Home  / BW4/1

BW4/1

Coombe Hill Canal

Description

Records of the Coombe Hill Canal: plans of the development of the canal as a leisure facility 1981.

Date

1981

Reference code

BW4/1

Administrative /​ Biographical history

This broad waterway runs 2.75 miles from the junction with the River Severn at Wainlode to Coombe Hill village, Gloucestershire. It was authorized by an Act of 1872 and opened in 1876. It brought coal to within 5 miles of Cheltenham. There were plans to extend the canal to the town, although this was opposed by the Gloucester & Cheltenham tramroad. The canal came under the control of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal in 1822 and they leased it in 1825. This lease was renewed in 1829. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal proposed to buy the Coombe Hill Canal in 1844 to extend it to Cheltenham. However this did not happen and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal leased it from 1849 to 1867 in order to extend their traffic. The Coombe Hill Canal was sold to private interests in 1871 and was abandoned by an Act of 1876. It is now owned and managed by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. For further information on Coombe Hill Canal see Edward Paget-Tomlinson's 'The Illustrated History of Canals & River Navigations'.

System of arrangement

It has not been possible to ascertain any original structure of record-keeping from the small number of records held for this company. The subfonds has therefore been arranged in chronological order.

Comments