Length : 13 miles
Completed : 1842
Abandoned and Closed : 1867
The Chard Canal was a 13.5 mile (22km) tub boat canal in Somerset, England, that ran from the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Creech St. Michael, over four aqueducts, through three tunnels and four inclined planes to Chard.
The initial intention was to build a ship canal, passable by vessels of up to 200 tons, between Stolford on the Bristol Channel and Beer on the English Channel, to bypass the difficult passage around Lands End. A survey was commissioned from James Brindley in 1768 and, inspired by the war with France, John Rennie made another in 1811. Investors were not forthcoming and it was not until 1835 that work was started, on a much reduced tub boat canal, initially to Chard only. Work started in 1835 and the canal was completed in 1842 at a cost of about £140,000. It was thus the last major canal (other than the Manchester Ship Canal) to be constructed in England.
The smaller, new line was originally surveyed by James Green and included boat lifts. He was later replaced as engineer by Sydney Hall who decided to use inclined planes instead. The canal was heavily over budget and as income was only a third of what had been expected the canal company was never able to meet even the interest payments on its debts: there was certainly no prospect of carrying the project forward to the south coast. The main cargoes were coal and stone. The canal went into receivership in 1853 and closed in 1866.
During World War II part of the Taunton Stop Line invasion defence project ran along the canal.
