However, they were unable to find a suitable contractor to carry out the work, and failed to reach agreement on terms with David Cecil in 1636, and two other potential contractors after that. Finally in 1664, an alderman from Stamford called Daniel Wigmore took the job. He built the cut and 12 locks, which included the High Lock and the Low Lock on the river at Deeping St James, at a cost of £5,000. In return for his expenditure, he was given the lease of the tolls for the next 80 years, for which he paid a rent of one shilling (five pence).
History
River Welland
River Welland | History
David Cecil, Daniel Wigmore Richard de Rulos, Daniel Wigmore , James I, and others. Daniel Wigmore. Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
where does the river welland start and finish
user
The river rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market Harborough, Stamford and Spalding, to reach The Wash near Fosdyke
assistant
what is the total length of this watercourse?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
what are some of its tributaries?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
what are the names of the fishes found in the watercourse?
user
Wild brown trout, chub and perch
assistant
apart from the source and its mouth, what are some of the places this watercourse passes through?
user
It issues at Spring Croft, Church Street. Sibbertoft sits astride one of the principal watersheds in England. Within , the small stream forms the border between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.
assistant
what are some of the birds or mammals found near the watercourse?
user
Swans and geese
assistant
with reference to the mouth of the river which you mentioned earlier, what is its water temperature?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
how can one navigate in this river?
user
The river as far as Stamford was used by the Romans for navigation, as it formed part of a system including the Car Dyke, which ran along the western edge of the Fens and crossed the river near the modern Folly River. Navigation to Stamford was improved by the canal.
assistant
are there any bridges built across this watercourse?
user
Ashlar bridge
assistant
what are the names of those famous people who are involved in any construction activities along this watercourse?
user
There have been three bridges over the River Welland here. The current (2020) stone bridge has three spans with the river entering the middle span. It was built in 1880 after the second bridge was destroyed by floods. The current bridge has been a class 2 listed building since 1984. The second bridge was a four span bridge and it was the first built with public money. It was designed by Joseph Vinrace and built of brick in 1810. The first bridge had been built for private use only by the owners of Old Hall in 1678. The owners would only allow others to use it in times of freezing or flood - when the alternative (a ford) became impassable.
Welham, Leicestershire | The Bridge
King Charles I is believed to have stayed there before the Battle of Naseby. Three arms of a square moat surround the house, and the site is a scheduled ancient monument.
River Welland | Course
It was constructed from 30,000 cubic metres of concrete. Approximately of new river channel was constructed to route the river into the aqueduct. The creation of the syphon culvert lowered ground water levels for miles around, the project making many dug wells run dry. The St. Lawrence Seaway Authority denied responsibility, but paid many residents to have a drilled well installed to supply their water. (based on local witnesses) In compensation for the loss of canal banks through the city of Welland, parts of which were being used as a docking area by local industries, the project incorporated a dock, separated from the main travel route.
Welland By-Pass | Construction
The oldest structure spanning the Welland River was O'Reilly's Bridge, which was built in 1901 and crossed the river between the townships of Pelham and Wainfleet. The settler, Patrick O'Reilly, son of Sgt. John Reilly, of Stamford Township (present-day Niagara Falls), settled in Wainfleet in 1806. After meeting Sarah, the daughter of John Brown of Pelham Township, Patrick O'Reilly felled a couple of very tall trees across the River to shorten his journey to see her. A better bridge was built after they married and Patrick realized Sarah was frightened of walking along the logs. John Brown O'Reilly was their son who acted as Clerk of Wainfleet Township for many years.
Welland River | O'Reilly's Bridge
However, they were unable to find a suitable contractor to carry out the work, and failed to reach agreement on terms with David Cecil in 1636, and two other potential contractors after that. Finally in 1664, an alderman from Stamford called Daniel Wigmore took the job. He built the cut and 12 locks, which included the High Lock and the Low Lock on the river at Deeping St James, at a cost of £5,000. In return for his expenditure, he was given the lease of the tolls for the next 80 years, for which he paid a rent of one shilling (five pence).
River Welland | History
Another pair of early nineteenth-century bridges, built of coursed limestone with ashlar dressings, carry the road over the northernmost channel. The bridge at Deeping Gate carries the date 1651, and is a Grade II* listed stone structure with three round arches. After the remains of Deeping High lock and Deeping Low lock, there is a junction where the old course, the Maxey Cut, the South Drain and the Folly River, also a drain, meet. The river is officially navigable below this point. Through Crowland and Cowbit to the edge of Spalding, the river is laid out with washlands, which were historically used as pasture, because the river was allowed to flood the land when tidal levels prevented the water discharging into the sea.
River Welland | Stamford to Spalding
Watercolour artist Thomas Frederick Worrall, who lived in nearby Pecket Well, depicted the mills in around 1900. Drainage of the marshland, which covered much of the Upper Calder Valley before the Industrial Revolution, enabled construction of the road which runs through the valley. Before it was built, travel was only possible via the ancient packhorse route which ran along the hilltop, dropping into the valleys wherever necessary. The wool trade was served by the Rochdale Canal (running from Sowerby Bridge to Manchester) and the Manchester & Leeds Railway (later the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway) (running from Leeds to Manchester and Burnley).
Hebden Bridge | History
Just before Stamford, the Great North Road, now labelled the A1, crosses the river, and a pumping station on the north bank at Stamford Meadows has pumped large quantities of water to the Rutland Water reservoir since its construction in 1975. Stamford was the lowest point at which the river could be forded so the Roman Ermine Street crossed the Welland there. The A16 road crosses the river by a three-arched stone bridge designed by Edward Browning in 1845. Below it, Albert Bridge is made of iron with stone piers, and was erected by Stamford Town Council in July 1881, to replace an earlier bridge which was washed away in a flood.
River Welland | Stamford to Spalding
Where it crosses the Maxey Cut, to the south of the original channels, there are a series of 14 arches which comprise Lolham Bridges. They are grouped into five structures to cross the channels in the area, and were funded by the County of Northamptonshire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The longest span is , and the cutwaters carry inscribed stones recording the County's involvement. To the north, an early nineteenth century stone rubble arched bridge carries the road over a drainage ditch near Lolham Mill, while an eighteenth-century bridge, probably rebuilt in the following century, crosses the mill stream.
