The Company of Proprietors of the Stroudwater Navigation is a remarkable survivor and is thought to be the oldest surviving canal company in the private sector. The Company can trace its roots backs to the 1730s when the first attempt was made to form a navigation between Stroud and the River Servern.

  The c.1780 Company Headquarters building in Stroud.

The current canal is the third attempt and more or less avoids the River Stroudwater (or Frome). The earlier ones used the river and one of these tried to resolve the conflict of interest with the millers over water rights by using containers which were craned over the mill weirs. This is probably the first documented transport system which used containerisation - unfortunately early 18th century technology was not up to the job and it failed.

The Stroudwater Canal as it is seen today was opened in 1779 and had a very long and prosperous existence. Traffic continued into the early 1940s but thereafter ceased. The Company was concerned about its liability for the maintenance of a number of road crossings and sought an act of abandonment to relieve itself of these obligations.

By this time, there were sufficient enthusiasts with a vision for the canals to have a recreational role to oppose the abandonment proposals. A number of them tried to buy up shares in order to change the direction of the Company. For reasons that are still a mystery, others also started to buy shares to prevent the canal being saved and the fight was taken into Parliament. The Abandonment Act was passed in 1954 and the canal suffered a great deal of damage in the 20 years that followed with the Canal Company doing very little to stop it.

The formation of the Stroudwater Canal Society in 1972 (later to expand and become the Cotswold Canals Trust ) started the change of attitude both within the Canal Company and the wider community. The attitude has changed from outright hostility to strong support and restoration work on the canal has brought some lengths back into use.

The Company still own most of the canal route and has reacquired some lengths which were sold off in the less enlightened era and in April 2005 the canal was leased to British Waterways who were preparing to fully restore it but then decided to pull out putting £30m of other funding at risk.

The Company will continue to safeguard the future of the canal through the Cotswold Canals Partnership.

 History of the Cotswold Canals      Canal Pictures        1999 Canal Inspection     Stroudwater Index      Safety
                                                                       PikeLock index page

Maintained by Ken Burgin : ken.burgin@pikelock.com

Copyright © Ken Burgin 2002 - all rights reserved