SLHS Stratford Canal Basins

Early Days

As you can see from this map (date unknown) the canal arrived from the North from underneath the Warwick Road and turned sharp right (with a dry dock on the outside of the bend).

It’s my conjecture that different companies took out leases on different wharves distributed around the site. I would guess that during construction of the canal only the first basin, connected to the river by the large river lock, was excavated. Remember that excavation of such enormous amounts of land would be expensive. The spoil would not be top soil and therefore local farmers might object to it being put on their land so it may well have to be taken a lot further away. It’s unknown if the excavation was puddled or not.

Success Leads To Investment

Given the large number of large buildings shown one can assume that trade was very successful. In fact so much so that a second, even larger, basin was subsequently dug out. This was connected by a short secondary canal most likely with a gate in it to allow draining and further expansion if necessary.

Technical Details

It’s not known why this drawing was made but it is very accurate. It shows buildings directly associated with the canal company in thicker lines (and coloured brown here). Therefore one might assume that it was they who paid for it to be drawn -perhaps for insurance purposes. This is useful to us for many reasons.

Not only does this drawing show William James’ tramway but also the considerable network of railway lines serving most of the huge buildings there. Notable are:

1. •The rail lines appear to be the same gauge as the tramway
   

2. •Single wagon turnplates are used for right-angle junctions
   

3. •The bridge at the river lock crosses at high level.
   

4. •The bridge at the interconnecting canal is at wharf level and is of a swing design.
   

During construction one over-riding concern must have been addressed: that of severe flooding in winter. This would inflict huge losses on the businesses and so William James must have not just paid for repairs to the weir downstream but have come into agreement with Lucy’s Mill to add at least one more weir and agree on the management of water level during times of flood.

SLHS Picture & Document Archives..

1. Picture Vault:  Stratford Canal

Bridgefoot

Stratford Basin: Derelict Wharves. Original double gates, river and footbridge can just be seen.

For more pictures see Cox’s Yard

● These items have aspects that uniquely contribute to national or world history.

Demise

As we know nationally the coming of the railways eventually put the canals out of business in the 20th century but this was long after dear William’s success (and sadly bankruptcy). Hover over the picture to the right to zoom into what must have appeared to everyone a very sad sight.

Restoration

It’s not all bad news because, following a desperate campaign at the end of the 1950’s, volunteers, and then the new British Waterways Board, turned the clock back and restored the whole canal. Hurrah !

For more information see Canal Restoration

Stratford Basin: Dredging and restoration 1963

Shakespeare Theatres

In 1879 the first large memorial theatre, the Swan Theatre, was built on the far side of the second basin. Looking at the maps it seems that some of it had to be filled in to make space for it. In 1901 the remainder was filled in (against great protests from Marie Corelli). After the theatre’s catastrophic fire in 1926 the canal was already derelict and so earth was brought in to fill in the remainder second basin to make way for the new theatre (opened in 1932) and what is now known as Bancroft Gardens. The first basin remained an eyesore but because of the Great Depression there was no money to pay for this to be filled in and built on (thank goodness).

All colliery rail systems used L-shaped (Outram) rails with the wheels running on the outside of very short lengths of cast iron track. William was rather modern in his thinking. He used longer wrought iron rails with flanges on the wheels. Therefore modern points could be used. Where space was too tight he converted colliery turntables for right angle junctions (right).

Notice that to the North side of Clopton Bridge is a length of river waterway not serviced by commercial buildings. This is where the Guild Pits open sewer had emptied into the river. With the arrival of the canal presumably it was enclosed and Guild Street laid upon it.

Other than those areas labelled for coal, stone or timber for now we don’t know what each building was used for but maybe one day some documentation may come to light.

The second canal basin was completed in 1826 and filled in in 1902.

Basin and Waterside in flood  1910

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