Chard Canal - Operation

Operation

The canal was designed for tub-boats which were 26 by 6.5 feet (7.9 by 2.0 m). The inclines at Thornfalcon, Wrantage and Ilminster were double-acting inclines, consisting of two parallel tracks, each containing a six-wheeled caisson, in which the boats floated. A chain linked the two caissons together, passing round a horizontal drum situated at the top of the incline. Power for the movement of the boats was provided by over-filling the top caisson, the extra weight causing that caisson to descend and the other to rise. Because the majority of traffic passed up the canal, and a boat displaces its own weight in water (Archimedes' principle), considerably more water passed down the incline than up it. However, the system was still more economical than using locks, and a large new Chard Reservoir supplied the necessary water. The incline at Chard Common was quite different, consisting of a single track, with the tub-boats being carried on a cradle with four wheels. Power was supplied by a Whitelaw and Stirrat water turbine, with a 25-foot (7.6 m) head, which used 725 cubic feet (20.5 m3) of water per minute. Boats were raised 86 feet (26 m) in a wheeled cradle up a slope of 1:10. The cradle was attached to the turbine by a substantial wire rope, after breakages of the original rope. The Ilminster tunnel was 14 feet (4.3 m) wide, allowing boats travelling in opposite directions to pass, but the tunnels at Lillesdon and Crimson Hill were only wide enough for one boat. However the Crimson Hill Tunnel has a double width "passing area" about halfway through its course to allow passing of the boats from either direction.

The main cargoes were coal and stone. Traffic for the first three years rose from 25,835 tons to 33,284 tons, about two thirds of which was coal or culm. Competition started immediately, with the railway arriving at Taunton in 1842, and the Westport Canal being completed in 1840. Attempts were made to convert the canal to a railway, and an Act of Parliament obtained in 1847 changed the name of the Company to the Chard Railway Company, but successive plans were thwarted by the inability of the Company to repay its debts. The canal went into receivership in 1853, after which there were discussions with the Bristol and Exeter Railway and the London and South Western Railway, with a view to building a branch to Chard. A new Chard Railway Company was constituted in 1860, and another Company was formed in 1861, to construct a branch from Taunton to Chard. The London and South Western Railway took over the Chard Railway, and the Bristol and Exeter built the branch from Taunton to Chard. In order to prevent competition from the L&SWR, the Bristol and Exeter Railway bought the Grand Western Canal, the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal and the Chard Canal, so that the L&SWR could not. They paid £5,945 for the Chard Canal, with the takeover and closing of the canal being authorised by an Act of Parliament obtained in 1867. The receivers were discharged in February 1868, and it seems likely that the canal was closed then.