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79-540: The Blyth Navigation was a canal in Suffolk , England , running 7 miles (11 km) from Halesworth to the North Sea at Southwold . It opened in 1761, and was insolvent by 1884. Its demise was accelerated by an attempt to reclaim saltings at Blythburgh , which resulted in the estuary silting up. It was used sporadically until 1911, and was not formally abandoned until 1934. Between Southwold and Walberswick ,

158-547: A caisson of water in which boats float while being moved between two levels; and inclined planes where a caisson is hauled up a steep railway. To cross a stream, road or valley (where the delay caused by a flight of locks at either side would be unacceptable) the valley can be spanned by a navigable aqueduct – a famous example in Wales is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site ) across

237-510: A drainage divide atop a ridge , generally requiring an external water source above the highest elevation . The best-known example of such a canal is the Panama Canal . Many canals have been built at elevations, above valleys and other waterways. Canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination such as a city where water is needed. The Roman Empire 's aqueducts were such water supply canals. The term

316-415: A "cistern", or depressed area just downstream from the fall, to "cushion" the water by providing a deep pool for its kinetic energy to be diffused in. Vertical falls work for drops of up to 1.5 m in height, and for discharge of up to 15 cubic meters per second. The transport capacity of pack animals and carts is limited. A mule can carry an eighth-ton [250 pounds (113 kg)] maximum load over

395-447: A boat ran aground between locks, they would sometimes ask a passing boat (going upstream) to tell the next lock keeper to give an extra heavy swell, by opening all the wickets on the upstream lock thus raising the water level temporarily, so that they could get unstuck. The Morris Canal had inclined planes as well as locks, and the former required keepers also, although one cannot exactly call them "lock keepers" since they did not tend

474-531: A branch to the harbour in 1914, as part of a plan to relieve congestion of the harbours at Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft during the herring fishing season. The outbreak of war prevented its use for this purpose, although it was useful when coastal defences were being built in the area. The harbour declined until it was sold back to the Southwold Corporation in 1932, while the navigation finally ceased on 19 February 1934, when an order of abandonment

553-496: A canal has a series of dams and locks that create reservoirs of low speed current flow. These reservoirs are referred to as slack water levels , often just called levels . A canal can be called a navigation canal when it parallels a natural river and shares part of the latter's discharges and drainage basin , and leverages its resources by building dams and locks to increase and lengthen its stretches of slack water levels while staying in its valley . A canal can cut across

632-413: A combination of the three, depending on available water and available path: Smaller transportation canals can carry barges or narrowboats , while ship canals allow seagoing ships to travel to an inland port (e.g., Manchester Ship Canal ), or from one sea or ocean to another (e.g., Caledonian Canal , Panama Canal ). At their simplest, canals consist of a trench filled with water. Depending on

711-501: A day during the boating season. On the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal , the lock keepers were required to remove the windlasses from all lock paddles at night, to prevent unauthorized use. But they had to get up and man the lock if a boat came through at night. Lock keepers had to enforce company rules against independent and wily boat captains. In some cases, they had to check waybills that the boats had. They also were responsible for

790-498: A further report was prepared by John Wright and James Walker in 1840. They calculated that the embankments surrounding the saltings excluded 5.5 million cubic yards (4.2 million m3) of tidal water on each tide, and thus the scouring effect of the river was considerably reduced. 1879 saw the opening of the Southwold Railway , a narrow gauge line between Southwold and Halesworth, which crossed the navigation near Southwold on

869-549: A journey measured in days and weeks, though much more for shorter distances and periods with appropriate rest. Besides, carts need roads. Transport over water is much more efficient and cost-effective for large cargoes. The oldest known canals were irrigation canals, built in Mesopotamia c.  4000 BC , in what is now Iraq . The Indus Valley civilization of ancient India ( c.  3000 BC ) had sophisticated irrigation and storage systems developed, including

