| KS3 History; KS2 Citizenship
Brief history
The Thames and Severn Canal is one of two canals built in the eighteenth
century to link the River Severn with the River Thames 
providing a direct route to London from the West. The Stroudwater Canal
went from Framilode on the Severn to Wallbridge near Stroud and the
Thames and Severn canal from Wallbridge to Inglesham in Oxfordshire
where it connected with the River Thames.
After the opening of the Stroudwater Canal in 1779 and the Thames and
Severn in 1789 the two canals carried both goods, mainly cloth, and
passengers. However, the section known as the Summit, where the canal
climbed high onto and tunneled under the Cotswold plateau, was always
very difficult and expensive to maintain. The problem was that water
continually leaked out making it impossible to ensure a sufficient depth
of water to enable boats to pass through without delay.
The number of boats using the canals fell in the mid nineteenth century
and the Thames and Severn was partially closed in 1899. It was restored
and reopened between 1900 and 1904 but still had problems with water
levels and was closed section by section until it was finally abandoned
in 1933.
The Stroudwater Canal continued to carry boats until 1941 and was officially
abandoned in 1954.
The two canals together are now known as the Cotswold Canals and are
the subject of an ambitious project to restore and make them navigable
once again; no easy task considering that one section now lies beneath
the M5 motorway
.
We have a very good record of how the canal looked in the late nineteenth
century as it was photographed by an Oxford photographer called Henry
Taunt. He also recorded scenes during the reconstruction of the canal
which show in some detail the same techniques that would have been used
by the navvies who originally built the canal between 1784 and 1789;
long before photography was invented.
Learning Activity - Key Stage 3
Focus: The town of Stroud developed into an important industrial
centre because of the building of the Thames and Severn canal.
- Use the information on this page, and in the resource pages, to gather
evidence to help you decide if the statement is correct.
- Click on the titles to view the resource pages; Extracts from
the Victoria County History
of Gloucestershire,
Maps of Stroud, Trade
Directories, Documents
from Gloucestershire Record Office, or visit the following web
sites Stroud
site,
Digital Stroud, Stroudwater
Textile Trust, Gloucestershire
Population Tables
- Find the dates of the following events and put them on a timeline
[1750 - 1900]; opening of the Stroudwater canal; opening
of the Thames and Severn canal; opening of the Midland railway; opening
of the Great Western Railway, opening of new roads to Bath; Cheltenham;
Cirencester and London; Gloucester; first stagecoach service to London;
date Daniel Ballard was running stage wagons to Bristol and Gloucester.
- Make a chart to show information about Stroud under the following
4 headings; population, size, industries, transport links. Divide it
into 3 time periods; Before 1789; 1789 - 1851; 1851 - 1901;
- Decide when you think Stroud became an important industrial
centre. Was the opening of the Thames and Severn canal the most important
reason for this? Use evidence from the chart, timeline and sources to
support your decision.
- Present your work as a word document/web page/powerpoint presentation
and illustrate it with relevant photographs from the Images of England
website.
Supplementary Questions
- Why were the canals and railway built, who financed them and why?
sources, Victoria County History, papers of the canal and railway
companies at Gloucestershire Record Office, Digital Stroud website.
- How did what happened in Stroud compare with what you know about
the Industrial Revolution in other areas?
Learning Activity - Key stage 2
Compare the Cotswold Canals today using photographs from Images of
England with the Thames and Severn Canal in the Victorian period using
Henry Taunt's photographs from Viewfinder.
How would pupils like it to be in another 100 years time?
More information
- Search the Images of England web site for more images
of the canal as it is today. [Go to Advanced Search, type Thames
and Severn Canal into the 'Keyword' search box, click exact and then
go to submit].
- If you want to find images of your local canal then either
type the name into the 'Keyword' search box or type the word 'canal'
in the 'Building Type' search box, select the relevant county from
the All Counties list in the place name search section and go to submit.
- Visit the Viewfinder
website to find Henry Taunt's photographs of the Thames and Severn
or read the story about it.
- Visit one of these websites to find out more about the plans for the
Cotswold Canals plus more photographs, maps, stories and information
about their history. Cotswold
Canals Trust ; The
Waterways Trust ; British
Waterways; Private website on the Thames & Severn Canal www.stroudwater.co.uk
- Read one of these books; H Household, The Thames and Severn Canal
1983 (Alan Sutton), M.A. Handford and D.J. Viner, Stroudwater and
Thames and Severn Canals Towpath Guide, 1984
- Search the A2A [Access
to archives] website for archive sources [Type Thames
and Severn Canal into the Keyword search box and you will find a
list of documentary sources relating to the history of the canal. They
are somewhat scattered but Gloucester
Record Office is clearly the best place to start. Teachers may
wish to contact the education officer, James Turtle, for advice on sources;
james.turtle@gloucestershire.gov.uk .
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