloucester was isolated from the Severn; although goods could be brought upriver, they had to be offloaded and carted up to the city, an inconvenient and expensive operation. And although navigation was straightforward up to Sharpness, above that in the shallow tidal reaches it was easy to go aground.
Various entrepreneurs looked at the best way to bring ships into Gloucester. It was proposed to dig a canal from Gloucester to a river entrance at Sharpness. Enter politics. Lord Berkeley wanted the entrance at Berkeley Pill (rather larger than today) and various ‘expert’ witnesses provided evidence in favour of this and other locations. In 1793, after much prevarication, Berkeley was chosen (surprise!). But there was opposition from landowners on the proposed route, particularly the Hempsted estate near Gloucester.
The proposed 16 mile canal would have been the widest and deepest in the world at the time. Having to reroute to avoid Hempsted proved difficult and time-consuming. In all it took 34 years to complete, no payments were made to shareholders for 65 years, and the planned link to Bristol never happened.
Work started well – a Parliamentary Act to enable it was passed in an unheard of time of six weeks (as now, these could take years), and work started in 1794. They dug five miles and then ran out of money. Napoleon intervened and work stopped for twenty years as more money could not be raised in wartime. In desperation, the new basin was stocked with carp and fishing licences sold.
But the war had one good effect. After 1815 the army and navy had many layoffs and to counter unemployment the Government created a commission to loan money for job creating opportunities. The canal took full advantage of this and digging restarted. Progress was slow as the various people put in charge were all either incompetent or dishonest but eventually Thomas Telford was appointed as Chief Engineer; he established a reliable team and things moved faster. Briefly interrupted by a stranded whale in 1819 which the workmen took three days off to eat, the new canal eventually joined the Stroudwater at Saul and then on to Sharpness.
The canal opened in 1827 and trade grew rapidly. It brought great change to Gloucester, which was now a port and major distribution centre. Saw mills, wagon works and other associated traded sprang up. Prefabricated hospitals were built to ship to Crimea. A coal yard was established at Saul to supply the area, and grain from overseas became a major trading commodity (this was when the warehouses we see today were built). Grain ships from Australia would part-offload in South Wales to reduce draft then move on to Gloucester. Timber was imported, and trade grew in railway sleepers as the railways developed. Iron works were established making machine tools that were shipped across the Empire. Bristol had a real rival.
The canal originally had simple earth banks – the stone reinforcements came later. It was built for sailing ships so all bridges had to be manually swung which was labour intensive. Before the telegraph was invented, when a ship arrived at Sharpness a horseman had to be sent to Gloucester to warn them to set up a gang for unloading. Labour was casual and employed only when needed, as customary in docks until very recently.
Sharpness Docks developed 1871-74 and were the biggest docks on the Severn after Bristol. This didn’t affect the Gloucester trade but as Avonmouth and Portishead followed, competition grew.
When the railway arrived with high load capacity and cross-country links, trade suffered as on other canals. By WW2 trade was vanishing. The grain traffic had gone, timber trade was small, oil was increasing as a partial substitute but all the ancillary trades were gone. By the 1960s trade was virtually zero and the very last commercial load sailed in 2004. The chief advantage of waterways, getting goods from sea to far inland, was overtaken by motorways.
After some strongly resisted proposals to fill in the Harbour and build houses, Gloucester is now a Heritage Harbour where ships, buildings and trades are preserved. The Waterways Museum is housed in a grain warehouse made redundant in the 1920s. The canal is still well used but as a leisure amenity. Submarines no longer traverse it, but you never know what you might see. The 200th anniversary of the canal is in 2027 and great events are anticipated.