River Welland | Stamford to Spalding
Grundy made the river deeper above Spalding, and also constructed a sluice and reservoir at the mouth of the Glen. The reservoir covered and provided water to scour the channel below the sluice. His son, John Grundy, Jr., took over after the death of his father in 1748, and spent nearly £10,000 on bank repairs between then and 1764. He rebuilt Perry's sluice soon after 1750, with taller doors and a set of tide gates to prevent the tide moving upstream, and rebuilt the navigation lock in 1754. After 1764, Thomas Hogard became the surveyor of works, but Grundy continued to act as a consultant engineer.
River Welland | Deeping Fen
Catharines, and King Street (formerly South Main Street, and also Canal Street), formerly leading to the Canada Southern Railway station, and on to Port Colborne. The "Chippawa Road" (as Main Street was then known) crossed the First Welland Canal (constructed between 1824 and 1829) via a wooden swing bridge with the pivot set to one side of the canal. This was turned manually by pushing on heavy wooden beams extending from the end of the bridge. The bridge over the Second Welland Canal (constructed 1840 to 1845) is recorded in at least one image (shown at left), which has been seen in several books, in the Welland Library and on a post card.
Welland Canal, bridge 13 | Previous bridges at this site
He sold one-third of the land to finance the project, and began work in 1730. Cowbit sluice on the Welland had six wide gates which were operated by chains connected to a treadwheel. At high tide, water was penned in Cowbit Wash, between banks which were set well back from the main channel. The bed of the river below the sluice was loosened by dragging wooden rollers with iron spikes over it. At low tide, the sluice gates were opened, and the flow scoured out the silt for some downstream. A navigation lock was constructed beside the sluice, so that vessels could still gain access to the river above.
River Welland | Deeping Fen
The origin of the name for the river is unknown but appears to be Pre-English. In Old English the form was "Weolud" and may have changed to the Middle English form due to folk-etymology or Scandinavian influence. The Welland ("Weolud") is first mentioned in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" for 921 AD. Richard de Rulos, who was Lord of Deeping Fen during the reign of William the Conqueror erected a strong embankment to prevent flooding of the meadows adjoining the river, which then became fertile fields and a pleasure garden. During the reign of Henry III (1207–1272), complaints were made that of the two channels below Crowland, the one to Spalding was more favourable to the passage of barges, but the Abbot of Crowland had obstructed and narrowed its course by planting willow trees.
River Welland | History
However it closed in 1905. A well near the village had unpleasant tasting water rumoured to be effective in curing disease and thus known as the "Hally Well" ("hally" = healthy, like "hale"). In 1828 a local entrepreneur John Richardson used this as the basis for a Spa which enjoyed considerable success with the well-to-do, becoming less fashionable as industry grew in nearby towns, but being remade as a playground for workers. It was during the Victorian era that much of the town's architecture was constructed, including some grand residences and many listed buildings, so that by 1898 it had much of its present form.
Shotley Bridge | History
An initial survey of the bridge site was made on 17 February 1851 by George Turnbull, Chief Engineer of the East Indian Railway Company: he determined that the river then was feet across — the completed bridge was feet across. He settled on the site near Pures ""where the banks are well defined, and the channel had evidently for ages been confined within certain limits, proved by the existence of old Hindoo temples, far before the Mohammaden works at Muneer, built about 200 years" [before 1851]." By November 1859, both abutments and 16 of the 26 piers were being built and the well-sinking for the remaining piers progressing.
Koilwar Bridge | History
The by-pass project was a massive undertaking: 16.2 km² (4,000 acres) of land was expropriated for the construction. Approximately 50 million cubic metres of material was excavated. The new channel is wide, as compared to the width of the old channel. The channel's minimum depth is . Two tunnels, the Main Street Tunnel and the Townline Tunnel, were constructed to allow vehicles and trains to pass beneath the canal. To complement this, an aqueduct, to convey the Welland River under the new canal alignment, was built. The aqueduct's design is what is known as a four-tube inverted-syphon culvert, long, wide, and extending below the navigation channel.
Welland By-Pass | Construction
The river was originally called the Chippawa Creek since it drained into the Niagara River at Chippawa. Like many other places in Niagara, it was renamed by John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada in 1792. The present name was taken from the river of the same name in Lincolnshire, Eastern England. The Welland River is occasionally referred to as Chippawa Creek, especially by those in the Chippawa area itself. The Welland Canal was named after the river since it originally was planned to link Lake Ontario to Welland River. The city of Welland was later named after both waterways which crossed in the city.
Welland River | History
The history of industrial use of this site begins in 1786, when Richard and Isaac Southgate dammed the river and built a sawmill and gristmill. In 1825, Benjamin Southgate, grandson of Richard, built a new dam, and in 1828 built a textile mill. It is unclear whether any of the surviving buildings are from this early period, as there was a fire in 1852 that did substantial damage, suggesting the surviving main building was built in 1853. The mill was a major employer in the town, employing 150 people in a town of 800. In 1909, the mill owners added a hydroelectric generation facility to the dam, providing power for the mill and village homes and businesses.
Bridgewater Woolen Mill | Description and history
A limestone ashlar bridge with four arches crosses the river, dating from the fifteenth century but widened in 1919. After the river passes under a railway bridge at Ketton, its flow is swelled by the River Chater. The county border again leaves the river to the west of Stamford while below the town the river forms the border between Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.
River Welland | Market Harborough to Stamford
Cook's Mills was the second to last engagement of the War of 1812 on Canadian soil. The First Welland Canal was extended in 1833 to reach Lake Erie and has influenced development of this city ever since. A wooden aqueduct was built to carry the Welland Canal over the Welland River at what is now downtown Welland, and the area became known as simply Aqueduct. A lock to cross from the canal to the river and vice versa was also built. A small shantytown soon developed around the facility, providing essential services in what was a convenient stop-over location for travellers and workers on the canal.
Welland | History
The Welland rises in the Hothorpe Hills in the parish of Sibbertoft, Northamptonshire and it issues at Spring Croft, Church Street. Sibbertoft sits astride one of the principal watersheds in England. Within , the small stream forms the border between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. It flows westwards, before looping round, passing through the grounds of Hothorpe Hall in Theddingworth, now a conference centre, to flow generally eastwards through Lubenham to Market Harborough. One of the driveways to Thorpe Lubenham Hall is carried over the river by an early nineteenth century ashlar bridge which is a Grade II listed structure. To the east of Lubenham, the river passes Old Lubenham Hall, part of an H-plan house built in the late sixteenth century and modified in the early eighteenth century.