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948-599: A local maltster named Patrick Stead increased the water levels above the point where the New Reach and the Town River joined, by building an additional lock near the junction. The day-to-day running of the navigation for the first four years was the responsibility of Samuel Jones, who appears to have overseen the construction of the navigation while Langley Edwards was elsewhere, and who was appointed as lock keeper , toll collector, warehouse keeper and surveyor of works by

1027-468: A lock, but an inclined plane which did much of the same function as a lock, lifting or lowering boats from one level to another, albeit with a cradle which carried the boats. There were often conflicts between the boat captains and the lock keepers. In July 1874 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, there was a notorious incident, where the boat's tow line caught and tore the lock railing and the captain of

1106-625: A navigation to Halesworth, and a plan for the navigation, including a branch from Halesworth to Ubbeston was prepared by Benjamin Reeve in 1753. The project which included three locks was costed at £4,614 by John Reynolds in May 1753, but there was a delay before the bill was submitted to Parliament. Following the granting of the River Blyth Navigation Act 1757 ( 30 Geo. 2 . c. 47) on 1 April 1757, which included additional powers for

1185-581: A rather low gradient for its time. The canal is still in use after renovation. In the Middle Ages , water transport was several times cheaper and faster than transport overland. Overland transport by animal drawn conveyances was used around settled areas, but unimproved roads required pack animal trains, usually of mules to carry any degree of mass, and while a mule could carry an eighth ton, it also needed teamsters to tend it and one man could only tend perhaps five mules, meaning overland bulk transport

1264-425: A rent free house. They often had small stores to sell groceries to passing boats and, among their duties, made minor repairs along the canal and at locks. On the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal the lock keeper had a rent free house, an acre of land for a garden, and was paid a base of $ 150 a year. If he kept more than one lock, it was $ 50 for each extra lock, with a maximum of 3 locks. Lockkeepers were on call 24 hours

1343-491: A sack of malt in his boat, which he delivered to Adnams Brewery in Southwold. The purpose of the journey was to raise funds for the restoration of New Reach at Halesworth, which played an important part in the industrial history of the town. The New Reach Working Group was formed, and in 2017 launched a working punt named after the maltster Partick Stead. In 2018 they were given a powered brush cutter to assist in maintaining

1422-423: A swing bridge. Although lack of capital prevented the construction of a branch from the main line to the navigation at Halesworth and another along the north bank of the river towards Southwold harbour, the railway still had an effect on the navigation, use of which declined until the commissioners advertised that they were no longer deriving any income from it in 1884, and would therefore cease to maintain it. In 1894

1501-459: A uniform altitude. Other, generally later, canals took more direct routes requiring the use of various methods to deal with the change in level. Canals have various features to tackle the problem of water supply. In cases, like the Suez Canal, the canal is open to the sea. Where the canal is not at sea level, a number of approaches have been adopted. Taking water from existing rivers or springs

1580-422: Is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide , making a navigable channel connecting two different drainage basins . Both navigations and canals use engineered structures to improve navigation: Since they cut across drainage divides, canals are more difficult to construct and often need additional improvements, like viaducts and aqueducts to bridge waters over streams and roads, and ways to keep water in

1659-701: Is presumed, introduced in Italy by Bertola da Novate in the 16th century. This allowed wider gates and also removed the height restriction of guillotine locks . To break out of the limitations caused by river valleys, the first summit level canals were developed with the Grand Canal of China in 581–617 AD whilst in Europe the first, also using single locks, was the Stecknitz Canal in Germany in 1398. In

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1738-599: Is rarely less than 30 metres (98 ft) wide. In the 5th century BC, Achaemenid king Xerxes I of Persia ordered the construction of the Xerxes Canal through the base of Mount Athos peninsula, Chalkidiki , northern Greece. It was constructed as part of his preparations for the Second Persian invasion of Greece , a part of the Greco-Persian Wars . It is one of the few monuments left by

1817-418: Is steeper than the desired canal gradient. They are constructed so the falling water's kinetic energy is dissipated in order to prevent it from scouring the bed and sides of the canal. A canal fall is constructed by cut and fill . It may be combined with a regulator, bridge, or other structure to save costs. There are various types of canal falls, based on their shape. One type is the ogee fall, where

