Rolle Canal
Encyclopedia
North Devon
North Devon is the northern part of the English county of Devon. It is also the name of a local government district in Devon. Its council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lynmouth...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
runs 6 miles from Landcross, where it joins the River Torridge
River Torridge
The River Torridge is a river in Devon in England. It was the home of Tarka the Otter in Henry Williamson's book. The Torridge local government district is named after the river....
, to the limekiln
Limekiln
A lime kiln is used to produce quicklime through the calcination of limestone . The chemical equation for this reaction is...
s at Rosemoor. It has one sea lock at Landcross, an inclined plane at Weare Giffard – to raise it 60 feet – and a five arch aqueduct
Aqueduct
An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
(known as the Beam Aqueduct) over the River Torridge.
History
The canal's construction was started as a private venture in 1823 by John RolleJohn Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle
John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle was a British peer who had served as a Member of Parliament in general support of William Pitt the Younger and was later an active member of the House of Lords...
, the then Baron Rolle
Baron Rolle
Baron Rolle was a title that was created twice in the Peerage of Great Britain for members of the Rolle family. This family were established at Stevenstone in Devon in the 15th century. In the 17th century they acquired an additional extensive estate at Bicton when Sir Henry Rolle married the...
. In this the canal is unusual as no Act of Parliament had to be obtained. The idea for the canal was originally proposed by his father Denys Rolle but for various reasons nothing had come of those plans. James Green
James Green (engineer)
James Green was a noted civil engineer and canal engineer, who was particularly active in the South West of England, where he pioneered the building of tub boat canals, and inventive solutions for coping with hilly terrain, which included tub boat lifts and inclined planes...
was employed as the lead engineer. The Baron Rolle laid the foundation stone of the aqueduct in an event marked by the firing of a cannon. The cannon burst, resulting in the injury of a man by the name of John Hopgood, who the Baron compensated with a year's salary.
Completed in 1827 it was used to carry limestone and coal for the kilns as far inland as possible and to carry Marland clay to the port of Bideford
Bideford
Bideford is a small port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is also the main town of the Torridge local government district.-History:...
for export. The canal cost between £40,000 and £45,000 to construct. The canal shared many of its design features with the Bude Canal
Bude Canal
The Bude Canal was a canal built to serve the hilly hinterland in the Devon and Cornwall border territory in the United Kingdom, chiefly to bring lime-bearing sand for agricultural fertiliser. The Bude Canal system was one of the most unusual in Britain....
, unsurprisingly as the Bude Canal had been part of the inspiration for the scheme and the projects shared the same lead engineer. Similarities include the use of trains of tub boat
Tub boat
A tub boat was a type of unpowered cargo boat used on a number of the early English and German canals. The English boats were typically long and wide and generally carried to of cargo, though some extra deep ones could carry up to . They are also called compartment boats or container boats.The...
s and the use of canal inclined plane
Canal inclined plane
An inclined plane is a system used on some canals for raising boats between different water levels. Boats may be conveyed afloat, in caissons, or may be carried in cradles or slings. It can be considered as a specialised type of cable railway....
s rather than locks. The inclined plane was powered by a water wheel
Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...
. The canal received its water supply from a weir on the River Torridge which also supplied two mills with power.
Around 1852 the canal was leased to George Braginton who among other things held the position of Mayor of Torrington
Great Torrington
Great Torrington is a small market town in the north of Devon, England. Parts of it are sited on high ground with steep drops down to the River Torridge below...
a number of times. Exactly when the lease ended is uncertain but certainly at a date no later than 1865. With the lease ended the control of the canal passed to the then owner Mark Rolle (the nephew of the second wife of John Rolle).
In 1871 the canal was closed and sold to the London and South Western Railway
London and South Western Railway
The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in...
to make way for the railway from Bideford to Torrington. At one point the railway company wished to abandon the project but at Mark Rolle's insistence the railway was built.
Some parts of the canal are still visible today, including the aqueduct (now a viaduct), the sea lock (although without any gates) and some parts of the inclined plane. Part of the railway alignment is now a cyclepath. The Annery kiln
Annery kiln
The former Annery lime kiln is situated just off the road from Bideford to Great Torrington, near Weare Giffard in the Torridge District of North Devon, England. The old lime kiln overlooks the River Torridge and lies close to the old 1827 canal and also to the railway that ran from Bideford to...
lies close to the old canal and can be seen from the Tarka Trail. The canal has been designated a Devon County Wildlife Site.
Restoration
The canal has been under restoration since 1988.Some work on the sea lock was carried out in 2006 involving re-pointing and rebuilding the eastern wall.
The canal in fiction
The Beam Aqueduct is referred to as the canal bridge in Henry Williamson's Tarka the OtterTarka the Otter
Tarka the Otter: His Joyful Water-Life and Death in the Country of the Two Rivers is a novel by Henry Williamson. The book narrates the experience of an otter. It was first published in 1927 by G.P. Putnam's Sons, with an introduction by the Hon. Sir John Fortescue, K.C.V.O..-Plot summary:The plot...
.
See also
- Canals of the United KingdomCanals of the United KingdomThe canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a colourful history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the Industrial Revolution, to today's role for recreational boating...
- History of the British canal systemHistory of the British canal systemThe British canal system of water transport played a vital role in the United Kingdom's Industrial Revolution at a time when roads were only just emerging from the medieval mud and long trains of pack horses were the only means of "mass" transit by road of raw materials and finished products The...