River Welland | Course
The river, in its upper reaches, supports a wild brown trout population and the occasional grayling. Chub and perch dominate the middle reaches around Stamford, with pike, perch, zander, roach, bream, rudd, ruffe, gudgeon and eels inhabiting the lower lengths around Spalding. A collaboration between the Welland Rivers Trust, the Wild Trout Trust and the Environment Agency has resulted in the construction of a rock ramp, to allow migrating sea trout to pass up the river beyond the weir on the Maxey Cut, which was acting as a barrier. Some 300 tons of rock, with 50 tons of finer material forming a top layer, were used to create the ramp.
River Welland | Wildlife
The adjacent bridge over the River Welland has three arches and dates from the seventeenth century but the canal bridge has been filled in to protect its structure. There were three locks in open countryside on this section before the canal reached Tallington where Tallington Village Lock was located just to the north of St Lawrence Church, parts of which date from the 12th to 15th centuries, with later additions. Remains of bridge piers were uncovered during archaeological excavations carried out in 1998 when a water pipeline running from Tallington to West Deeping was installed. No details of the bridge have survived, but the levels suggest that it was probably a movable bridge.
Stamford Canal | Route
In the late 1870s, the Midland Railway commenced construction of the 17-mile line between Kettering in Northamptonshire and Manton, Rutland. The valley of the River Welland was a major geographical obstacle along the selected route for the line, required the construction of a lengthy viaduct. In 1874, an Act of Parliament was passed, authorising the line's construction. A contract for the construction of the viaduct was tendered, to which London-based civil engineering firm Lucas and Aird was awarded prime contractor status. The viaduct, which crosses both the Welland Valley and its flood plain, was designed by William Henry Barlow and members of his company, including his son Crawford, who was the resident engineer, and his former pupil Charles Bernard Baker.
Welland Viaduct | Construction
In the fourteenth century, Spalding was charged with failing to scour and repair the river, causing damage to the king's liege people, but argued that because it was tidal at this point, it was an arm of the sea, and so they were not responsible. The river was one of the earlier rivers to be granted an act of parliament for improvements, to allow navigation to Stamford. The act was granted in the reign of Elizabeth I in 1571, and detailed how Stamford had prospered as a result of the river, but also stated that mills built between Stamford and Deeping had resulted in it no longer being navigable, as they had diverted the water.
River Welland | History
A limestone ashlar bridge with four arches, dating from the fifteenth century but widened in 1919. The bridge crosses the Welland, which forms parish and county boundaries.
Duddington | Bridge
The causeway has two large semi-circular passing places on its western side. The Welland passes to the north of Corby near Rockingham, and then to the south of Caldecott, where it becomes the county border between Northamptonshire and Rutland, and the Eye Brook, which has been dammed to form the Eyebrook Reservoir, joins from the north. As it flows past Harringworth, the river forms two channels, with the county border following the smaller, northern channel. It is crossed by the Welland Viaduct, with its 82 brick arches, which was completed in 1879, and carries the Oakham to Kettering Line over the valley.
River Welland | Market Harborough to Stamford
The two-span grade II listed bridge was a rebuild of an older bridge, from which the parapets and terminal refuges survive. The bridge is built of granite ashlar with granite dressings except for the rubble walls of the older bridge. The wider span is over the stream and a narrow span over the leat to Roskennals Mill. There is an inscription of ″EH″ on the north side and ″1843″ on the southern side. The village of Hallen Tachen is now known as Newbridge.
A3071 road | History
The first river crossing at Fyansford was again a ford. The first wooden bridge was built downriver from the ford by the Shire of Corio and Shire of Bannockburn in 1854, and was tolled until 1877. It was in poor condition by 1898, with load restrictions being put into place. A new bridge was built nearby in 1900 by John Monash and J. T. N. Anderson, the three arch bridge being the largest Monier reinforced concrete bridge in world at the time. In 1970 a new bridge was built on the site of the old wooden bridge to cater for heavier traffic on the Hamilton Highway, the 1900 bridge retained for pedestrians.
Moorabool River | Fyansford Bridge
The first bridge at Laanecoorie over the Loddon River was built in 1870, but was destroyed in the flood of 1909, along with the weir. The famous World War I general, Sir John Monash, designed and built a new bridge of reinforced concrete beam and slab construction, which still remains today.
Laanecoorie Weir | Introduction
The old route, established in 1932 with the building of the fourth Welland Canal, was also inconvenient to the ships since it was twisting and narrow. The five vertical lift bridges and a railroad swing bridge, all within close distance of one another, made the manoeuvring tricky and the journey stressful. Captains complained of bulky buildings on the canal's edge blocking the line of sight. One of them commented, "The main thing every Lakes captain used to dread was Bridge 15 [built during the 3rd canal era, but in use until 1972], a railway bridge in the town of Welland with an abutment in the middle...
Welland By-Pass | Background
The river is bounded on the north and west by a bank, while the New River, a drainage channel to the south and east of it, is bounded by another bank. The land between the channels forms Crowland High Wash, Crowland Fodder Lots and Cowbit Wash. The southern bank is variously named Corporation Bank, Wash Bank and Barrier Bank. These wash lands were designed to be flooded "in extremis", although the building of the Coronation flood relief channel has made this purpose obsolete.
River Welland | Stamford to Spalding
The availability of a suitable geological feature on which to build this bank determined the shape of the washes, and its location can be traced back through antiquity. To quote Wheeler: The right bank of the Welland between Crowland and Spalding is placed at a distance from the channel of the river varying from a quarter to half a mile leaving an area of about 2500 acres which is covered with water whenever the Welland is in flood. The depth of water in this land in high floods is as much as 5 feet. Originally, no doubt, the land by the side of the Wellland was little better than a Morass, and the banks were placed on the nearest firm ground.
New River (Fens) | Introduction
Below the town is Thrum Mill, the restoration of which was featured on Channel 4 television. It loops around Brinkburn Priory, founded in the 1130s for Augustinian Canons, and its associated mill. At Felton it is crossed by two bridges, one dating from the 15th century, and its replacement, built in 1927, both of which are listed structures. Below the bridges is a sewage treatment works, built in the 1990s. At Brainshaugh, the river passes over a large horseshoe dam, built in 1775 by the engineer John Smeaton to power an iron and tin works, which later became a woollen mill, and subsequently one of the first factories to be powered by hydroelectricity.
River Coquet | Introduction
While the previous three canals were each at slightly different locations, the width of the greatly expanded fourth canal encompassed all of them. Fourth canal construction started as early as 1913. There were delays as a result of World War I, and this massive project was not completed until 1932. Bridge 13 was constructed between 1927 and 1930, with steel work of the span being constructed on temporary pilings driven into the canal bed during the winter of 1929-30 (while the shipping season was closed). The bridge was built by the Dominion Bridge Company, with most of the steel work being completed by members of the Mohawk First Nation, who have a long history of being some of the finest ironworkers in North America.
