Off the Beaten Track in Somerset: The Chard Canal

The idea of building a ship canal to link the English Channel to the Bristol Channel and thus cut out the long sea journey around Lands End, was first proposed in 1769. Further schemes were promoted in 1794, 1809 and 1824. The exact routes varied but all started in the Seaton/Beer area and used the river valleys of the Axe, Isle or Tone and the Parrett and all crossed the Blackdown Hills at Chard. Several surveys were completed but the costs of all of them were prohibitively high.

By the early 1800s the expanding town of Chard had an increasing need for a cheap method of transport to convey coal, building materials and food to the town and to carry woollen and lace textiles made in the town to markets elsewhere in England. By the 1830s James Green, who was Devon's Surveyor of Bridges, had developed a type of canal that used short tub-boats, which could be raised and lowered using boat lifts or inclined planes.

In 1827 The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal opened. In 1830 a group of people from Chard approached James Green with a proposal for a feeder canal linked to the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal but the canal's committee were not interested at this point. However in 1833 a scheme was proposed to improve the navigation of the River Parrett to a point upstream of Langport, with a canal coming off it and leading to Ilminster and Chard. This would have meant a loss of trade on the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, so James Green was commissioned to survey a route for a canal from the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Creech St Michael to Chard via Ilminster. His proposals were accepted but the engineer chosen for the construction was 22 year old Sydney Hall.

The Chard Canal was mainly financed by 5 wealthy men from Bristol, who had also invested in the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal. Acts of Parliament, which allowed the construction of the Chard Canal, were passed in 1834, 1840 and 1841. Work on the canal began at Wrantage in 1835. Construction of the Chard Reservoir, which was the main source of water for the canal, began in 1839. The canal was officially opened between Creech St Michael and Ilminster or 15th July 1841. The last section to be completed was the Chard Common Incline, which was opened on 24th May 1842. The original estimate of the cost of construction was £57,000 but the eventual cost was about £140,000

The Chard Canal was 13.5 miles long and had 5 sections at different levels, which were linked by 4 inclined planes at Chard Common (86 feet), Ilminster (82 feet), Wrantage (27 feet) and Thornfalcon (28 feet). There was a lock at Dowlish Ford, 4 aqueducts and three tunnels - at Herne Hill (300 yards long), Crimson Hill (2000 yards long) and Lillesdon (200 yards long). The original proposal was to dig a deep cutting across one side of Herne Hill, with an aqueduct over the Chard to Ilminster turnpike road but this was later changed to a tunnel. The canal was 23 feet wide and 3 feet deep in most places but some parts may have been as narrow as 12 feet wide. The tub boats were pulled by horses.

At first trade on the canal was good. Coal from South Wales carried by the Chard Canal was then taken by road to local villages and to towns as far away as Lyme Regis, and Sidmouth. The amount of goods transported soon began to decrease, due to competition from railways. The canal never made a profit and in the 1850s there were several unsuccessful attempts to convert the canal into a railway. The Bristol and Exeter Railway purchased the Chard Canal for £5,945, in order to prevent the London and South Western Railway from buying it and converting it into a railway. The Bristol and Exeter Railway closed the Chard Canal some time between 1866 and 1868.

Wildlife pond where the Chard Canal once met the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Creech St Michael

Pillbox in a former inn at the junction of the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal and the Chard Canal in Creech St Michael

Diagram showing the inclined planes and tunnels on the Chard Canal

Map of the Chard Canal

Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Creech St Michael

Chard Canal aqueduct over the River Tone at Creech St Michael

This aqueduct (grid reference ST 271 254) can be viewed from a public footpath. Nothing now remains of another aqueduct, which Brunel built nearby to carry the Chard Canal over the railway line.