Recording Your Heritage Online
Event ID 564787
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Recording Your Heritage Online
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/564787
Caledonian Canal The idea of exploiting the natural corridor of the Great Glen as a shipping route linking east and west germinated in 1773, when James Watt was commissioned to carry out a survey and report on the potential. By 1801/2 this vision had broadened to encompass a whole programme of improvements, from a network of new roads to the founding of fishing villages, harbours and churches - 'one intimately connected system, which would evidently have a striking effect upon the welfare and prosperity of the British Empire' and, more particularly, boost the desperate Highland economy by encouraging trade, providing employment and stemming the flood of emigration. Most importantly, too, during this period of French aggression, the canal would play a strategic part in the protection of shipping by providing an 'inland navigation between the eastern and western sea capable of admitting a Frigate of 32 guns'' . Following an Act of Parliament of 1803, work started on its construction at both ends in 1804, under the direction of Thomas Telford (with William Jessop). This was a remarkable feat of engineering which, despite the advantages of there being three freshwater and two sea lochs along the route to provide many miles of existing water, and a drop from the highest level of only 94 ft, necessitated excavations and earthworks on a massive scale. The vast workforce was assisted by steam technology. Works included the construction of aqueducts, and of 29 locks (mostly in groups) with stone-lined basins. Although directed like a military operation, the canal took 19 instead of the estimated 7 years to build and when it opened (still unfinished) in 1822 , it had cost £912 ,000 instead of the anticipated £350,000. Extensive improvements in the 1840s, including rebuilding aqueducts, upgrading lockgates and facing the whole canal basin in stone, took the canal's eventual cost to beyond £1.2 million. The need for subsequent repairs has been ongoing, and today the canal is reported to be in as serious a condition as ever.
[Thomas Telford (1757-1834) was the son of a Dumfriesshire shepherd who trained as a stonemason and died one of the foremost civil engineers of his day. Appointed engineer to the British Fisheries Society in 1796, his remit soon extended beyond the provision of harbours and fishing stations on remote Highland coasts, to parliamentary churches and the Caledonian Canal. From 1804 he supervised the construction of an impressive network of parliamentary roads, bridges and inns (jointly funded by landowners and government under the Commission for Roads and Bridges). These differed in purpose from their military forerunners in having the social and economic interests of the civilian community principally at heart.]
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
