SP3684 : Hawkesbury Junction
taken 2 years ago, near to Hawkesbury, Warwickshire, England
The Coventry Canal enabling Act was passed in 1768 to connect Coventry with the Trent and Mersey Canal. Coventry to Bedworth was completed in 1769 for the revenue earning coal traffic but by 1771 when the canal reached Atherstone all authorised capital had been spent and James Brindley the first engineer was sacked. The canal didn't reach Fazeley, 12 miles short of its intended terminus, until 1790. The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal continued along the proposed line of the Coventry Canal to Whittington brook. The Trent and Mersey Canal (Grand Trunk Canal Co.) completed the section to Fradley and later sold it to the Coventry Canal which explains the disjointed section. It was one of the most profitable canals ever built in Britain paying dividends up to 1947. Coventry basin to Fradley junction is 38 miles with 13 locks.
The 78 mile Oxford Canal links Oxford with the Coventry Canal near Bedworth, via Banbury and Rugby. It connects to the River Thames at Oxford, and even combines with the Grand Union Canal for 5 miles near Braunston.
The canal was constructed in stages over about twenty years from 1769 to 1790. James Brindley surveyed and began the work with Samuel Simcock, but following Brindley's death, Simcock took over. By 1774 the canal had reached Napton, and by 1778, Banbury. Lack of money meant that the final stretch to Oxford was not started until 1786. That took three years and the completed canal was finally opened on 1 January 1790.
Being an early canal, it was built to be contour hugging, avoiding changes of water level wherever possible. As a result of increasing competition from the Grand Union Canal, by the late 1820s it was decided that the meandering course needed reducing in mileage, so the northern section was to be reduced by more than 14 miles. Construction, supervised by Sir William Cubitt, started in 1829, and was finished by 1834. A parallel doubling up of the lock flight at Hillmorton was built and the route was straightened in many places, and a new tunnel at Newbold was dug. Not all the planned improvements were made; the final reduction in mileage being nearer 11 miles.
Evidence of the original course can still be seen by perusing aerial images and OS 1:25000 maps. The section south of Napton was never straightened. The railways had arrived and canal decline had started.
Information reduced from Wikipedia Link