BW157/12

Stratford Canal

1859-1983

BW157/12

The Birmingham & Oxford Junction Railway (BOJR) and Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway (OWWR) companies both wanted to build railway lines from Stratford to Birmingham and bargained over which would actually build that branch. Eventually the two companies agreed that the BOJR would build the line. It had been understood that whichever railway built the Birmingham to Stratford route would also buy out the canal company. The OWWR gained parliamentary permission for its lines in 1846, before the BOJR. They found themselves committed to buying a canal on a route they were not using. Even worse, they found their competitors unable to buy the canal. Several further attempts were made to get an Act of Parliament for the BOJR to buy the canal, but failed. The OWWR had a railway line to build and a canal to buy, so they put off the canal purchase until they had part of the railway running. On 1 January 1857 the Stratford canal company was puchased by the OWWR. It had taken 12 years from the first agreements to buy. Tolls had been reduced on the canal and connecting waterways to counter railways Traffic on the canal gradually declined and when the Great Western Railway absorbed the OWWR in 1863, there were further losses. With less traffic, there was less reason to keep the canal well dredged and well maintained. By 1900 less than 8000 tons of cargo travelled to Stratford along the canal. The decline continued until the Southern section of canal was virtually unnavigable. The canal was nationalised under the British Transport Commission: Railway Executive (Western Region) from 1 January 1948. The Stratford canal was then transferred to the British Transport Commission: Docks & Inland Waterways Executive on 23 May 1949. The northern part of the canal was still usable, but much in need of repair. The southern section was derelict and was used occasionally by canoeists. In 1958 the Warwickshire County Council applied for a warrant of abandonment. Public protests and action by the Inland Waterways Association led to a British Transport Commission Act of September 1960 authorising a five-year lease of the southern section of the Stratford-on-Avon canal to the National Trust. With various large donations and contributions from the public, the canal was restored and re-opened in 1964, and freehold transferred to the National Trust in 1965. The upper sections of the canal remained with the British Waterways Board. The canal became very popular, but in spite of the tolls paid by boaters, income always fell short of expenditure. After eleven years of negotiations with various organisations, responsibility for the southern section was transferred to British Waterways on 1st April 1988 and a repair programme was started. For further information on the Bradford Canal, see Edward Paget-Tomlinson's The Illustrated History of Canals & River Navigations, Charles Hadfield's The Canals of the East Midlands and The Stratford upon Avon Canal Society website at http://www.stratfordcanalsociety.org.uk/history.html. For more information on The National Trust, please see its official website https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main