History
The idea of a canal from Salisbury to Redbridge was announced in 1768, after the canal engineer James Brindley had made of survey of a possible route. Two years later, Robert Whitworth was working on plans for a canal from Andover to Redbridge, and the Salisbury Committee wanted Brindley to survey an amended route that would join Whitworth's Canal at Kimbridge. Brindley was too busy and so sent one of his assistants, but the scheme foundered in 1772 when the Andover bill was not presented to Parliament.
The route was surveyed in 1793 and authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1795. The proprietors appointed Joseph Hill as the surveyor, who estimated that the project would cost around £50,000. Although the canal had initially attracted strong support from merchants in Bristol, who saw it as part of a link between Bristol and Southampton, many of the shareholders did not respond to the calls for money, and so the company was always short of working capital. The job of constructing the tunnel in Southampton was given to Thomas Jenkins, but the work did not go well, and John Rennie was asked to inspect it. His report highlighted serious deficiencies with the work.
Hill resigned from the project shortly afterwards. A new Act of Parliament was obtained in 1800, which authorised the raising of additional capital, but although the company found it difficult to obtain extra shareholders, they appointed George Jones as the resident engineer, and some progress was made. By January 1803, the canal was in use from the west end of the tunnel to Redbridge, where it joined the Andover Canal, and from Kimbridge, further north on the Andover Canal, to West Grimstead, 4 miles (6.4 km) to the east of Salisbury. The company struggled to find the money to continue construction, and sheriffs seized parts of the canal after Jones sued the company for failing to pay his salary and won the court action.
Tolls were collected until at least the end of 1804, and the canal was still being used for some months after that, but a lack of maintenance and some wilful damage resulted in the canal being closed in 1806. The company was defunct by 1808. Parts of the Salisbury arm soon became dry, and others became a small stream, but the section in Southampton became a stagnant ditch. In 1841 a woman drowned in the canal, after which the council took action and filled it in. Although much of this section was re-used by the Southampton and Dorchester Railway when it was constructed, plans to re-use the tunnel were abandoned when it was found to be unsuitable, and a new tunnel was excavated.
Read more about this topic: Salisbury And Southampton Canal
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