WHERE BEAUTY LINGERS ON THE WILTS AND BERKS CANAL
By ALAN J. SEAL

IT was during that strange period of our industrial history known as the age of "canal mania" that the Wilts and Berks Canal was first mooted. An east-west waterway link in southern England had always been regarded as a potential necessity, but the first attempt, the Thames-Severn Canal, had failed.

The Thames-Severn had been built to enter the Thames at Inglesham, Wiltshire, near Lechlade, but the Thames commissioners had not kept their promise to make the Thames navigable above Oxford as far as Lechlade, and so that project had come to a halt.

When the Wilts and Berks started to become a reality, in the 1790s, only the river navigations of the Kennet and Avon were complete, and it was on the Avon navigation at Semington, Wiltshire, that the Wilts and Berks began. It was originally intended to take a line of some 55 miles to Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The line was, however, shortened slightly, eventually covering only 51 miles. The Wilts and Berks took some 15 years to complete, and the company could not sell enough of its shares fast enough to meet its costs as they arose. The canal therefore had to be opened in stages so as to earn money as soon as possible. It reached the then village of Swindon in 1804, where it obtained its original water supply, pumped from a well. Reservoirs later fed the canal from Coate and Tockenham.

One of the main purposes of the Wilts and Berks was to carry coal from Somerset, via the Somerset Coal Canal, to London or intermediate points of demand. About two-thirds of the eastbound cargo was Somerset coal, the rest being agricultural produce, stone, manure, corn and salt. The canal was finally completed to Abingdon on September 22, 1810. By this time, it had cost over £250,000, and the shares sold still left a deficit of some £30,000, which had to be covered by borrowing. Apart from the main line, there were four short branch lines to Chippenham, Calne, Longcot and Wantage.

The basis of the financial difficulties that continued to haunt the canal was that all its traffic was west to east and there were relatively few back loads. The directors at the time, however, were nothing if not enterprising and, after a little "arm-twisting", obtained the consent and some financial backing from the Thames-Severn company to link the two canals by the building of what was to be known as the North Wilts Canal. The agreement was reached in 1812, and the canal was completed from Swindon to Latton in 1819. By means of this link, the Wilts and Berks could obtain coal loads and other produce from the Forest of Dean, and the Thames-Severn could connect with the navigable Thames via the Wilts and Berks.

Still enterprising, by 1830 the Wilts and Berks company, in conjunction with the Avon navigation, was running an express passenger ("fly-boat") service on the route Bristol/Melksham/Abingdon. Then, however, the Wilts and Berks directors suddenly became commercially myopic.

The Great Western Railway Company was seeking an Act of Parliament to enable it to build a line between Abingdon and Chippenham and Calne. Not only did the Wilts and Berks directors fail to oppose the Bill, but they actually agreed to carry the materials for the GWR. What better way of signing one's own death warrant?

To start with, the Wilts and Berks Canal flourished, and in 1840 achieved the highest level of toll collection in its history. The railway opened in 1841, and by 1843 the canal tolls had fallen to little more than a third of the 1840 figure. This did not work proportionately with the number of boats using the canal, as different types of goods were charged different toll rates. The railway had taken the most profitable ones and left the lowest-rated goods to the canal. Thus, the fall in tolls revenue did little to reduce the canal's operating costs of the canal.

Many and varied were the discussions and suggestions for saving the life of the canal. The directors were in favour of petitioning Parliament for an Act of Closure by 1874, but some merchants opposed the proposal and the petition failed. A new company was formed and took over the canal in 1877. It had bought the canal for considerably less than it had cost to build and thus had a very much smaller capital. The canal was leased to a syndicate of Bristol merchants in 1882, and the new company was able to pay a higher percentage dividend than ever the old one had. However, all attempts to revive the canal failed: traffic through ended in 1906, the Act of Abandonment being granted in 1914 on the petition of Swindon Corporation.

That really ends the history of the Wilts and Berks but, even to this day, it remains a joy to the interested walker and, in many parts, an added beauty to the landscape. Many of the old canal buildings still exist, several having been converted into modern homes. The explorer will see a number of names like Wharf Road, Wharf House or Canal Cottage along the line indicated on the Ordnance Survey map.

Traces of old locks still can be found. There were 45, including some on the branch lines, but the searcher today will probably discover the most rewarding "finds" among the 24 that take the canal up 190ft to its summit, progressively from Semington to Wootton Bassett. The summit ends at South Marston (not actually shown on the map as part of the canal). The Wilts and Berks then descends some 164ft through 18 locks to Abingdon.

Over the years, the old canal was gradually destroyed. Bridges were crushed to remove the humps, even as late as 1971 or 1972, but it was still possible to look across a ploughed field and to see the unmistakable row of trees winding their way into the far distance, the line of yellow that followed that row of trees indicating that the clay puddle of the canal had only recently been ploughed up.

In July 1977 Mr Neil Rumbol wrote to a waterway magazine, asking for support (financial and practical) to form a society that would survey the remains of the Wilts and Berks and preserve or even restore as much as possible. Support was forthcoming, and in October 1977, the Wilts and Berks Canal Amenity Group was formed. Progress is reported to members in the regular journal, Dragon Fly, and several papers have been published, both on the remains of the canal and on proposals for the future.

There has been an ever-increasing degree of physical activity by Group members and other helpers. Around 100 Cub Scouts turned out for the clearance project at Kingshill as part of their task to earn their conservation badges. The Group has also produced a map showing the whole canal as it was, plus the modern developments that have destroyed parts of it.