1896-452: Is the pound lock , which consists of a chamber within which the water level can be raised or lowered connecting either two pieces of canal at a different level or the canal with a river or the sea. When there is a hill to be climbed, flights of many locks in short succession may be used. Prior to the development of the pound lock in 984 AD in China by Chhaio Wei-Yo and later in Europe in

1975-658: The Elbe , Oder and Weser being linked by canals. In post-Roman Britain, the first early modern period canal built appears to have been the Exeter Canal , which was surveyed in 1563, and open in 1566. The oldest canal in the European settlements of North America, technically a mill race built for industrial purposes, is Mother Brook between the Boston, Massachusetts neighbourhoods of Dedham and Hyde Park connecting

2054-543: The Naviglio Grande built between 1127 and 1257 to connect Milan with the river Ticino . The Naviglio Grande is the most important of the lombard " navigli " and the oldest functioning canal in Europe. Later, canals were built in the Netherlands and Flanders to drain the polders and assist transportation of goods and people. Canal building was revived in this age because of commercial expansion from

2133-545: The Phoenix metropolitan area was the most complex in ancient North America. A portion of the ancient canals has been renovated for the Salt River Project and now helps to supply the city's water. The Sinhalese constructed the 87 km (54 mi) Yodha Ela in 459 A.D. as a part of their extensive irrigation network which functioned in a way of a moving reservoir due to its single banking aspect to manage

2212-528: The River Brue at Northover with Glastonbury Abbey , a distance of about 1.75 kilometres (1,900 yd). Its initial purpose is believed to be the transport of building stone for the abbey, but later it was used for delivering produce, including grain, wine and fish, from the abbey's outlying properties. It remained in use until at least the 14th century, but possibly as late as the mid-16th century. More lasting and of more economic impact were canals like

2291-614: The Songhai Empire of West Africa, several canals were constructed under Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad I between Kabara and Timbuktu in the 15th century. These were used primarily for irrigation and transport. Sunni Ali also attempted to construct a canal from the Niger River to Walata to facilitate conquest of the city but his progress was halted when he went to war with the Mossi Kingdoms . Around 1500–1800

2370-556: The reservoirs built at Girnar in 3000 BC. This is the first time that such planned civil project had taken place in the ancient world. In Egypt , canals date back at least to the time of Pepi I Meryre (reigned 2332–2283 BC), who ordered a canal built to bypass the cataract on the Nile near Aswan . In ancient China , large canals for river transport were established as far back as the Spring and Autumn period (8th–5th centuries BC),

2449-404: The stratum the canal passes through, it may be necessary to line the cut with some form of watertight material such as clay or concrete. When this is done with clay, it is known as puddling . Canals need to be level, and while small irregularities in the lie of the land can be dealt with through cuttings and embankments, for larger deviations other approaches have been adopted. The most common

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2528-471: The 12th century. River navigations were improved progressively by the use of single, or flash locks . Taking boats through these used large amounts of water leading to conflicts with watermill owners and to correct this, the pound or chamber lock first appeared, in the 10th century in China and in Europe in 1373 in Vreeswijk , Netherlands. Another important development was the mitre gate , which was, it

2607-472: The 15th century, either flash locks consisting of a single gate were used or ramps, sometimes equipped with rollers, were used to change the level. Flash locks were only practical where there was plenty of water available. Locks use a lot of water, so builders have adopted other approaches for situations where little water is available. These include boat lifts , such as the Falkirk Wheel , which use

2686-453: The Canal company well into the 1870s. Locks on commercial canals are usually power operated. The lock keeper, who no longer lives on site, controls the whole process from a control room overlooking the lock. In the modern age the control of traffic and locks on canals is being centralised. A single control centre can remotely operate several locks and moveable bridges in a wide area, overseeing

