BW1
Company of Proprietors of the Andover Canal Navigation
Description
Records of the Company of Proprietors of the Andover Canal Navigation: estimate of goods to be carried on the canal 1789, receipt for subscription payment 1793.
Date
1789-1793
Reference code
BW1
Access Status
These records are available immediately for research
Administrative / Biographical history
In 1770 Robert Whitworth made a survey for a canal from Andover down the Anton and Test Valleys to Redbridge on Southampton Water. The scheme was revived in 1788 and Robert Whitworth again did the survey and the Act was passed in 1789. The canal appears to have been completed in May 1794 and was 22 miles long, passing via Stockbridge and Romsey. The canal had 24 locks for craft 65 feet by 8 feet 6 inches. Trade was mainly in coal and agricultural produce. Shareholders never received any dividends. The fate of this waterway was sealed by railways in the area from 1851. The Andover & Redbridge Railway bought the canal in 1859 and closed it. The railway company used about 14 1/2 miles of the canal as a railbed.
For further information on Andover Canal see Edward Paget-Tomlinson's 'The Illustrated History of Canals & River Navigations' and Charles Hadfield's 'The Canals of South and South East England'.
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 fonds has therefore been arranged in chronological order.