Welland Canal, bridge 13 | Construction
At that time it was known as the Wellstream or Old Wellenhee, and parts of that course are marked by the Old Croft River and the border between Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. After major inland flood events in the early 13th century it breached another watershed near Denver and took over the channel of the old Wiggenhall Eau, and so achieved a new exit and so joined the Wash at Kings Lynn. Parts of the old course were later used for the River Lark, which flows in the reverse direction along the section below Prickwillow, after the main river was moved further to the west.
River Great Ouse | History: drainage and navigation
The channel passing under this bridge is the fourth Welland Canal. A bridge has existed at this location ever since the first canal was constructed. The bridge is the location of a major historical intersection in the original roads of the Niagara Peninsula. As well as being important to local traffic in Welland, the bridge also links East Main Street (leading towards Niagara Falls) and West Main Street (providing access to roads leading along the Welland River to Wainfleet and Wellandport. It also provides a link between Niagara Street (formerly known as North Main Street leading to Thorold and St.
Welland Canal, bridge 13 | Previous bridges at this site
Below the lakes are the remains of a Cluniac priory and the extensive drained area of Mendham Marshes. Mendham, which is the birthplace of the artist Alfred Munnings, lies on the Suffolk bank, Wortwell is in Norfolk, and Homersfield is again in Suffolk. In 1869, Homersfield Bridge, one of the first bridges to be constructed from concrete and iron was built across the river here. It was commissioned by Sir Shafto Adair, had a span of and predated the introduction of true reinforced concrete by several years. It is now the oldest concrete bridge in England and is a Grade II* listed structure.
River Waveney | Course
Underneath the bridge and beside the Gráinne river an unmarked Gráinne's Well exists. It has been known to be of spiritual importance to the people of the area, who in times past gathered water and prayed there.
Parkbridge | Antiquities
Macmillan Way, a long distance footpath, crosses on its way from Abbotsbury in Dorset to Boston, Lincolnshire. Medbourne Brook joins from the north, after which the river approaches a dismantled railway and is joined by the Stoke Albany Brook, approaching from the south. The river remains on the south side of the railway, while the county border follows a meandering course to the north of it, but rejoins the river near the Bringhurst to Cottingham road. The bridge over the river is plain, but to the north of it is an eighteenth-century causeway, some long, which is made of stone and pierced by seven large arches and numerous smaller arches for drainage pipes.
River Welland | Market Harborough to Stamford
The repairs on the well using a concrete slab as part of the roof and the ashlar walling appear to have been carried out within the last century. The original path down to the old hamlet of Pathfoot or 'Old Yard' was located slightly to the east before the short section of typical ashlar 'estate' boundary wall was built.
Lands of Tour and Kirkland | Lady's Well
Passing through Spalding, where most of the flow is diverted through the Coronation channel, the town is protected by Marsh Road sluice and a sea lock to the east. Below the town, it is approached by Vernatt's Drain, which runs parallel to the river carrying water pumped from Deeping Fen, and is crossed by the A16 road bridge. Nearby is Pinchbeck Marsh Pumping Station, which houses the last beam engine and scoop wheel to be used in the Fens for land drainage. It was built in 1833, and ran until 1952, when it was replaced by electric pumps. It now forms part of a museum of land drainage run by the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board, in partnership with South Holland District Council.
River Welland | Spalding to the Wash
The river flows under two navigable aqueducts: the Welland Recreational Waterway and the new alignment of the Welland Canal. An important tributary of the river is Coyle Creek, a picturesque and thickly forested creek that flows into the river on the north bank. A stream of the river branches off shortly before its mouth. This canal quickly turns an open-cut hydropower channel through the city of Niagara Falls on its way to the Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Generating Stations in Queenston. It drains an area of . The International Control Dam, a weir in the Niagara River, causes the Welland River to reverse its direction twice a day when the flow of water over the Niagara Falls is reduced overnight and the water heads back up the river as far back as Wellandport.
Welland River | Geography
The waterway still serves as a very prominent visual feature dividing the city, and it is perhaps for this reason that the east side/west side division is still very much alive in the minds of Wellanders. "East side" and "west side" are very commonly used as basic directions. The communities of Cooks Mills and Dain City have their own separation stories. Cooks Mills, located on the other side of the By-Pass channel than the rest of Welland, has arguably been protected against the impact of urban sprawl, but the necessity of using one of the two highway tunnels to cross the canal causes some residents to head to nearby Niagara Falls instead.
Welland | Geography
The cut, known as the Stamford Canal, is one of the earliest post-Roman canals in England. It opened in 1670, around 100 years before the start of the Industrial Revolution which brought about the "golden age for canals" in Britain. When built, it was the longest canal with locks in Britain, and was very busy with barges carrying flour, malt, coal, timber and limestone.
River Welland | History
Such a scheme would only cost £13,000, and the work went on for many years. The effects of the embankments had resulted in the bed of the river below Fosdyke being around lower by 1845. In 1867, the River Welland Outfall Act enabled the trustees to raise money to repair the walls where the tide had washed away some of the fill behind the fascines. A dredger was employed between 1889 and 1890, which had been invented by a Mr Harrison, the superintendent of works. With the passing of the Land Drainage Act 1930, the Welland Catchment Board was created.
River Welland | The Outfall
All the while, the culvert was being clogged up by debris. Eventually, the flow in Lyons Creek decreased to the extent when it was no longer able to turn the water wheels at Cook's Mills. The industries were closed and abandoned. Thus, the canal, which contributed greatly to development of Welland, became an indirect cause of an economic recession for Cook's Mills. Later on, Welland beat neighbouring communities in the running for the county seat. Cook's Mills became a farming area as opposed to Welland's industrial centre.
Cooks Mills, Welland | History
The North Sea is now a mile from the town; the main channel which once wandered through marshes, grazed by sheep for hundreds of years, was confined by earthworks to the west in 1859 when Holkham Estate reclaimed some 800 hectares of saltmarsh north-west of Wells with the building of a mile-long bank. This reclamation was claimed to have reduced the tidal scour though the West Fleet which provided much of the water entered the channel to its north. Because the town has no river running through it, Wells relies on the tides to scour the harbour. The problem of siltation had preoccupied the merchants of the town for hundreds of years and occupied the attentions of various engineers, leading eventually to disputes which came to court in the eighteenth century.