2765-495: The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. where the Salty Dog Tavern was known for its availability of liquor and easiness of women. To help a boat get out of a lock (going downstream) the lockkeeper would sometimes provide a swell , that is, opening the paddle valves (wickets) on the upstream gates so that the rush of water would flush the boat out. Some wily lock keepers would demand money from the boatmen for this "service". If

2844-432: The New Reach into a resource for the town, but frustration at the difficulties of negotiating water levels and flooding in that year let to the plans being dropped. The section is owned by Waveney District Council. There have been sporadic efforts to restore the canal for navigation, but the resultant flooding of bordering land has made this unpopular. On 27 May 2016, Gerald Burns canoed from Halesworth to Southwold, carrying

2923-590: The Persian Empire in Europe . Greek engineers were also among the first to use canal locks , by which they regulated the water flow in the Ancient Suez Canal as early as the 3rd century BC. There was little experience moving bulk loads by carts, while a pack-horse would [i.e. 'could'] carry only an eighth of a ton. On a soft road a horse might be able to draw 5/8ths of a ton. But if

3002-785: The Southwest by 1300 CE. Archaeologists working at a major archaeological dig in the 1990s in the Tucson Basin, along the Santa Cruz River, identified a culture and people that may have been the ancestors of the Hohokam. This prehistoric group occupied southern Arizona as early as 2000 BCE, and in the Early Agricultural period grew corn, lived year-round in sedentary villages, and developed sophisticated irrigation canals. The large-scale Hohokam irrigation network in

3081-470: The Southwold Harbour trustees, a new survey was carried out by Langley Edwards, who estimated the cost at £3,000, which included the purchase of Wenhaston watermill. By 1759, subscriptions had been received from 38 people, mainly from the immediate locality, for a total of £3,600. Having made the estimate, Edwards was responsible for completing the work to that price, but failed to attend most of

3160-414: The boat insisted on scrubbing the boat's sides with a broom while still in the lock. The lock keeper demanded that the captain remove the boat from the lock, which he refused. The lock keeper's son opened one of the gates pinning the captain's son against the boat. There was soon a fist fight, and the captain's wife knocked one of the keeper's sons off the boat. Things escalated to rock throwing, clubbing, and

3239-436: The canal pressure with the influx of water. It was also designed as an elongated reservoir passing through traps creating 66 mini catchments as it flows from Kala Wewa to Thissa Wawa . The canal was not designed for the quick conveying of water from Kala Wewa to Thissa Wawa but to create a mass of water between the two reservoirs, which would in turn provided for agriculture and the use of humans and animals. They also achieved

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3318-418: The canal to form a dam. They are generally placed in pre-existing grooves in the canal bank. On more modern canals, "guard locks" or gates were sometimes placed to allow a section of the canal to be quickly closed off, either for maintenance, or to prevent a major loss of water due to a canal breach. A canal fall , or canal drop, is a vertical drop in the canal bed. These are built when the natural ground slope

3397-462: The canal. Where large amounts of goods are loaded or unloaded such as at the end of a canal, a canal basin may be built. This would normally be a section of water wider than the general canal. In some cases, the canal basins contain wharfs and cranes to assist with movement of goods. When a section of the canal needs to be sealed off so it can be drained for maintenance stop planks are frequently used. These consist of planks of wood placed across

3476-469: The channel. There are two broad types of canal: Historically, canals were of immense importance to commerce and the development, growth and vitality of a civilization. In 1855 the Lehigh Canal carried over 1.2 million tons of anthracite coal; by the 1930s the company which built and operated it for over a century ceased operation. The few canals still in operation in our modern age are a fraction of

3555-497: The commissioners voted to ask the Board of Trade for a warrant to allow the navigation to be abandoned. Despite this, a trader from Halesworth called Fred Lambert brought a wherry called Star to the river, and carried coal from the harbour at Southwold to Halesworth until 1911. He estimated that the cost of repairing the navigation was £1,000, but he could not raise the money to carry out the work. The Southwold Railway finally built

