Length : 24 miles
Completed in Devon : 1814
Completed in Somerset : 1838
Abandoned and Closed : 1867
The Grand Western Canal ran between Tiverton in Devon and Taunton in Somerset in the United Kingdom. The canal had its origins in various plans, going back to 1796, to link the English Channel and the Bristol Channel by a canal, bypassing Lands End. An additional purpose of the canal was the supply of limestone and coal to lime kilns along with the removal of the resulting quicklime, which was used as a fertiliser and for building houses. This intended canal-link was never completed as planed, as the coming of the railways removed the need for its existence.
Construction was in two phases. A level section from Tiverton to Lowdwells on the Devon/Somerset border, opened in 1814, and was capable of carrying broad-beam barges, carrying up to 40 tons. The Somerset section, suitable for tub-boats, which were about 20 feet (6.1 m) long and capable of carrying eight tons, opened in 1839. It included an inclined plane and seven boat lifts, the earliest lifts to see commercial service in the UK. The lifts predated the Anderton Boat Lift by nearly 40 years.
The Devon section remains open, despite various threats to its future, and is now a designated country park, and allows some limited navigation. The Somerset section was closed in 1867, and is gradually disappearing from the landscape, although sections are now used as a footpath. It maintains a historical interest and has been subject to some archaeological excavations.
The Grand Western Canal was conceived as one of several competing schemes to alleviate the hazards and delays of coastal sailing ships making a passage around Land's End to get between the Bristol Channel and the English Channel. A canal from the mouth of the River Exe to Exeter had been opened in 1566; and eight miles of the River Tone had been made navigable in 1638. Navigation of the River Tone had been extended to Taunton in 1717, by the construction of locks on the upper section.
Against this background, in 1768 a committee of men commissioned James Brindley to survey a route, in the form of a canal, between Taunton and Exeter; and the survey was duly carried out by Robert Whitworth in 1769. This was to have been called the Exeter to Uphill Canal; as it involved a route from Topsham or Exeter to Taunton, then the use of the River Tone and a second canal from Burrow Bridge, via Bridgwater, Glastonbury, Wells and Axbridge, to Uphill. Nothing further came of the plan until the 1790s, when various canal engineers were consulted, and in 1794 John Rennie was asked by a different committee, the Grand Western Canal Committee, to make another survey, which was adopted, and formed the basis for a planned Act of Parliament. Opposition from the City of Exeter, who feared it would compete with the Exeter Canal for transportation of coal, was eventually softened; and the Act was passed on 24 March 1796.
The Act authorised a canal from Taunton to Topsham with branches to Tiverton and Cullompton. Water supply would be derived from proposed reservoirs, one on the River Tone and two on the River Culm, and from any other available sources within 2000 yd (1.8km) of the line of the canal. The canal company was also authorised to improve the River Tone near Taunton, and to raise £220,000, plus an additional £110,000 if required. Navigation onwards from Taunton was via the River Tone and the River Parrett. Construction did not start immediately
By April 1970, the British Waterways Board had agreed to give the canal to Devon County Council, with £30,000 for maintenance. The actual contract was signed on 5 May 1971 at Tiverton Town Hall, when General Sir Hugh Stockwell of the BWB also handed over a cheque for £38,750 to Colonel Eric Palmer, chairman of Devon County Council. The transfer of the canal was effective from 24 June 1971.
The new owners set to work immediately. The dry section was excavated and lined with a butyl liner to prevent leakage. The canal was reopened in 1971. Navigation is restricted to unpowered boats, with the exception of a maintenance boat that is used for cutting weed, while the final section from Fossend to Lowdwells, which would have been part of the original main line to Exeter, is designated as a nature reserve, and so all navigation and angling is discouraged. The canal is now a designated country park, and a horse-drawn tourist narrowboat runs from Tiverton.
The Somerset section is largely dry and is gradually disappearing into the landscape, as a result of roads improvements and ploughing, but a footpath has been established along much of its route, and archaeological excavations of the lift at Nynehead, the only one where there are still substantial remains, were carried out between 1998 and 2003 by the Somerset Industrial Archaeological Society