Wells-next-the-Sea | History
The area of the headwaters of the Tweed would have been frequented by wild boar in Anglo-Saxon times. The other example of wella in the watershed is "Twitchell". Brook Farm, west of Stoke Golding takes its name from the unnamed stream running north towards the Tweed at the foot of Ambion Hill.
River Sence | Names related to the watercourses
However, after the floods of 1947, new works such as the Coronation Channel were constructed to control flooding in Spalding and the washes are no longer used solely as pasture, but may be used for arable farming. Significant improvements were made to the river in the 1660s, when a new cut with 10 locks was constructed between Stamford and Market Deeping, and two locks were built on the river section below Market Deeping. The canal section was known as the Stamford Canal, and was the longest canal with locks in Britain when it was built. The river provided the final outlet to the sea for land drainage schemes implemented in the seventeenth century, although they were not completely successful until a steam-powered pumping station was built at Pode Hole in 1827.
River Welland | Introduction
The structure was built of post-tensioned concrete, using four cables on each side of the navigation channel, which were jacked apart until each was exerting a force of 820 tonnes to keep the concrete in compression. In order to avoid the aqueduct piers, the river channel was diverted to run through the western side span, and a new course was constructed until the road had risen sufficiently for a box-section culvert to carry the river under the new road to rejoin its original route. The new Ash Aqueduct affords views of the surrounding countryside. In the distance to the south is the Hog's Back, which runs between Farnham and Guildford, and is where the North Downs narrows.
River Blackwater (River Loddon) | Ash Aqueduct
Apart from viaducts carrying suburban lines into London, it is the longest railway viaduct to be built in Britain. Uppingham Brook flows eastwards from Uppingham to join on the north bank, and the Jurassic Way long distance footpath crosses the river at Turtle Bridge. This probably dates from the fourteenth century, although it was widened in 1793, and a parapet has been added subsequently. On the road from Barrowden to Wakerley, there is a medieval bridge with five pointed arches, which was widened in the eighteenth century. Fineshade Brook flows from the south to join the river near Duddington, where there is a well-known mill building of earliest known date 1664.
River Welland | Market Harborough to Stamford
This was a swing bridge of a design common to other locations on the second canal. It can be seen from the picture that the pivot was to the west of the canal. These bridges were painted white and operated manually.
Welland Canal, bridge 13 | Previous bridges at this site
The county border leaves the river on the west side of Market Harborough, as the town is wholly in Leicestershire, and picks it up again on the east side. The River Jordan joins the Welland in the centre of Market Harborough, flowing northwards to the railway station. Langton Brook and Stonton Brook join from the west near Welham. The county border meanders from side to side across relatively straight sections of the river, suggesting that the channel has been engineered. A three-arched bridge, built in 1881 of fine ashlar masonry, with a causeway to the south, carries the Welham to Weston by Welland road over the river, while a four-arched bridge dating from the early nineteenth century carries the Ashley to Medbourne road.
River Welland | Market Harborough to Stamford
An important part of the parish economy, aside from its four manor houses, 48 houses were on Moor and Sheep Lanes in Harmondsworth. In 1586 land on either side of the river was charged with the upkeep of Mad Bridge, which carried the Bath Road across the river. During the 18th and early 19th centuries this bridge was maintained by the Colnbrook turnpike trustees, who presumably erected in 1834 the bridge with cast-iron parapets which now stands.
Longford, London | History
Documentary evidence states the bridge was built in 1339 by St Werburgh's Abbey in Chester. Originally it had ten arches with a large gate tower on the fifth arch (from the English side). The tower was demolished down to road level in 1770 and at some time two of the arches on the Welsh side were lost. The area is reputedly haunted by two sons of a Welsh Prince who were drowned in the river at this point by their English guardians, John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey and Roger Mortimer de Chirk. During the English Civil war, a brief skirmish occurred near the bridge in 1643 when Parliamentarian forces advanced towards the Royalists holding Holt on the western side of the river.
Farndon Bridge | Introduction
Perry died in February 1733, and was buried in Spalding churchyard. The lock lasted until it was removed by the Welland commissioners in 1813. Perry was succeeded by John Grundy, Sr., who published a paper in 1734 on flow in open drains. He calculated theoretic flow rates, and then used observation in the field to modify the results. He oversaw a programme of repairs to the Deeping Bank, which ran for along the north and west side of the river, while John Scribo was employed to do the same for the Country Bank, which ran for on the south and east.
River Welland | Deeping Fen
There was pressure from merchants to cater for larger vessels, and with later improvements, carried out under an act of parliament obtained in 1837, barges and sloops of up to 120 tons could use the port. Because the river was maintained for drainage, some commercial traffic continued despite the railways, and tolls of £478 were collected on 11,690 tons in 1888. Coal for Spalding gasworks arrived by boat until the early 1900s, and the last regular trade was the carriage of corn, hay and straw from Spalding to Fosdyke, where the cargo was transferred to larger ships. All commercial carrying had ceased by the end of the Second World War.
River Welland | Navigation
The same bridge was also used in a movie that commemorated Terry Fox. That bridge no longer remains a symbol of the Grand River and Haldimand County as it was replaced in the summer of 2014 with a concrete bridge. The village's population grew to about 2,500 in the mid-19th century because the Grand River was an important commercial route. There were locks constructed at Indiana just north of Cayuga. However, when the Welland Canal was completed, the Grand became an obsolete route. Further, an impassable dam was built downriver from Cayuga at Dunnville. Although originally part of the Welland Canal, the purpose of the dam and a canal at Port Maitland is to keep the level of the Welland Canal consistent.
Cayuga, Ontario | History
It has double rings on the downstream side and single rings on the upstream side. It was repaired in 1624, and subsequently widened in 1819 by John Stone. It was further repaired in 1866 and in 1952–1953 after flood damage. The 18th-century Marsh Bridge was altered in 1866 when the central pier was removed and an iron bridge inserted. The parapet was destroyed in 1952 and reconstructed in steel in 1979. Towards Brushford the River Barle is crossed by the New Bridge dating from 1870, which led to Pixton Park, which was the home of John Dyke Acland and his wife Harriet Acland and later the family of Evelyn Waugh and Auberon Waugh.
Dulverton | Geography
Since the construction of a channel towards Grand River was already underway at the time of the Deep Cut failure, a dam across the mouth of the Grand was proposed soon after, in December 1828. From there, a channel could be dug to feed this level to the Welland Canal proper. An aqueduct would be used to cross the Welland River. The dam was relocated eight kilometres inland by naval authorities, mindful of its safety in times not long after the War of 1812. The settlement by the dam later evolved into present-day Dunnville. From there, the Feeder went southeast to Stromness, before turning northeast in a straight cut across the Wainfleet Marsh.