3634-415: The commissioners. Each time his contract was to be renewed, they attempted to reduce his salary, and so he left and was replaced by his assistant William Bickers. Tolls over the next thirty years averaged £134 per year In the early 19th century, the saltings below Blythburgh Bridge were reclaimed by the construction of embankments, to prevent them flooding. The plan was poorly thought out, and soon afterwards

3713-479: The company. Many district superintendents of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal began as lock keepers, but because of their good reputation, were promoted. These included Elgin and John Y. Young in the 1830s and 1840s, John Lambie in the 1840s. A. K. Stake began at locks 41–41 from 1847 to 1848, Lewis G. Stanhop at locks 41–42 also in 1848, and Overton G. Lowe at Lock 56 when the canal opened to Cumberland — these three individuals were later promoted and continued working for

3792-404: The condition of Southwold harbour was deteriorating, largely due to the deposition of silt, which made access difficult. The canal engineer John Rennie was asked to advise on a course of action, but although his report of 6 January 1820 pointed to the embanking of the saltings as the cause of the problem, he could offer no acceptable solution. The entrance to the harbour became blocked in 1839, and

3871-399: The drop follows an s-shaped curve to create a smooth transition and reduce turbulence . However, this smooth transition does not dissipate the water's kinetic energy, which leads to heavy scouring. As a result, the canal needs to be reinforced with concrete or masonry to protect it from eroding. Another type of canal fall is the vertical fall, which is "simple and economical". These feature

3950-403: The end of the navigation registered the waterway as a village green . The designated area ran from the point at which the New Reach leaves the Town River, just above Maltings Lock, to Halesworth Lock. It includes part of the towpath, and the spur which enabled wherries to reach the maltings from Langleys Quay, which subsequently became a tarmac footpath. In 1993 a community group was set up to turn

4029-670: The first summit level canal to use pound locks in Europe was the Briare Canal connecting the Loire and Seine (1642), followed by the more ambitious Canal du Midi (1683) connecting the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. This included a staircase of 8 locks at Béziers , a 157 metres (515 ft) tunnel, and three major aqueducts. Canal building progressed steadily in Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries with three great rivers,

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4108-462: The freedom to make deliveries well away from rail lined road beds or ditches in the dirt which could not operate in the winter. The longest extant canal today, the Grand Canal in northern China, still remains in heavy use, especially the portion south of the Yellow River . It stretches from Beijing to Hangzhou at 1,794 kilometres (1,115 miles). Canals are built in one of three ways, or

4187-737: The higher waters of the Charles River and the mouth of the Neponset River and the sea. It was constructed in 1639 to provide water power for mills. In Russia, the Volga–Baltic Waterway , a nationwide canal system connecting the Baltic Sea and Caspian Sea via the Neva and Volga rivers, was opened in 1718. Lock keeper The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company in 1900 paid their lock keepers US$ 18 per month, with

4266-423: The level (canal pound) by their lock, to fix leaks and other minor repairs. Some lock keepers simply left the job and disappeared. In June 1848, when Asa Aud had taken French leave , William Elgin the district superintendent, appointed John Boozell as tender of Lock 25 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Often lock keepers sold alcohol on the side, one notable example being A. S. Adams of Lock 33 (Harpers Ferry) on

4345-549: The load were carried by a barge on a waterway, then up to 30 tons could be drawn by the same horse. — technology historian Ronald W. Clark referring to transport realities before the industrial revolution and the Canal age . Hohokam was a society in the North American Southwest in what is now part of Arizona , United States, and Sonora , Mexico. Their irrigation systems supported the largest population in

4424-460: The lock in advance, having boats wait for another coming from behind to handle them simultaneously, or decide whether to turn a lock empty for a boat going in one direction or to wait for one going in the other direction. On the River Thames , the traditional locks have been retained, though the majority are now motorised, using a hydraulic system to operate the gates; however, when unpowered,

4503-414: The lock keeper's sons returned with a shotgun and revolver, which misfired. When the boat did resume its journey, the lock keeper followed on horseback, all the way to Cumberland (the end of the canal) with a club threatening to settle things. There were plenty of incidents with negligent lock keepers. On September 11, 1895 at Lock 22, the boat Excelsior arrived, and tried to lock through. The lock keeper

4582-480: The longest canal in the world today and the oldest extant one. It is 1,794 kilometres (1,115 mi) long and was built to carry the Emperor Yang Guang between Zhuodu ( Beijing ) and Yuhang ( Hangzhou ). The project began in 605 and was completed in 609, although much of the work combined older canals, the oldest section of the canal existing since at least 486 BC. Even in its narrowest urban sections it

4661-534: The longest one of that period being the Hong Gou (Canal of the Wild Geese), which according to the ancient historian Sima Qian connected the old states of Song, Zhang, Chen, Cai, Cao, and Wei. The Caoyun System of canals was essential for imperial taxation, which was largely assessed in kind and involved enormous shipments of rice and other grains. By far the longest canal was the Grand Canal of China , still

4740-494: The meetings which the commissioners called. Despite his elusiveness, the work was completed at a cost of £3,822, and the official opening took place on 23 July 1761. As built, the navigation had four locks while some sources also mention a tidal staunch located above Blythburgh bridge. Southwold Museum show two sections where the winding river channel was bypassed by a new straighter cut, one above Blythburgh bridge and one below, with several minor cuts to remove meanders. They place

4819-550: The mouth of the River Blyth forms a tidal creek, which opens out into a large area of saltings below the first bridge over the river at Blythburgh. The river was navigable to the port of Blythburgh until the 16th century, but navigation was increasingly affected by silting up of the channel. The volume of water which drained from the saltings on every tide kept the mouth of the river scoured, and enabled Southwold to develop as an important, though minor, port. The idea of making

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4898-465: The navigation to bypass Wenhaston corn mill, and a fourth at the start of the New Reach in Halesworth. Earlier 6-inch maps show an additional lock at Mells Bridge, then called Old Chapel Bridge. From the sea, the navigation followed the River Blyth until it reached the Town River, which it followed to Halesworth Lock. From there, the New Reach took the canal to a wharf at Halesworth, which formed

4977-506: The numbers that once fueled and enabled economic growth, indeed were practically a prerequisite to further urbanization and industrialization. For the movement of bulk raw materials such as coal and ores are difficult and marginally affordable without water transport. Such raw materials fueled the industrial developments and new metallurgy resulting of the spiral of increasing mechanization during 17th–20th century, leading to new research disciplines, new industries and economies of scale, raising

5056-604: The pre-railroad days of the industrial revolution, water transport was the gold standard of fast transportation. The first artificial canal in Western Europe was the Fossa Carolina built at the end of the 8th century under personal supervision of Charlemagne . In Britain, the Glastonbury Canal   is believed to be the first post-Roman canal and was built in the middle of the 10th century to link

5135-457: The process using CCTV . For example, the Tilburg control centre in the Netherlands will remotely control 18 locks and 28 moveable bridges from 2015 on. This allows for a reduction in manpower while still providing round-the-clock service to water traffic. As the controller now has overview over the traffic moving through one lock after another, he can anticipate the arrival of boats by turning

5214-519: The river navigable beyond Blythburgh was proposed by Thomas Knights in the 1740s. Knights was a brewer from Halesworth , and suggested that Southwold harbour needed to be improved first. An act of Parliament , the Southwold Harbour Act 1746 ( 20 Geo. 2 . c. 14), was obtained to authorise the improvements, which were sufficiently successful that harbour dues more than doubled over the next five years. Knights tried to gain more support for

5293-454: The saltings below Blythburgh have been breached, and once more a large inland lake forms when the tide is high. Southwold harbour is used for moorings, and can accommodate 110 boats, while navigation is still possible to Blythburgh, although the Bailey bridge restricts access to smaller boats. The New Reach in Halesworth has an unusual status. In 1968, Wilfred George the owner of the maltings at