First Welland Canal | Feeder Canal
His work, "Cours de stabilité des constructions" (1889) was an important reference during more than half a century. His first bridge was built in Avelgem in 1902, crossing the Scheldt river. The construction of this bridge became famous through the Stijn Streuvels book "De Teloorgang van de Waterhoek".
Arthur Vierendeel | Biography
In the period following the War of 1812, assorted mills made use of water power from various creeks which flowed over Niagara Escarpment. Among these was a sawmill and a grist mill on Twelve Mile Creek owned by William Hamilton Merritt. Merritt's mills were plagued by low water conditions, especially in late summer - exactly when the grain harvest needed to be ground. He conceived of an idea to divert water from the Welland River to augment the water supply. The idea of a navigable canal across the Niagara Peninsula had come up in the past and it did not take long before Merritt's idea was expanded to include such a navigable waterway.
Twelve Mile Creek (Ontario) | The early Welland Canal
As of 2007, this bridge is fenced off and unused.
Wells River Bridge | History
The finer material ensures that water mainly flows over the ramp, rather than through it. The ramp also enables young eels or elvers to move up the river, and provides habitat for stone loach and bullheads. Large numbers of swans and geese use the river around Crowland, and out to sea. Smaller populations of each can be seen around the Stamford Meadows, and further upstream.
River Welland | Wildlife
These meanders were flooded by means of a dam at Port Dalhousie, Ontario to create Martindale Pond. Further upstream, the first canal generally followed the bends in the creek, but most were straightened for the second canal resulting in the lower creek now being almost straight.
Twelve Mile Creek (Ontario) | The early Welland Canal
A long two-arch bridge has substantial neat (ashlar) stone-dressings, such as seven ballusters across six lightly recessed stone panels, each side, each arch. It has statutory protection and recognition in the initial starting category (Grade II), Squires Bridge. It was built in about 1870, partly by commission of the Wood family whose manor house standing at today's Shepperton Studios had a costly fire in 1874. Its central newel (pilaster) as to its outer, upstream side has a coat of arms with three swords, not the family's which was that of a bull, instead that of Middlesex.
River Ash, Surrey | Listed bridge
The location chosen for the aqueduct across Welland River was not Port Robinson. Although the Welland Canal and River first met in Port Robinson, it was decided to dig the canal essentially parallel to the river for a couple of kilometres upstream before crossing it. The aqueducts of three subsequent canals were later built in the same spot. Once again, many of the Deep Cut labourers were transferred to the Feeder cut. The digging was finished in the span of 177 days, which was a large achievement at the time. Lake Erie water was let into the Feeder and Welland Canals in November 1829.
First Welland Canal | Feeder Canal
G. Taverner, the chief engineer for the Welland and Deepings Drainage Board, towards the end of the Second World War, and was part of a much larger project which involved the digging of the Coronation Channel, a flood relief channel to divert the Welland around the south-eastern edge of Spalding, and the construction of Fulney lock, to exclude tidal water from the upper Welland. The whole scheme cost £723,000, and the Coronation Channel, which was completed in 1953, was named to commemorate the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II in the same year. By the time the East and West rivers join, they are only just above the contour.
River Glen, Lincolnshire | Course
These including the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, Charing Cross and Cannon Street Lines, East London Railway, completion of Inner Circle, the Severn Tunnel Railway and many overseas railways. The bridges he helped build included the Charing Cross Railway Bridge, in 1864 he was awarded a Telford Medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers for his paper 'On the Charing Cross Bridge', the Cannon Street Railway Bridge and the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Harbours were at Alderney, IJmuiden (Holland) and Mornungao (India) and docks at Hull, Penarth, Maryport, Fleetwood, Dover and the South dock of the West India Docks. Other works included the Amsterdam Ship Canal, the foundation of the Spithead Forts, River Witham middle level, Thames Valley drainages, and sewerage in Brighton.
Harrison Hayter | Introduction
The millstream or leat separates the town from the Meadows at Bath Row, rejoining the River Welland just before the town bridge. The embankment for the upper reaches of the mill stream forms Melancholy Walk overlooking the upper meadows, where cattle are still sometimes grazed. The weir and sluice for the leat were replaced when the large pumping station for Rutland Water was built near the modern A1 bridge over the Welland. The line of the leat follow part of the line of the town walls.
Kings Mill, Stamford | Introduction
Welland is located in the centre of south Niagara. Over the years, urban growth has all but united the northwest part of Welland with the community of Fonthill. Prior to the Welland By-Pass project, the Welland Canal cut through the centre of Welland. As a result, a very prominent split was created between the east side and the west side of the city. The west side grew primarily to the north, while the east side expanded south. The west side also became the more affluent of the two. Today, even though the canal traffic no longer causes regular interruption in the traffic across the city, the channel lives on as Welland Recreational Waterway.
Welland | Geography
Over the years O'Reilly's Bridge saw many upgrades and improvements until it finally became the responsibility of the municipality. That is about the time O'Reilly's Bridge became a single-lane iron truss bridge, the only of its kind on the entire river, and one of the oldest iron truss bridges in Southern Ontario. O'Reilly's Bridge was demolished in 2010 and was replaced with a more modern, wider span.
Welland River | O'Reilly's Bridge
The Welland By-Pass channel separates Cooks Mills from the main urbanized area of City of Welland. The most direct ways of crossing the channel are the Main Street and Townline Tunnels. Built-up areas in Cooks Mills are located close to the roads; the rest of the area consists mainly of wooded lots and fields. The Niagara Road 27, commonly known as Schisler Road, linking Welland and Niagara Falls, runs to the north of the centre of the community, and Highway 140 runs to the west, while Montrose Road runs to the east, and Netherby Road runs to the south. The main area of Welland is located to the west.
Cooks Mills, Welland | Geography
In 1818, William Hamilton Merritt borrowed an instrument called a water level from Samuel Beckett, a mill owner in St. Johns. Along with George Keefer, John DeCew, and a couple of other neighbours he set out to survey a potential route for a water canal. From the headwaters of the Twelve Mile Creek near present-day Allanburg, they planned a line three kilometers south to meet with the Welland River. A ridge was encountered along the way, and using the instrument, the surveyors calculated it to be 10 metres high. It was actually double that height; the reason for the error is not known.