5372-480: The standard of living for any industrialized society. Most ship canals today primarily service bulk cargo and large ship transportation industries, whereas the once critical smaller inland waterways conceived and engineered as boat and barge canals have largely been supplanted and filled in, abandoned and left to deteriorate, or kept in service and staffed by state employees, where dams and locks are maintained for flood control or pleasure boating. Their replacement

5451-445: The terminus of the canal. The New Reach joined back up with the Town River a little further to the west, in order to provide the water supply for the locks. The locks were built to allow wherries to use the navigation, and so were 50 by 14 feet (15.2 by 4.3 m). However, they were unusual, in that the side walls curved outwards in the centre, to provide an extra 1.5 feet (0.46 m) of width. So that wherries could reach his maltings,

5530-401: The tidal staunch just below Blyford bridge, and only show three further locks between there and Halesworth. Their map is based on surveys carried out in 1821 and 1840. Ordnance Survey maps show a lock around 600 yards (550 m) below Blyford bridge, which prevents tides from passing further upstream, a second just above Blyford bridge, a third just upstream of Wenhaston railway bridge, allowing

5609-573: The valley of the River Dee . Another option for dealing with hills is to tunnel through them. An example of this approach is the Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal . Tunnels are only practical for smaller canals. Some canals attempted to keep changes in level down to a minimum. These canals known as contour canals would take longer, winding routes, along which the land was

5688-802: The waterway by the Ipswich Branch of the Inland Waterways Association . Download coordinates as: [REDACTED] Media related to River Blyth, Suffolk at Wikimedia Commons 52°20′38″N 1°30′21″E  /  52.3438°N 1.5059°E  / 52.3438; 1.5059 Canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation ) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi ). They carry free, calm surface flow under atmospheric pressure , and can be thought of as artificial rivers . In most cases,

5767-466: Was also expensive, as men expect compensation in the form of wages, room and board. This was because long-haul roads were unpaved, more often than not too narrow for carts, much less wagons, and in poor condition, wending their way through forests, marshy or muddy quagmires as often as unimproved but dry footing. In that era, as today, greater cargoes, especially bulk goods and raw materials , could be transported by ship far more economically than by land; in

5846-458: Was an option in some cases, sometimes supplemented by other methods to deal with seasonal variations in flow. Where such sources were unavailable, reservoirs  – either separate from the canal or built into its course – and back pumping were used to provide the required water. In other cases, water pumped from mines was used to feed the canal. In certain cases, extensive "feeder canals" were built to bring water from sources located far from

5925-470: Was gradual, beginning first in the United States in the mid-1850s where canal shipping was first augmented by, then began being replaced by using much faster , less geographically constrained & limited, and generally cheaper to maintain railways . By the early 1880s, canals which had little ability to economically compete with rail transport, were off the map. In the next couple of decades, coal

6004-424: Was increasingly diminished as the heating fuel of choice by oil, and growth of coal shipments leveled off. Later, after World War I when motor-trucks came into their own, the last small U.S. barge canals saw a steady decline in cargo ton-miles alongside many railways, the flexibility and steep slope climbing capability of lorries taking over cargo hauling increasingly as road networks were improved, and which also had

6083-517: Was obtained under section 41 of the Land Drainage Act 1930 . The swing bridge which carried the railway over the river was widened in 1907, and was removed at the outbreak of World War II . It has since been replaced by a fixed Bailey bridge to provide access on foot to Walberswick. With the demise of the locks, the river levels have fallen, so that it is difficult to imagine that wherries once reached Halesworth. The embankments enclosing

6162-426: Was once used to describe linear features seen on the surface of Mars , Martian canals , an optical illusion. A navigation is a series of channels that run roughly parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river. A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river. A vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height. A true canal

6241-566: Was so drunk, he opened the lower gate paddles too early. The boat hit the mitre sill, broke in half, and sank with its 113 tons of coal. Richard A. Moore, the owner of the boat, collected over $ 1,300 in damages, and the lock keeper was fired. In England, there has been recent controversy over the Environment Agency 's attempt to remove resident lock keepers on the River Thames . This has been met with widespread disapproval. Many people who began as lock keepers were later promoted in

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