First Welland Canal | Planning
The River Welland was one of the earlier on which improvements, in this case to allow navigation to Stamford, were authorised by an act of Parliament. The act was granted in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in 1571, and the preamble explained how Stamford had prospered as a result of the river, but also stated that mills built between Stamford and Deeping had resulted in it no longer being navigable, as they had diverted the water. Powers were granted to restore the river using either the old channel or the new one, although it is not clear exactly what was meant by this.
Stamford Canal | History
The bridge was opened in 1838. It was built at a cost of £15,000, which was paid by the local landowner T W Beaumont. The designer was the architect George Basevi. The bridge joins Bywell and the adjoining roads with Stocksfield. It is of ashlar masonry, with five segmental arches crossing the river, and two flood arches, without parapets, to the south. The remains of the piers of an ancient bridge, believed to be Roman, stood nearby until demolished on Beaumont's instructions when work on the present bridge began.
Bywell Bridge | History
The Grade II* listed Bridgewater Monument () is a tower on the Ashridge estate, built in 1832 in memory of Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (1736–1803), "the father of inland navigation".
Ashridge | Bridgewater Monument
It was widened in the 19th and 20th centuries, but was disused after 1927, when a new concrete bridge by Considere Constructions, also with three spans, was built to replace it. It is grade II listed because it is one of the earliest bridges of its type produced by the company. Beyond the bridges, a new sewage treatment works was built on the north bank, after it was authorised in 1991. It was designed to discharge of treated effluent to the river each day, and replaced old inefficient works at Felton, Longframlington, Swarland and Thirston. Near Brainshaugh, the river passes over a horseshoe dam, built in 1775 by John Smeaton for John Archbold of Acton and Edward Cook of Brainshaugh.
River Coquet | Middle section
Grundy continued to work on the Welland until 1746, making the channel through Spalding deeper and wider in 1744 and 1745, and carrying out other routine improvements, costing about £1,200 per year. He proposed that the outfall from Vernatt's Drain should be moved towards the sea, and although he did not see this actioned during his lifetime, his proposals were eventually implemented in 1774. During this period, he also made a survey of the River Witham, working with his son, and proposed a cut to improve navigation and flow on the river, but again did not see it implemented. In this case, the cost of £16,200 was too high, but the work was carried out in the 1760s.
John Grundy Sr. | Projects
Hogard devised a scheme to cut a new channel from the junction of the Welland and the Glen to Wyberton, on the estuary of the River Witham below Boston. At the end of the cut, there would be a huge sluice and a navigation lock. The Adventurers asked Thomas Tofield for a second opinion, who suggested a shorter cut from Spalding to Fosdyke. They requested help from Grundy, who proposed a cut to Fosdyke, and that the outfall of Vernatt's drain should be moved downstream. Improvements to the drain were carried out under an act of parliament obtained in 1774, and an act was obtained in 1794 to sanction the Wyberton cut, although the work was not carried out, and Grundy's cut was built under a new act of 1801.
River Welland | Deeping Fen
Powers were granted to restore the river using either the old channel or the new one, although it is not clear exactly what was meant by this. There is no evidence that any work was carried out under the terms of the act. The powers were revived in 1620, when Stamford Corporation was given permission by the Commission of Sewers to build a new artificial cut, which would run from the eastern edge of Stamford near Hudd's Mill, to Market Deeping, where it would rejoin the river. The decision was ratified in 1623 by a grant of James I, and the corporation expected to have the work completed by 1627.
River Welland | History
During the 1960s and 1970s, several sections of the river above Stamford were made straighter and deeper, to reduce the risk of flooding of agricultural land. To address the habitat and environmental issues causes by such engineering work, the Welland Rivers Trust, a limited company and charitable trust, was set up in 2010. They are seeking to direct regeneration of the river by co-ordinating various organisations, which are known collectively as the Welland Valley Partnership. They published a major document outlining their proposals in February 2013.
River Welland | The Outfall
Beyond Stamford, the river passes the site and ruins of the Benedictine St Leonard's Priory. Hudd's Mill marks the point at which the Stamford Canal left the river. The present mill building dates from 1751 and 1771. The River Gwash, which the canal crossed on the level, joins from the north, and the remains of the canal follow the river on its north bank. Below Uffington, the county border follows the old course of the river, first to the south to Tallington and then to the north, while the main course now flows along the Maxey Cut to Peakirk. The old course consists of two streams, fed by sluices from the Maxey Cut, which meander to The Deepings.
River Welland | Stamford to Spalding
Welland Viaduct, Harringworth Viaduct or Seaton Viaduct, crosses the valley of the River Welland between Harringworth in Northamptonshire and Seaton in Rutland, England. The viaduct is long and has 82 arches, each with a span. It is the longest masonry viaduct across a valley in the United Kingdom. Built by the contractor Lucas and Aird, a total of 30 million bricks were used in the viaduct's construction. Completed during 1878, it has since become a Grade II listed building. The Welland Viaduct is on the Oakham to Kettering Line between and Manton Junction, where it joins the Leicester to Peterborough line.
Welland Viaduct | Introduction
The Welland Canal Company was incorporated by the Province of Upper Canada, in 1824, after a petition by nine "freeholders of the District of Niagara". One of the petitioners was William Hamilton Merritt, who was in part looking to provide a regular flow of water for his many water-powered industries along the Twelve Mile Creek in Thorold. The construction began at Allanburg, Ontario, on November 30, at a point now marked as such on the west end of Bridge No. 11 (formerly Highway 20). This canal opened for a trial run on November 30, 1829 (exactly five years, to the day, after the ground-breaking in 1824).
Welland Canal | First Welland Canal
John Grundy, Jr., took over as Surveyor of Works after the death of his father in 1748, and spent nearly £10,000 on repairs to the Deeping Bank and the Country bank between then and 1764. He rebuilt Perry's sluice on the Welland soon after 1750, with taller doors and a set of tide gates to prevent the tide moving upstream. In 1755 three more drainage mills were built on Hills Drain, while a sluice on the Forty Foot Drain followed in 1758. From 1759 to 1761 he was engaged in lowering the bed of the Welland below the outfall sluice by .
Deeping Fen | Civil Engineers
In the 1880s, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway built the line between Chester Northgate and Hawarden Bridge Junction. It crossed the River Dee on a bridge. The Board of Trade, advised by Sir George Nares, required that the bridge's opening span was at least wide to allow ships to pass through. In 1886, an Act of Parliament was obtained for its construction. The civil engineer C. A. Hobson designed the steel bridge that was constructed by John Cochrane & Sons. Construction took about two years and cost around £70,000. To overcome challenging conditions of the estuary, its foundations were built in brick-lined wells as directed by the project's chief engineer, Frances Fox.
Hawarden Bridge | History
Built in the 15th century Wadebridge bridge was built by John de Harlan at the instigation of Vicar of Egloshayle Thomas Loveybond and replaced an earlier ford which was considered so dangerous to use at certain times that a chapel was built on either bank; one to pray for a safe crossing and the other to give thanks. The bridge was made a county bridge in the reign of James I, and has been widened three times over the years, being granted Grade II listed status in 1969. Moving upstream from Wadebridge, the other listed bridges are Helland Bridge, Wenfordbridge, Coombe Mill Bridge, Gam Bridge, and Slaughterbridge, this latter so named as it is the location of an historic battle, possibly that of King Arthur's last battle.
River Camel | Crossings
Among the medieval forms of the name 'Welland' is Weolod; the river could have thus been named from its silty nature. In contrast, the Glen flowed from clays and limestone. Areas with clay-based soils tended to remain as woodland whilst the limestone areas provided grassland for pasture. Consequently, the River Glen did not carry much sediment. The modern Welsh for clean is "glân". The relative amounts of silt deposited in the fens around Maxey and around Thurlby respectively, by the two rivers, support this view.
River Glen, Lincolnshire | Naming
Pomparles Bridge stood at the western end of this lake, guarding Glastonbury from the south, and it is suggested that it was here that Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur into the waters after King Arthur fell at the Battle of Camlann. John Leland noted in the 16th century that the bridge had four arches, while W. Phelps in an 1839 illustration as having only two arches, one pointed, probably from the 14th or 15th century, and the other round. Excavations in 1912 found the remains of a second round arch regarded as 12th century work. The current concrete arch bridge was built in 1911 and extended in 1972.
River Brue | History
John Warwick Smith (26 July 1749 – 22 March 1831), a British watercolour landscape painter and illustrator, produced a fine painting of the bridge and the landscape around. It has been reproduced since for use on postcards.
Farndon Bridge | Introduction
In 1887 the Awatere River was without any bridge crossing and at the time was noted by Parliament to be the only river not bridged between Picton and Bluff. Planning of a 325-metre joint road and rail bridge began in 1896, designed by Peter Seton Hay, and construction by Scott Brothers Ltd, a Christchurch based company, began two years after. Back in those times, bridge building lacked the modern engineering technology that is used today, and much of the construction was done via human and animal power. The laying of caissons which formed the foundations of the bridge was notoriously treacherous to workers at the risk of developing the bends due to long exposure of working in pressurised conditions.
Awatere River | Awatere River bridge
The bridge takes its name from John Classon, the owner of a mill, who built the bridge in order to aid his business which was located on the left bank of the river, now the location of the well known Dublin pub, "The Dropping Well". The bridge was made from granite blocks on the river bed. In 1928 the bridge was widened but parts of the old bridge can still be seen underneath. A little upstream from the bridge is a statue of a Rhino in the middle of the river.
Classon's Bridge | History
The Welland River meets with the Welland Canal at Port Robinson, Ontario. When the very first canal opened in 1829, it ended at Port Robinson and all vessels followed the Welland River to the Niagara River at Chippawa, Ontario. The canal was extended through to Lake Erie in 1833, but the Welland River remained in service as a commercial shipping channel for approximately another century. It provided a route to the industries along the Niagara River and Buffalo, NY, as well as access to the Erie Canal without journeys through open water. During World War I, a military unit known as the "Welland Canal Force" (or, sometimes, the "Welland Canal Protection Force") was created to protect critical shipping links in Niagara, including this bridge.
Montrose Swing Bridge | Navigation on the river
Clackmannanshire Council's public information board (see references) names Robert Spittal, the court tailor to James IV and a local philanthropist, as the person probably responsible for the bridge's construction. (A Robert Spittal was also tailor to Mary Queen of Scots and responsible for the Brig o'Teith over the River Teith at Doune.) Tullibody Old Bridge was built early in the 16th century, constructed of rubble with some ashlar and was designed to impede the rapid transit of horse traffic. The plan shows two opposed bends. With two main arches and three flood arches to the west, its great length (442 ft or 134.7m) probably reflects the difficulty in crossing the flood plain at this point.
Tullibody Old Bridge | Sixteenth century
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the construction of a great many structures in England. Canals, harbour schemes, railways, roads and bridges were all built. What is now known as the Old Shoreham Tollbridge was built during this period over the River Adur between Shoreham and Lancing. Before the building of the bridge in 1781–2, the Adur presented the one major obstacle to east-west communication along the coastal plain of Southern England. The choices open to the traveller wishing to cross the Adur were to travel miles out of the way and use the bridge at Bramber, to ford the river on horseback or to use the ferry that was operating at that time on the site of what is now the bridge.
Shoreham Tollbridge | Old Shoreham Tollbridge
The architecture of the town includes many buildings in ornate styles dating from the boom period of the Victorian and Edwardian eras including the Metropole and the Glen Usk hotels, the Albert Hall theatre and County Council building adjacent to it. There are also buildings in the Art Deco style including two former garages, Pritchard's and the Automobile Palace. The latter was notable for a collection of antique bicycles owned by the proprietor, Tom Norton, which were displayed suspended from ceilings in the building. The building has in recent years been renovated and is now home to several small businesses and the National Cycle Collection, featuring some of the bicycles originally displayed in the garage.
Llandrindod Wells | Notable landmarks
It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and has been designated as a grade II* Listed building. The river was the subject of the abortive Ivelchester and Langport Navigation in 1795, and although the works were never completed, traffic on the river was sufficient for the coal merchants Stukey and Bagehot to establish a coal yard near the bridge by 1824. Water levels were improved by work on the river below Langport, and the 1841 census records that a salt house had been constructed. By then, 88 households lived in Long Load, including a boatman called William Gillett and his family, while another boatman lived near the bridge.
Long Load | History
The route through Welland which had crossed Main Street since the 1830s was winding and difficult. The large number of bridges, and especially a railroad swing bridge (Welland Canal, Bridge 15) made the route difficult and dangerous. In 1967, it was decided to re-route the canal to the east of the city via the Welland By-Pass. Construction proceeded through the 1972 shipping season, and by the end of that season, work was close to completion. In the late evening hours of December 15, 1972, the Main Street Bridge raised to allow the passage of the Georgian Bay - officially the last ship through the city of Welland.
Welland Canal, bridge 13 | The last ship